Los Amazonas (2)..

So I'm back from the second trek into the Amazon. I'm keeping this short too because I can't post pictures here (too slow!) but tomorrow or the next day probably. I'm hopping in a bus tomorrow morning for an 18-hour ride back to La Paz for one night. Then I'm headed from there towards southern Peru.

The jungle I camped in (Madidi National Park/Reserve) was crazy. It was hot, wet and sticky, and basically you can't get away from just sweating all day, even though the sun is mostly blocked by trees. We took a 3 hour boat ride to get to camp, and the first thing we had to do while hiking to our site was remove shoes and socks (while carrying all our gear and equipment) and slop through a knee-high river that I know for a fact had more than one hungry alligator and probably several parasites. Camp was nice and a cook made us some pretty dank forest food. If I haven't said it already, I was there for 3 days and two nights. Pretty much all we did the whole time was hike places with our guide (who was super cool, by the way, and I was the official translator because I knew the most Spanish.. and I don't know much).

We went on a few shorter hikes (3-5 hours) and one long hike (8 hours), and I got 2 night hikes in. I saw the most animals I've ever seen in my entire life. I also got eaten and attacked by the most bugs I've ever seen in my entire life (and fire ants.. not pleasant). It's too long to list all of the coolest things ever that I got to see, but definitely at the top of the list were all the crazy plants: some move when you touch them, plenty of medicinal cures, poisons, fruits, a vine that our guide cut that holds tons of water you can drink - better tasting than drinking water - tons of crazy colored mushrooms... there's too many. I almost feel like I could survive in the rainforest with all the information he gave us. The animals and insects are too infinite to name.. you'll just have to check out all my pictures when I post/come back.

I'm sorry for no pictures and super interesting stories. Soon..

To all those in San Diego, Orange, and Los Angeles counties who are dealing with fires, I hope you all are ok. I read and heard about it, and I'm a bit worried, but I know all my friends and family all have the best luck, and that you'll all have no problems. Be safe.

Hasta Mañana --

Brian