The Amazon jungle is difficult to describe. Aside from all the statistics about it, the forest itself dramatically changed as we walked through it. It could be light and airy or dark and gloomy, all within a short distance. A walk in the Amazon was always an adventure in itself. We tried to look around us at all times, for insects that might bite or sting or for poisonous snakes. But we had to walk slowly as we had to look at the ground but also up into the trees and bushes. The layered vegetation could be 120 feet high. We could often hear a bird or an animal and might even know what it was, but we never actually got to see it. The Amazon is a real jungle that requires taking your time. Often times, we could not tell how big a tree might be since we could only see a small part of it. The upper portion might be shrouded in many other layers of plants. This tree happened to be in an opening so that we could see it in its entirety and see that it was a huge tree.

The same goes for this next tree. While we could not see the top, the trunk had a huge diameter. Vicky looks small standing near a basal root while the trunk is the width of the photo.

Trees such as these can also have tons (literally – tons) of epiphytes growing on them. This photo from our canopy walk will give you a better idea of the epiphytes on trees high up in the canopy. Very little of this vegetation is the tree itself, but rather is epiphytes growing on it.

The next photo is just to show that you are never far from water in the Amazon jungle, and the water can be very jungle-like as well. This was a pond not far from the Amazon river.

Our short Amazon adventure was a challenging trip in many ways. On my last full day in the Amazon, I decided to issue the Amazon a challenge. The local Yagua Indians wore only grass skirts while our guides wore only shorts, sandals, and maybe a light shirt. So I decided to dress lightly on my last full day and I didn’t put on any sun tan lotion, no bug spray, no bug repellant, no Deet, no nothing. I told the Amazon to go ahead and take its best shot. Hence the photo below taken on the bank of the Amazon River. I suffered a few mosquito bites but not much other than that. I survived just fine. Of course, it had rained hard the night before and the air was cooler and there were less critters out and about, so that helped.