Hola Chixs,
This week I took on one of the most amazing adventures I have ever been on! I went to the Amazon jungle in Ecuador! In Ecuador, the Amazon jungle makes up 50% of the land. Thus, Ecuador is home to one of the most biologically diverse and dense ecosystems in the world! I was blessed enough to live in the Amazon jungle for one week and I can happily say that I not only survived but I experienced so much from the Jungle.
My trip to the Amazon jungle was probably the only part of the trip that was long and weary. To get from Quito to Tiputini (the biodiversity station & scientific investigation lab) we had to take three different types of transportation. We went on a thirty minute plane ride from Quito to Coca. Then we went on a two hour boat ride from Coca to the edge of the Amazonia. Then we went on an hour bus ride from the edge of the Amazon, through the indigenous Huarani town, and then we made it to the edge of the tiputni river. We took a smaller boat in the Tiputini River and traveled for about two hours to get to the biodiversity station that was located in a small corner of the jungle.
I was in the Amazon jungle for less than twelve hours and my eyes had already set sight on some of the most incredible species ever. For example, butterflies -each of a different color of the rainbow- families of turtles packed so tightly on logs, and a majestic Anaconda eating underwater.
(The first snake I saw in the Amazon…an Anaconda with its head underwater eating….there is no zoom on this picture…this is really how close I was to the anaconda!!)
In the jungle, we took at least two hikes each day, and each day we would take a new path in order to explore a different part of the jungle and to see new species. One of the most breath taking hikes was a hike that consisted of climbing up a tree. The view, the air, and the feeling looking around the jungle from the top was un-explainable. In that moment I actually felt like I was in my most raw form a part of the jungle -not just above the jungle. Here is a picture to give you guys a small insight into what nature looks like in its truest, rawest form in the Amazon jungle.
-Forever grateful for this experience.
-XGX