"Forests are the world's air - conditioning system - the lungs of the planet - and we are on the verge of switching it off." - Prince Charles.
After being in a two hour flight from Bogota to Leticia we landed in a kind of beautiful city in the south of Colombia, where the buildings meet the nature and the animals kind of take up all the city. We had finally arrived to the lungs of the world, a rainforest that is one of the world's greatest natural resources producing in average the 20% of Earth's oxygen, located within Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Suriname, Guyana and French Guiana. Counting with at least 40,000 plant species, 2,200 fishes, 1,294 birds, 427 mammals, 428 amphibians and 378 reptiles.
Last week almost all my classmates and I went to the Amazon in our sophomore year expedition, we had a great time together! Traveling with your best friends is something that doesn't happen everyday and you have to take advantage of that opportunity. The first 2 days we spent time at a reserve called Marasha, it was the best, you could hear the sound of the birds singing in the morning and even sometimes interact with them, I had the opportunity to have in my arms a parrot which was able to say hi (I loved that) and a toucan which then bite me, but it didn't hurt at all. I also had a macaw right in front of me, which was incredible! The second day at Marasha was amazing, first a little group of my classmates and I went fishing to the lake, people at my boat fished a bunch of fishes and I fished a little golden piranha which was taken again to the water because it deserved to live (or maybe not, I don't care). After fishing we went to kayak which was the best adventure in my life, even thought my arms ended up hurting so much, but it was pain or fall in the lake and get eaten by the piranhas (just joking, or maybe you will sure get eaten, I don't really know). In the afternoon that day we painted ourselves with wito and I learned to do grasshoppers with leaves of a plant.
The next day we left Marasha and went to Puerto Nariño, a kind of town that doesn't have cars or motorcycles, people just walk, while being there I asked myself, what does keep this people entertained? There is not much to do there so they probably get bored, I don't know, but I loved being in that place, the other days we went to Macedonia, a community in which there are many cute little kids that are so lovable with you! We also went to San Martin de Amacayacu in which we did a tour of all the village and we learned a lot, we also went to canopy in which we had to go up a tree called "seiva" that is huge and I think almost 32m high, I forgot... When going back to the hotel from canopy we say one of the most beautiful sunsets lying in the Amazon river, it was very beautiful! At the end we went back to Leticia and went to Tabatinga which is located in the Brazilian side and there almost everybody bought chocolate, it was very good. While being in Leticia some friends and me went to the main park in Leticia and heard like a thousand parrots all sounding at the same time which were arriving from the jungle.
I really loved this experience and I hope everybody at some point in their life get the opportunity to discover this paradise which has a lot to offer us, it is sad to know that people are cutting down trees and damaging this beautiful rainforest which gives is the oxygen we need. So, have you gone to Amazonas? What was your favorite thing? Would you go back there? And if you haven't gone, have you think about going?
After being in a two hour flight from Bogota to Leticia we landed in a kind of beautiful city in the south of Colombia, where the buildings meet the nature and the animals kind of take up all the city. We had finally arrived to the lungs of the world, a rainforest that is one of the world's greatest natural resources producing in average the 20% of Earth's oxygen, located within Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Suriname, Guyana and French Guiana. Counting with at least 40,000 plant species, 2,200 fishes, 1,294 birds, 427 mammals, 428 amphibians and 378 reptiles.
Last week almost all my classmates and I went to the Amazon in our sophomore year expedition, we had a great time together! Traveling with your best friends is something that doesn't happen everyday and you have to take advantage of that opportunity. The first 2 days we spent time at a reserve called Marasha, it was the best, you could hear the sound of the birds singing in the morning and even sometimes interact with them, I had the opportunity to have in my arms a parrot which was able to say hi (I loved that) and a toucan which then bite me, but it didn't hurt at all. I also had a macaw right in front of me, which was incredible! The second day at Marasha was amazing, first a little group of my classmates and I went fishing to the lake, people at my boat fished a bunch of fishes and I fished a little golden piranha which was taken again to the water because it deserved to live (or maybe not, I don't care). After fishing we went to kayak which was the best adventure in my life, even thought my arms ended up hurting so much, but it was pain or fall in the lake and get eaten by the piranhas (just joking, or maybe you will sure get eaten, I don't really know). In the afternoon that day we painted ourselves with wito and I learned to do grasshoppers with leaves of a plant.
The next day we left Marasha and went to Puerto Nariño, a kind of town that doesn't have cars or motorcycles, people just walk, while being there I asked myself, what does keep this people entertained? There is not much to do there so they probably get bored, I don't know, but I loved being in that place, the other days we went to Macedonia, a community in which there are many cute little kids that are so lovable with you! We also went to San Martin de Amacayacu in which we did a tour of all the village and we learned a lot, we also went to canopy in which we had to go up a tree called "seiva" that is huge and I think almost 32m high, I forgot... When going back to the hotel from canopy we say one of the most beautiful sunsets lying in the Amazon river, it was very beautiful! At the end we went back to Leticia and went to Tabatinga which is located in the Brazilian side and there almost everybody bought chocolate, it was very good. While being in Leticia some friends and me went to the main park in Leticia and heard like a thousand parrots all sounding at the same time which were arriving from the jungle.
I really loved this experience and I hope everybody at some point in their life get the opportunity to discover this paradise which has a lot to offer us, it is sad to know that people are cutting down trees and damaging this beautiful rainforest which gives is the oxygen we need. So, have you gone to Amazonas? What was your favorite thing? Would you go back there? And if you haven't gone, have you think about going?