On Friday July 17th Daniel and I left with a few other people from his work for the amazon to survey communities without electricity. We were able to borrow a truck for the weekend and wouldn't have been able to get to half the places without it. Crossing rivers, driving over bridges barley as wide as the truck, up and down the sides of mountains on dirt roads.
What I find amazing is most of these people walk these distances, taking a whole day to walk to the next town or even just the main road for supplies.
Most of the weekend was spent talking with communities and driving from one place to the other. But at one place they took us for a hike through the jungle to see some waterfalls. The two guides in front machetted their way through and we followed, wading through streams, climbing up and down the slopes, sinking a foot deep into mud ( you wear rubber boots that go to your knees). The hike was fun, though I did need help crossing the stream once or twice. At least I didn't fall in like Malti did (a few times).
The jungle is amazing. Lush - so many varieties of plants, all clamoring for space, so much so that they cling to each other grabing any niche they can. The smell - moist earth and decay. The jungle is the ultimate compost pile. The ground is littered with leaves and plants decaying and suppling nutrients for new plants. The subdewed color of light - the light filters through so many plants it has a look of dawn or dusk all the time.
On our way back from the tiny waterfalls we passed some cacao plants, one of the fruits was ripe so we were able to taste the fruit that chocolate is made from. The fruit has a very thick section that hold the fruit and seed. Surounding the seed is small pulpy fruit that is very sweet and tasty. They also gave us fresh sugar cane to suck on.
We didn't get to see any animals since whenver we hike through the jungle we made so much noise but you could hear the varies birds and saw lots of butterflies.
What I find amazing is most of these people walk these distances, taking a whole day to walk to the next town or even just the main road for supplies.
Most of the weekend was spent talking with communities and driving from one place to the other. But at one place they took us for a hike through the jungle to see some waterfalls. The two guides in front machetted their way through and we followed, wading through streams, climbing up and down the slopes, sinking a foot deep into mud ( you wear rubber boots that go to your knees). The hike was fun, though I did need help crossing the stream once or twice. At least I didn't fall in like Malti did (a few times).
The jungle is amazing. Lush - so many varieties of plants, all clamoring for space, so much so that they cling to each other grabing any niche they can. The smell - moist earth and decay. The jungle is the ultimate compost pile. The ground is littered with leaves and plants decaying and suppling nutrients for new plants. The subdewed color of light - the light filters through so many plants it has a look of dawn or dusk all the time.
On our way back from the tiny waterfalls we passed some cacao plants, one of the fruits was ripe so we were able to taste the fruit that chocolate is made from. The fruit has a very thick section that hold the fruit and seed. Surounding the seed is small pulpy fruit that is very sweet and tasty. They also gave us fresh sugar cane to suck on.
We didn't get to see any animals since whenver we hike through the jungle we made so much noise but you could hear the varies birds and saw lots of butterflies.
I do believe you're experiencing a part of the world that most (Westernized) folks will never see, smell, touch, or taste. Incredible...
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