This blog is kind of a jumble of a few places Jared and I have been to in the last couple of weeks. There are pictures from our jungle tour out into the Pacaya Samiria reserve, a butterfly farm and rescue centre outside Iquitos, as well as a botanical garden in Colombia. There is just so much going on here- there are always bugs flying around, beautiful flowers blooming, and wildlife teeming. It's a bit crazy for this girl from the desert to wrap her head around.
When we were doing our little bush-whack that Jared talked about last blog, we encountered more bugs in that 2 hours than I may have in my entire life before that- no jokes!
At the time I think I counted about 20 of these super bright orange bugs
This was at the rescue centre, this poor guy was a victim of the pet trade. This was pretty much why all the animals at this reserve were there. Come on guys, why ya gotta take baby monkeys as pets? People go into the jungle, shoot the mother and then the baby is helpless and is easy to capture. Super sad.
This tapir was being fattened up to eat and was living on a floating raft restaurant. I won't deny he looks like he's reached slaughter weight in this picture, but tapir is illegal to eat! Again, isn't there enough good beef, chicken, pork, etc out there? Why eat something endangered....
This nature reserve was also a butterfly farm, and they showed us the entire life cycle of the butterflies. Some of the chrysalis' looked like they were metal coated, even the caterpillars were quite fluorescent.
A chrysalis
Some capuchin monkeys. It broke my heart a little when I was told the monkey on the right was taught to steal on the streets of Iquitos, but when they didn't want her anymore they stuffed her in a garbage can and that's when someone called the cops and she came to be here today.
Toucan! We saw a few of these in the wild, but they are honestly so hard to get a picture of. This one was at the rescue.
Pygmy monkey! Really terrible idea to try to keep these guys as pets because they have a very specific diet of nectar. This little guy was so cute though, a little over the size of my hand!
An ocelot. She decided not to be nocturnal, but usually they are.
This was a jaguar, which is amazing to see but also heartbreaking. These beautiful creatures belong in the wild. His head looks way too big for his body because normally he would be climbing and building his leg and back muscles, but because he is confined he can't do that. He also can't be released back into the wild because he has zero survival skills.
Overall, it was interesting to see the animals here at the rescue that we hadn't had a chance to see in the wild, but it was also really tragic that they were here in the first place. Contrasting these guys with the ones in the wild was striking. I wish humans weren't so shitty sometimes. You don't need a Pygmy monkey for a pet- trust me.
Crocodile for sale in the market in Iquitos
So let's lighten the mood with some flowers! These pics are from the botanical garden outside Leticia, Colombia:
This was actually an interesting soil profile of Amazonian jungle- there is surprisingly little topsoil, you hit sand very quickly. Despite being super lush and green, it's more fragile than you think.
From the aquarium at the botanical gardens
Piranha- which we dined on while on our Amazon tour. Surprisingly good
Karahuasa- better than Piranha for eating
Electric eel
Lizard!
Jared and I were waiting for the bus, and someone left this tuk tuk for us to do a quick photo shoot with 😝
We flew from Tabatinga, Brazil to São Luis, Brazil. Flying over the Amazon rainforest was something I won't soon forget. It just goes and goes and goes.
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