“No one will protect what they don’t care about, and no one will care about what they have never experienced.” – Sir David Attenborough
Prepare yourself for a LOT of words about to come at you. This place…it’s overwhelming, in every way. At every moment I’ve experienced in this place, there is so much to process, contemplate, physically see, hear, smell and touch – so I’m going to tackle the feat of sharing the past week with you with as few words as I possibly can…but we’ll see how that goes.
I’ve always loved the idea of the rainforest. I mean, we all hear about it growing up, how it’s the most diverse place in the world, how it’s the biggest river in the world, how the rainforest is dying, how there are undoubtedly still so many species undiscovered living there, how so many of the pharmaceutical drugs come from there…the list continues. We’ve contemplated its greatness in movies like Ferngully (my personal fav) and Anacondas, and every other ‘jungle expedition’ movie there is, and we’ve debated the controversial issue of how the rainforest is disappearing and what that means for our planet.
I somehow forgot about ALL of that when I got here. Which sounds ridiculous, but while I’ve been travelling, I think I just got so used to seeing new landscapes and new things that I started to forget the grandness of what I was heading into – I wasn’t even really that excited. I chose the quote above because I think it absolutely explains how I feel about the rainforest, having experienced even a tiny piece of it…and sets the platform for the issues I think we really have to start talking about.
The city of Iquitos itself is really quite unremarkable.
Once you’ve been in any incredibly touristic place in Peru, you’re pretty much accustomed to the constant harassment from vendors, tour companies, and men (as a woman). I had a few really annoying experiences here where a guy would push me into a tuk-tuk to take me to an unknown place that I had to get upset and yell at them about, but for the most part, it’s just the same as every other tourist-ridden town (and I’m a little sick of it, tbh). What IS nice, is that it’s an island, and since it’s expensive to get vehicles imported here, the majority of vehicles are tuk-tuks or moto-taxis, that are ridiculously cheap.
One of the coolest things about this place though, is the ability to check out some cool jungle wildlife. There are a bunch of butterfly farms, an animal rescue center, a big zoo-like lagoon, a manatee rescue/marine research center, and I’m sure more that are under the radar.
The animal rescue center, Pilpintuwasi, is a gem. Started by this lady whose name I don’t remember, it contains a whole bunch of exotic animals from the jungle that were victims of exotic animal trafficking. Basically, locals kidnap animals from the jungle - usually by killing the baby animals parents - and sell them to unwitting tourists by telling them how they were ‘rescued’ and need homes. But these are wild animals, people RARELY know how to properly care for them, and so they often will be abused (purposely or out of ignorance) and sometimes will be confiscated by the government. Trafficking of exotic animals is highly illegal, but a lot of people just don’t realize the implications of removing a wild animal from its habitat, and let’s face it: a lot of us don’t care, because we’re greedy.
Tony was a baby capuchin when he was kidnapped and trained to be a pickpocket
monkey – basically he was trained to take photos with unsuspecting tourists while he snatched wallets and money to give them back to his owner. He was confiscated, and brought to the rescue center for rehabilitation. Then there’s Pedro, the Jaguar, who was left at the research center as a cub wrapped in barbed wire. And the Toucan- this beautiful Toucan whose name I don’t remember but whom I’ve decided to call Sam (haha) was kidnapped and sold as a pet to a tourist, and was raised on dog food, and was confiscated and brought to the research center in really poor health. Sloths, monkeys, marmosets, tapirs, the list continues. There are so, SO many animals that are victims of trafficking, which I can totally see, because we see a cute animal and feel the need to possess it – it’s horrible. Anyways I’ll rant about that later.
So, going to the zoo I was a little skeptical that I would enjoy seeing animals in captivity, but it was SO DIFFERENT than I anticipated. The great thing, was that most of the animals at the zoo were in great enclosures big enough for them to roam around in, and they were protected from humans by big fences, sometimes double-fences. The only river dolphin they had was rescued, and there was a big sign stating that they ONLY keep aquatic animals until they are healthy enough to return to the river. All of the animals were in their natural habitat, and all social animals were kept with others – for example, the Jaguars weren’t alone, there were 3 in an enclosure, big enough for them to roam. I probably felt the most sorry for the Jaguars, the pumas and the monkeys – the Jags and pumas are DEFINITELY not supposed to be caged at all, and the monkeys were kept in small wooden houses because they’re too smart to roam free. There was an anaconda that was probably unhappy about being in a tiny water tank, but the majority of the other animals were in giant enclosures, with a lot of space in their natural habitat to roam around.
Then we have the wild. Day one, was AWESOME. From the moment you get into the tiny motorized canoe, you begin your experience. First of all, the Amazon river is MASSIVE, and so fast!!! The current is so strong that unless you have a strong enough motor to go upriver, you’re basically moving backwards. Second, the water is DEEP. And, during the rainy season the water level goes up by like 3-5 feet, as made evident by the water line on all of the trees. This means that during the rainy season, MOST of the land surrounding the river is underwater, a lot of the trees are completely submerged, and a lot of the native communities by the river are under at least a foot of water. Why they would build communities there, I'm not quite sure, but they do, and they compensate for the water level increase by building their houses/schools/structures on lofts. Pretty cool, knowing they basically get around by canoe in the rainy season. Also, how the trees and plants survive while completely submerged half of the year is totally beyond me. No idea.
Thirdly, the mud that makes up the bottom of the river is SO SOFT, and basically like quicksand. We went swimming with the river dolphins in one of the shallow areas of the tributary we were in (I think the tributary was called the Nanay) and as I got out of the boat, I totally sank. Sure, the water is only about a foot deep there, but I sank in the mud up to my thighs – not joking – to get back into the boat, even though you’re only in a foot of water, you really have to lift yourself out of the mud. And the water is so cloudy that you literally can’t see your hand right under the surface of the water. It makes swimming in it a little sketchy, never knowing if one of the many toothy fishies are going to come by and bite off one of your limbs, but I guess we were shallow enough that nothing really bothered us…we were taunted by the dolphins that kept swimming circles around us and popping up closer and closer and then farther away, but the coolest part of the experience was that we swam in the Amazon river, circled by dolphins, while it POURED rain, with a sunset AND a rainbow in the distance. And even though the river is definitely toxic and ridden with parasites…it’s SO FULL OF LIFE. I’ve never in my life seen so many different varieties of floating plants, my favorite of which is a floating reed weed (I have no idea what the real name is). Basically, it looks like quack grass, but it’s taller. The cool thing about them, is that they can survive floating on the river because it grows out of reeds that have died. So, grass grows, gets big and thick, reed dies, falls over and floats on the river, and sprouts new reeds that then start the cycle all over again –so they’re all connected! The evolution of this place is just so weird and creative that it’s difficult to even attempt to explain, and it’s everything! From the water skippers that race along the surface of the water (on top of the water only because their legs/weight is perfectly distributed so it doesn’t break the surface tension of the water), to the floating plants, and the fish and river-life, it’s amazing.
So that’s the river.
Now the jungle, I don’t even know where to start. Suffice it to say it’s overwhelming, in every sense of the word. There are so many things to talk about, take pictures of, look at, that you don’t even really know what to do! Our first jungle hike, our guide breezed through the jungle showing us a bunch of the different trees and their fruits and how the natives use them. But as we’re walking, we see this crazy feather-tailed bug that lands in front of us and we’re all looking at this crazy strange thing wondering what it is. It’s a wax-tailed leafhopper by the way – I googled it when I got back. It’s SO WEIRD. Basically, this bug secretes wax in feather-like formations so that the sugar-water they excrete to protect their water-balance doesn’t stick to their butts. I don’t care whether you believe in Creationism or Evolution, that’s amazing design right there. And then the guide shows us the bullet ant nest – called bullet ants because their bite feels like you’ve been shot…and the pain lasts 24 hours. And the colored tarantulas, countless species of butterflies…guys, I fell in LOVE with bugs on this trip. I really always liked insects, but I’m pretty sure this jungle solidified the fact that I should have been an entomologist. The variation of species, colors – I just can’t imagine how scientists discovered them all and kept track of them! I think that’s why I like them so much…The wildlife, I can see how a long study and thorough expedition could discover a lot of the wildlife. But there are SO MANY different types of insects, that the biologist in me couldn’t help but be AMAZED that we’ve found so many, and like the rest of the universe, there is so much more to find! Man.
Anyways, I did love the wildlife. We had some pretty close encounters – our guide took us to see the monkeys, and the momma woolly monkey came right down into the boat to explore! We got some good pictures, one of the girls on our team got bit because she was protecting her pants, the monkey ate someone’s lip balm (lol), and when her baby monkey got on the boat they were playing and just hanging out with us – so that was pretty amazing. Also, at night our guide (who has the most perfect eyesight of any human I’ve met) saw a caiman hiding in the reeds, so he went to grab it, but it got away. We were okay with that, because he had planned to put it in the boat with us…and for those of you who don’t know, a caiman is a baby crocodile. Again, with his perfect eyesight on day two we got to see sloths hanging out hiiiiiigh in the trees, just hanging out in their natural habitat, and we got to hug a sloth that just naturally hangs out in this guy’s tree-hut in the jungle. We got to fish for piranhas, our teammate got hit by a flying fish that has some nasty chompers on it, and we saw SO MANY species of birds, I don’t even know what any of them were, and I got to see a bat darting around, which was of course awesome, and we got to hear howler monkeys…from the boat, because they sound just terrifying.
The coolest, is that I’m pretty sure there are more nocturnal animals in this jungle than daytime ones…because the moment the sun starts to go down, the forest comes ALIVE. I like to think of that scene in Ferngully at nighttime when the forest comes alive, things light up and cool stuff happens – same thing in Avatar, they’re basically the same movie. The sounds that fill the forest at night are weird, and loud, and there are SO MANY! From frogs, to crickets, to…a bazillion other things that make weird sounds…it’s just incredible. And the stars at night are like nothing you’ve ever seen.
And everything in the jungle is so useful! Our guide informed us that if you stick your hands in a termite nest, let them cover your hands, and then smush them all and rub their dead bodies over your skin it acts as a natural mosquito repellent! A guy on our team tried it, I opted out. There are fat white worm things that live in a certain type of tree seed (I’m not sure how they get there) that are useful for fish bait, the natives use palms for making lodges, huts, and there’s a tree with super pointy spikes on the trunk that, when you strip off its outer bark, in between the rings there is a nylon substance that is incredibly strong that they use for artisanal crafts and baskets and things. Another tree, contains a fruit with seeds in it that are coated with this orange pigment that the natives use for face paint. I of course was sweating because of the humidity and forgot it was on my face and ruined my favorite shirt, but I at least got the experience out of it…
And then there’s a tree whose sap looks exactly like blood, that you are supposed to drink, that is pretty nasty but is apparently good for ailments and things. There’s a tree with super poisonous sap, a tree with sap that acts as a glue for wounds, a tree with sap that is good for immune system issues…and there is a tree that doesn’t have rings…from the bottom of the tree its roots look like little tubes feeding into it from the ground, and the cross-section of it looks like a mass of pink capillary tubes, kind of like celery! Way cool. Of course the sad part is to see the cross-section we had to witness the chopping down of a tree in the rainforest, just so we could get 1m of the top of the trees innermost bark that is good for eating, it’s like a salad. I wasn’t incredibly happy with that part, especially since they leave the rest of the tree! They chop it down just for a tiny little part of it…a little depressing, but that’s how they live off the forest I guess. We saw banana trees, and cacao trees, and palm trees…and a million other trees that I don’t even remember, but the point I’m trying to get across is just the overwhelm. How every single aspect of the region is wonderful, and interesting, and so incredibly unique!
I fell in love with this place because the biologist in me, the one that loves bugs (except mosquitoes) and animals and plants, LOVED to observe the diversity and the way that God pulled out all the stops to create things that are completely beyond our imaginations. To see how creative He is, in designing LIFE.
It feels like it’s been so long since I finished school and thought about the beauty of the tiny things that I forgot how much I loved it!
How much I loved seeing the tiny details of His creation, how he made everything so complex and functional, beautiful yet redundant. When I went to school and studied proteins and biochemical pathways, I LOVED learning about how they work, how they complement each other, how delicately in-balance it is and how with tiny variation the whole organism can be different. It’s amazing, and I love how wonderfully this jungle demonstrates that! The balance of predator-prey, of life and death, growth and decay…everything works together in harmony, and it’s a good model.
The issue: humans seem to be a huge wrench in the balance of things, and it’s such a difficult situation. I love people. I used to think my part on the earth was to love people and leave the earth-stewarding to environmentalists – something which I definitely wouldn’t consider myself. Don’t get me wrong, I recycle, I would never treat an animal with abuse and I hate littering – but I support production of oil for the economy, and using trees to build homes, and eating meat. Everything in moderation – except moderation is something I’m finding we are REALLY bad at.
The problem I am faced with, is the issue of how to deal with the environmental issue. Which I hope sounds as complicated as it is. And I’m not talking about climate change, because although the changing climate is definitely a thing, I think we have much, MUCH bigger environmental battles we need to be facing that are affecting people on the earth NOW rather than battling a changing climate that may or may not come about anyways naturally in the many years to come. Yes, the statistics say that the climate is changing. But what about the fact that because of garbage, water everywhere is becoming toxic and uninhabitable? I didn’t realize how much it bothered me until I went to Paracas, but then I came HERE. There is garbage just sitting in the river – people living on the river just throw it out their windows…and it looks like black sludge. There are children playing in it like it’s a swimming pool – and it’s not simply because of poverty. Poverty is an issue on its own, but the environmental issue is not poverty-caused…the cause is a mixture of ignorance and greed. Across the Amazon, there is clear-cutting happening so they can build new lodges to accommodate high-paying tourists who want to have a ‘real rainforest experience’. And that’s not me judging anyone, because I stayed in one of them for that very reason. There are wild and sometimes endangered animals being captured for the pleasure of tourists. There are trees randomly being cut down and chopped into so we tourists can see what the trees have to offer. And it’s so interesting, and everything about this jungle is worth seeing and exploring!
For me, to be able to observe these things is amazing – but how much of that is incredibly harmful and selfish? I don’t know where the line is…I mean, I like to think I’m okay because I was just there to observe, except my very presence there is promoting the trafficking of animals, clear-cutting, etc. If you read my last post about Chachapoyas, you might see the pattern like I have that tourism is essentially ruining the people AND the planet. The more tourism, the more people become opportunistic and greedy. People take advantage of the ignorance of foreigners just like we take advantage of their resources, and it’s been such an eye-opening experience to be able to see that. The problem is, I don’t have the slightest idea on how to process that…or what we do about it. Tourism is only going to grow, because the world is becoming more curious, the wealthy are becoming more adventurous, and the world is an absolutely incredible place! People are becoming fed up with governments to the point where they decide to just get out of the country and travel long-term; others are tired of the ‘system’ and go off in search of something better – and I’m absolutely no different. But the biggest question I have is ‘why’. Why are we so discontent with knowing something exists and letting it stay that way without having to interrupt its existence? Why do we feel the need to travel and continue seeing things, even if we’ve seen a million of the same things before?
I think the reason is that we’re searching for something; something that we believe will fill us up and be worth all of the time we spend on the earth. The reason I think that is because of something I discovered here. There’s a plant here called the Ayahuasca plant. A lot of people have heard of it (though I never had) because it’s been covered in documentaries, etc. – basically, it’s a poisonous plant. Shamans here (medicine men/women) have used it traditionally as a psychedelic by preparing a drinkable liquid that they provide in a ceremony that causes a cleanse – by purging. There’s a special diet people are supposed to follow, a certain type of fast so the drug works properly, and then there’s a special chant that the shaman does while it’s working, you basically purge (out of both ends) until you have nothing left, and a lot of people have visions and ‘spiritual’ experiences. I can only tell you what I’ve heard, of course, because I’ve never done it myself, but a lot of people who are suicidal say they come out happier, people with skeletons come out with peace about skeletons, people having lost ancestors get to say goodbye, etc. There’s also this other ceremony called campo (sp?) where the shaman burns two holes in your skin, covers it in frog venom, and it supposedly does the same type of thing, but more short-lived. Here’s the kicker, and my whole point: All of the people I’ve talked to, the part of the whole thing that made the whole experience worth it for them is the community; how every person going in admits they have issues, and is open and honest, and is searching for something.
Wait.
So there are thousands upon thousands of people going through seriously risky ceremonies (people have died) ingesting poisonous substances and putting themselves in extremely dangerous positions……….just to be in a community where people are honest, and humble, and forthcoming about where they’re at.
It took me three months – 27 years almost, actually – to figure out that our biggest issue is that we need Love. I knew that, but I didn’t really KNOW it, if you know what I mean. People are escaping, opting out of our society because they want Love, and they know they’re missing it, even if they don’t know that’s what it is that they’re missing! We chase after things to fill the hole, we need to see that mountain, chase that waterfall, own that sloth, grow that business, help those people, find that significant other…because we need to fill it. But nothing does, and we’ll keep chasing it until we find something to sustain us.
I know I’ve pounded this issue in in pretty much every blog post, so I won’t do it again here, but the world really, REALLY needs people who know who they are. People who know the Love that is sustainable. If you don’t know Jesus and you disagree with me, that’s fine, but don’t try and deny that you’re looking for it too – something that is constant, and secure, and beautiful. Whether you seek it out in the beauty of the mountains that will never last, or the warmth of an embrace that will never last – that pursuit is there, and will continue to be there because “He has put eternity in our hearts”. We were made to seek out something eternal, even though our bodies were not made to BE eternal – I think that alone screams that we were made with the likeness of God. How many times have you sat underneath the stars feeling like you could be there forever, and be completely content, but when the next night comes around, it’s like it’s the first time you’ve seen them? Our mind wasn’t made with the capacity to comprehend time – it’s too big, and complex. Yet, we speak as if we yearn for things to last longer than we can understand, because it’s romantic. It’s incredible to anticipate being with someone ‘forever’, even though we have no way of comprehending what forever even is, and we lose sight of ‘forever’ the moment that our emotions or our circumstances change. So if we are in pursuit of forever, but we can’t even comprehend the beginning of the meaning of the word, doesn’t that mean we are in need of a person who knows what forever really is, exists in the forever, etc. to guide us and fill our yearning for the forever?
Mind-boggling, I know. Anyways! That’s the rabbit hole this place has thrown me into. Without even knowing it, by placing me here God threw me into a whole new world of spirituality and showed me how people are uprooting from their lives and searching – and He’s in hot pursuit.
I finally feel like I’m ready to come home! Like, I finally figured out the puzzle and what I’m supposed to be doing with my life. And it was always in front of me, just kind of hidden by fog. It’s been so confusing, and nonsensical-feeling, but now that it’s come full circle I feel like I’m determined, but not stressed. Like I have no clue how I’m supposed to do it, or exactly what, but I know the who, the why, and the what is happening. Leave it to Jesus to push me into a wormhole.
What I hope gets through here, if anything, is that when you take time to figure out who you are, you figure out the beat of your own drum. And when you learn the beat of the drum, you can figure out what causes it to go off-beat. And what I have found, is that those things that cause the drum to go off the beat are usually linked together somehow, and lead to a great big adventure to put those passions to use.
Mine starts now :)
Love you guys!
-B. <3
PS: To make up for my ranting, here are a bunch more great pics...and I've included some videos as well (provided they work)! Enjoy!
