Last full day in the Amazon
Trip Start
Jun 26, 2011
1
6
12
Trip End
Jul 21, 2011
Today we woke up at 5AM to listen to the "Dawn Chorus", something our family likes to wake up for any place we travel to. We climbed to the top of a watch tower and were also greeted by squirrel monkeys as a special surprise later in the morning. After breakfast we jumped into our boots ready to go fishing again (this time using a canoe, so we all got some rowing in). Zaida had the unpleasant surprise of finding a large cockroach napping inside her boot after she placed her foot right on top of it! The afternoon was spent on another nature hike, whistling the "jungle song" and learning about more plants as well as the Shuar Amazon tribe in Ecuador. The Shuar are among a small number of Amazon tribes who once practised the custom of shrinking human heads. Our guide painted Zaida's face using the plants and warrior symbols used by the Shuar tribe. He painted a Shuar warrior axe on Micah's forehead. We ended our day (as we did most days in the Amazon) by having a refreshing swim in the lake. After dinner we packed up our bags, including filling a plastic bag with wet, stinky/mildewy clothing. (Despite our efforts at hand washing our clothes, there was so much humidity in the rainforest that our clothes just got moldy after hanging them out to dry for a couple days.)
