Orchid at the mission station.
I saw a lot of these in the jungle. Greg said it is a fungus of some kind. Bonus points to the one who can identify it. This specimen is about 2 1/2 feet long.
Chickens are everywhere. Well, everywhere there are humans. This is probably a good thing because they eat bugs all day long.
Bromeliad with a centipede hiding inside.
Huge moth who fluttered into church.
Blurry suri.
This is how they store suri - wrapped up in banana leaves.
Fallen bananas. The red thing on the right is the flower. It's HUGE.
Banana leaves. I had no idea they got this big.
I saw a ton of butterflies, but they are really difficult to photograph! Google blue morpho to see a good shot of the ones I saw quite a few of fluttering over rivers.
Leaf cutter ant!
Rivers- I should have a whole post about them. This is where the Marañon meets the Kusu and where the original mission station was.
Cacao pods.
This was at the port in Imasa. Port is a strong word. We had to wade out in nasty water to get to the boat. We saw a lot of boats filled with bananas. This was a spectacular pile.
The trees at Quelap had bromeliads all over them. They looked like flowers when they were red.
Probably my best nature shot - no editing whatsoever! You should see the outtakes!
Just a taste of the waterfall in Tarapoto.
Noni fruit growing at the district center in Iquitos.
This is unripe cashew fruit. The fruit is apparently very good but was not in season. When Greg was a kid in boarding school the farmers used to get the kids to eat all the fruit they could stand and they'd collect the nuts to cure and sell. I think it's his favorite fruit.
Rubber dribbling down from a gash in rubber tree bark.
Pineapple! I have to say the pineapple in Peru was the most succulent, sweet, tender pineapple I've ever tasted.
Where the Nanay river meets the Amazon. The water is both a different color and temperature, and it was visible from a long way away. See the lighter color ahead? That's the Amazon.
Three-toed sloth!
This is some kind of ancient tortoise. It really looks like a dinosaur, doesn't it?
Aanconda! That big lump in his middle is a chicken. We weren't allowed to hold it because it just eaten.
This tree had these gorgeous caterpillars all over it.
On the Amazon.
We stopped at a paiche farm along the river. Paiche are huge and very tasty fish. I didn't get a good picture of them, but the farm also had caiman- these little alligator guys were feisty!
Giant lily pad!
Plumeria flowers in Iquitos.
Llamas at Quelap.
Interesting spider. She had her babies all over her back. I could just hear her yelling, "You kids get off my back!" This was the biggest spider I saw, and it was pretty small- maybe an inch and a half long. Sorry to disappoint all the arachnophiles out there.
One last shot of Mr. Toucan. He was heavy!
One thought to conclude with here. A lot of people think they could never go and do this thing or that thing. What we're all really afraid of is the unknown. When we we say no to going and doing things for God, we aren't any safer than we are when we say yes. The 405 freeway has way more traffic than the Amazon River. The tarantula that walked through my living room the week before I left was no more dangerous than anything I saw or did in Peru, it just looked big and scary. It's all in our heads. The bummer is that when we play it "safe" we miss out on a lifetime of adventure and countless blessings. I'm so glad I didn't!
More later,
Bonnie :)
