Under the Canopy

Hello everyone! Today we woke up early and took a bus to the National Forest. The bus we took was not exactly Greyhound service and was built probably in the 1970's. The trip to the forest took about 2 hours over mostly 1 lane unpaved road. The drive to the forest was interesting in itself considering the bus could barely make it through the many mud bogs due to the rain in the morning and up the steep hills. We were moving at 5 mph up these muddy hills as the engine was screaming. On the way we saw where many of the river people lived. The river people are Indians who are indigenous to Brazil. Entire families live in small huts with walls and roofs made of thatch. On our return from the forest we were able to meet an indigenous family who fabricates latex goods for sale such as drums, purses, balls, and other decorative items. The latex tree is quite wide spread throughout this region and commonly harvested and sold.

Anyways, once we arrived at the "entrance" of the national forest (keep in mind our entire trip to the forest was a forest), we met our guides to take us on our hike. Our guides (who were river people as well) took us through the trails under the canopy of the forest. They pointed out many of the plant, insect and bird species. Our hike lasted about 4 1/2 hours. This tour was not a hotel sponsored tour by any means. We had to climb over these 200 year old large fallen trees. The jungle was so dense that the guide was using his knife to clear the path for us at some points. We traveled up and down some steep hills that caused me to fall a couple times. It was quite an adventure. I will try to attach some pictures once I get internet access to my laptop. Have a good night!