day 3. Today is the first day of my weekend (I take Friday/Saturday weekends at the moment, which I’m loving) and I’ve spent the day preparing for our upcoming house moving, and studying hard to catch up on some assignments due at uni real soon. I’m so thankful right now for the opportunity to be a student – I didn’t appreciate education this much when I was younger, but I do now. Even though it feels like a constant game of catch up to try and complete a Science degree while also working full time (can you believe I’m also working on a book, maintaining my blog and travelling too? I don’t know when I even find time to sleep!) I’m so grateful to have a flexible job that I love, and the time, space, focus, and income to be able to go back to university at the same time and get this education that I treasure. So today I’m thankful for education, knowledge, and learning. Also throwback photo to that time I canoed down the Amazon – a lifelong dream of mine fulfilled
Sharing a kayak, paddling our way down a stream in the Amazon rainforest. What an amazing experience! Incredible wildlife, gorgeous scenery, so peaceful. Also, nearly kayaked face first into two massive hand-sized spiders chilling on an overhanging branch.. definitely added a little adrenaline to an otherwise tranquil ride down the gorgeous river.
The perfect sunset. Our longboat glided effortlessly through the silky water. The water was so still and clear it was difficult to tell where the sunset ended and the reflection began. Pink Amazonian dolphins splashed around us and many birds of all sizes, parakeets, macaws, and large parrots flew overhead. Bats ducked around catching insects and the air was perfect and warm. Easily one of the most breathtaking and wonderful sunsets of my life and travels. We've been gone from the Amazon less than 24 hours and I'm already plotting my return. I'm absolutely in love.
Amazonas by canoe. Exploring the lands of tarantulas and Anacondas, the land of the Ticuna tribes who hunt with poisoned blowdart. Trees full of sloths and rivers full of piranhas. Lands full of incredible tribal and natural history.
Life on the Rio Amazonas. Leticia I've found to be a vibrant and interesting small town. Quite different from anything I'd expected. Homes teeter on stilts along the river banks and most resident's livelihood depends on small, wooden long boats.- for getting around, working as a water taxi, or bringing fruits and other goods in from neighbouring Brazil and Peru. It's a melting pot of the 3 cultures and every July all three bisecting countries meet together to share their food, dress, dance, and culture in a huge celebration of Amazonian diversity. I find this town like nowhere else on Earth.
The Amazon is easily one of the most special, beautiful places we have on this incredible planet. Today we set sail.. errr.. oar.. and spent 9 hours exploring the rivers, lakes, and flooding-season watery jungles of the Colombian Amazonas. A life dream come true, one of the most magical experiences of my lifetime. Many, many, more photos to come. ??
Hundreds of thousands.. if not millions.. of parakeets come into roost from the surrounding jungles into this park every night at sunset.Nobody knows why they do it, when they have an endless expanse of jungle in which to sleep.. but yet, they do. And It's impressive, overwhelmingly loud and unimaginably awesome.
Where are we? We are the blue dot.. a small town called Leticia, one of the most remote towns in the world. Accessible only by air or riverboat, with no connecting roads. We are right at the point where Colombia borders Peru and the Brazilian state of Amazonas. The Amazon river runs through bisecting Colombia from Peru, and the Amazon rainforest surrounds us.
