Rainforest Visions (Gabby)

When I first dreamed of visiting the Amazon basin I dreamed of jaguars ducking behind buttress roots and sloths climbing slowly up the trees. I think this vision and fantasy came from a children's book I read about a great kapok tree when I was little. It was about one kapok tree and the many animals that called it home. When I first visited Amazonia I must admit that I was suprised by how few animals I saw - the snakes were elusive and mammals were nowhere to be seen. I read that the best way to see things was to actually use the bathroom in the woods and wait for insects (such as dung beetles) to arrive. Dung happens to attract many animals within the forest. I have tried this experiment and it does work, but I must say that despite the difficulty of finding things, when you do find them, they are like nothing you've ever seen. Moths hang upside-down to camouflage themselves and grasshoppers look like twigs. Many critters can only be seen with a keen eye. And, yes, it is the most incredible place.

- Gabby