Yummy?!?!?!

Normally I am somewhat of a picky eater.  I admit it.  I don't know what happened to me on the trip to the Napo River but I just had the urge to try things....

Like lemon ants!

Yes they do taste like lemon.  These ants actually secrete an acid which kills trees and plants where they don't want to make a nest.  That same acid gives them a lemony taste.

I quite enjoyed the meal we had in the little village.

 

The white stuff is catfish with heart of palm.  It was actually one of my favorite foods on the river cruise!  Our guide said that he knew that Americans don't eat catfish.  I told him that 'Southern' Americans do!  The yellow is a cooked plantain which was just ok.  The small light food near the bottom is white cocoa and it tasted great.  Near the top is a grub.  Yep, a grub.  A roasted grub!

 And I did eat one....and it tasted like bacon.  Really truly!

My temporary craziness did not extend to eating a raw, crawling grub.  First you bite off its head.  Now that was too much even for my temporary food insanity!  Our guide, Juan, grew up in the jungle and loved them.  Actually two of the men on our tour also ate the raw, living grub!  I had to draw a line somewhere!

Creatures of the Napo River

We saw so many interesting critters on this trip!  Here is just a sampling....

Big ants.....

Leaf Cutter ants....those leaves in the photo are being carried by ants.  I resisted the urge to sing, "An ant can't move a rubber tree plant but he's got high hopes."  They move rapidly and for miles and miles. Amazing to see!  It is a parade in the jungle!

 Monkeys....

Sloth....in the interest of full disclosure, this photo was taken by our guide with his 600X super zoom camera.  We did see sloths but they were just dark spots high up in the trees.  Sloths stay in the same tree for up to a week.  They come down once a week to defecate.  If they did that up in the tree the smell would give their location away to their #1 predator a harpy eagle.

 Toucan

Several different types of parrots at a clay lick.  There are many clay licks along the river and scientist don't know why the birds come to this particular one day after day and avoid the others.  It seems to be a social thing. 

Fun to watch them!

Rainbow boa.  We saw him on our night hike!

 

Bats...lots of little bats!  Icky!

 Pink dolphins of the Amazon.  Yes that gray looking thing is a pink dolphin.  They don't jump out of the water like ocean dolphins so their photos aren't too exciting....but seeing them is rare and we saw them twice!

 

Stinky Turkey Bird - His name comes from the foul odor caused by the fermentation of food in his digestive system.  We never got close enough to smell him but he is beautiful!  Looks a bit like a pheasant.

 Can you find the bird in this photo?  He's pretty well camouflaged.

Ringed Kingfisher

Since our river boat was called the Anaconda it was only appropriate that we got to see a real anaconda!

This one was just a little 9 footer....they can grow to be 30 feet long.  I don't think we would have been holding on to one of that size!

Actually it made me kind of uncomfortable watching him coil around this boy's arm!

So fun to see all these interesting and unique things!

Amazon Explorers

Well, ok technically not the Amazon, the Napo River but it is one of the head waters of the Amazon so that counts!

 We did a little kayaking and canoeing.

And Katherine was the Piranha Queen as she caught the biggest fish...

George and I even swam in the river with the piranha.  No worries though as our guide assured us that piranha only attack humans in the swampy areas where food is not so plentiful.  I'm glad the piranha in this part of the river were well feed!   And that the caiman are nearer the shore!!!

 Their teeth look like this......so I am glad they weren't hungry!

And here's my handsome fellow explorer!  I'm glad he shares my love of travel!

Equator

Two chances to stand on the equator line.
First with one foot in the northern hemisphere and one in the southern...

 And then George is the southern and me in the northern.......that should have been reversed with me in the Southern, huh?

Fish Market

The Fish Market in Puerto Ayora in the Galapagos Islands reminded me of this meme!

Every fish you take

Every cut you make

Every sale you make

I'll be watching you!

Oh can't you see they belong to me
And how my poor heart aches with every fish you take!

Snorkeling in the Galapagos Islands

I'm not a very strong swimmer so snorkeling has always made me nervous....that is until we bought these handy little snorkeling vests!  They give me just enough float to make me feel confident and now I love it!

The colorful fish in the Galapagos Islands were beautiful!

I was swimming into a cove all alone thinking that there wasn't much to see in this area when I came face to face with a shark.  In my mind he was nose to nose with me but in reality he was probably about 4 feet away directly in front of me.  Total shock!  There were actually two 6 footers in the cove where we were snorkeling.  They went into a cave and our guide went in to try and get them to come out.  I wasn't sure if I really wanted him to aggravate a shark who was hiding in a cave.  No worries though!  He came out and posed for some photos and went back in!

 

Birds of the Galapagos

The Frigatebirds were the mascots of our little touring boat.

We were never sure if the cook threw out scraps for them or if they just liked the boat but they swarmed around us every day.

And they liked to get close....almost close enough to touch!

We got a chance to walk around their favorite nesting island.  This male with his red pouch prominently displayed seemed to be trying to attract the attention of a female.  Pretty impressive, if you ask me!

 Males and female Frigates share parenting duties feeding the babies.

I think the little frigates are pretty adorable! 

Who could possibly resist the Blue Footed Boobies?

 

Yes their feet are really blue!

We watched this adolescent bird beg his parent for food for quite awhile.

Notice that the young one does not have blue feet yet!  Finally she gave in and fed him.

 

That seemed to satisfy him for the time being and something else caught his attention.  

God has created a magnificent world filled with so many amazing things!