#44 A Trip to Amazon
A Trip to Amazon --- 樵小不点
The Amazon: one of the greatest and longest rivers in the world. It is amazing how one river can be so great and powerful when it is so near the equator. You’d think because it is so hot there, any water would dry up in, well, a matter of seconds? Minutes? Hours? YOU’RE ALL WRONG!! The equator is not only the hottest place in the world, but it is also the wettest place in the world. SO, when it is the wet season, the Amazon’s width can be 24.3 miles long! Also at it’s draining basin (where, when it rains, the water goes into it) it can be almost, in the rainy season, 202 miles wide! Pretty amazing, yes? Well that’s not all. Because it has so much water, the Amazon is a perfect place for plants! And because so many plants are there, it’s a perfect home for animals! And because there are so many animals, they eat the fruit and spread the seeds. And because they spread the seeds, there are even more plants. And because of that… well you get the picture. But that’s not all that happens in the Amazon!
The fishing’s great, too! When I went there, it was like the minute you put your hook in, a fish would bite it and you had your prize. Just don’t put your hook too deep. I learned that the hard way. I put my hook very deep, thinking that it would be easier. I was wrong. I didn’t know something bit because I couldn’t feel it, and I wasted 20 minutes doing nothing! I warn you fishermen, don’t do what I did. It would be a real disappointment. BUT, the second time I went fishing, it was a fish frenzy! Minute you put the hook in, there you go, a fish! We caught a grand total of 42 fish! It was a big variety, too. We caught beautiful red-bellied piranhas, sleek trout, heavy catfish, and flat anchovies. The piranhas were beautiful, but they were ruthless, and dangerous. They had teeth and ate meat! How’s that for a creepy thought, huh? Ravenous fish sneaking up on a swimmer and tearing him to pieces, blood everywhere, well you get the picture. Pretty nifty fishing, eh? They also tasted very, very good after we caught them. ;)
The food had it’s pros and cons. It was delicious! Bananas in caramel, Brazilian style chicken, omelettes, rice… MMMMMMMM… The only thing was there were thieves. Thieves!, you may think! I’d better keep my money safe! No, No, not that kind of thieves! You see, there were a lot of parrots in the Amazon, so these annoying little parrots kept showing up in the middle of breakfast and stealing our food! At first it was fun, but then it got annoying because we couldn’t eat our food, so we shooed them away. . They were also rude! Instead of just picking the food up and flying away, they would stay on your table and pick form your plate! They even sit at your table and sat there like they were kings and queens! Ewww… disgusting right?
The animals there are also pretty cool. There was a whole load of monkeys. We mostly saw two kinds. There was a black one with a very long tail, and a red one that looked like a mini-orangutan. Warning: spiritual or physical contact with wild black monkeys will either cause immediate craziness or loconess. I’m serious! Besides us, there were still other visitors. A girl had her hair messed and almost peed on and a guy had his hat taken. Also, the monkeys would follow everybody around! They were also very, very rude eaters. I saw them in action. It wasn’t pretty. Watch out, for, the monkeyes.
We also took a trek through the jungle. Boy, it was dense! It was almost like night. There were three layers of the forest. The lowest one is called the understory, the reason is quite obvious. Then there’s the canopy. Why is it called that? I just told you! It’s because all the leaves on the trees were like well, er, a canopy (whatever, same name) that blocked out the sun. The third layer was called the emergent. Basically, It’s where air emerges into the skies. Not only were there a lot of plants, there were also a large variety of plants! Rubber tree, cocoa leaf, moss, Venus, jungle jar, trees, ferns, and a LOT more! The trees were like a sheer wall that blocked against anything! There were also humongous ant and termite nests! The termites were like a coating for a tree, so brown and weird-looking. The ants were almost exactly the same thing, just black. The nests were over two meters long!!! We even saw trees that could make rubber! Here’s how it worked. You scratched the tree with a knife to make a crack, and then sap would come out. Put a small can underneath the stream of sap and wait until it was full. The sap will dry quickly. Soon, you had a can full of rubber! There was also a type of ant that made, are you ready?, perfume! Yes, perfume! All you had to do was crush the poor little ants and they would make a wondrous smell (SAVE THE ANTS!).
Also at night, we took a canoe out to spot caimans (Imagine Godzilla’s size divided by 10, then shaped like a crocodile). Pretty soon we were on a clue. We spotted a caiman eye! We knew it was a caiman eye because our guide told us that caiman eyes can glow in the dark. We immediately rushed to the spot. We got closer…and closer…sweat started pouring down my back…just a few feet away…croak…croak. Oh come on! That is so not fair! It was a frog!!! Oh well, it was a gigantic frog though. I will give you the measurement. (New line)
*-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------* *-* that’s how long it was. So sorry that it wasn’t a caiman though.
But there was more excitement to follow! Not only did we see the humongous frog, a fish jumped into our boat. =p. Still upset that I didn’t see a caiman, though. *_* Oh well, it was still pretty fun!
We also took a river cruise around and went to an Indian village. It was very beautiful while we were riding on the boat. The Negro river (a.k.a black river) joined the Amazon river (a.k.a yellow river) and it was a spectacular sight. There were yellow and black blotches everywhere! There was also a perfect line of black on one side and yellow on the other. It was so much like a painting! The Indians were kind of strange (compared to us). They wore minimum clothes, and they had tribal dances and songs. They also, quite obviously, spoke a different language. My dad danced with an Indian. Good thing: exotic experience. Bad thing: I found out my dad dances really bad. Doesn’t the Amazon sound so exciting? :]]]]]]]
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