Last Thoughts on the Amazon

I was asked before coming to the Amazon to compare what I made of the jungle to what I feel about Yellowstone.

Here is my answer. The Amazon is an amazing place. Within an hour of being here, I saw a two toed sloth, a turtle, several species of fish and monkeys, and my birding life list just about doubled.

The rain forest certainly gets into you. I understand how a person could arrive here and decide that they are never going to leave. There is just so much to learn here. As I mentioned in a previous blog, our guide knew plants for just about every purpose from a phosphorescent fungus that can be used as a lantern, to trees that can be used for birth control for these late night paramours that you use to fungus to get to. He wasn't a shaman or a botanist. He was just a guy who had a bit of local knowledge.

I understand that shamans in the area have knowledge of thousands of plants gained from over 20 years of training. It is the most biologically diverse ecosystem on earth. There are probably more species of monkey than there are species of large mammals in the whole of greater Yellowstone. The pink dolphins were absent, forced downstream by an dry spell that left the Cuybeno River unusually dry, but this same dry spell forced so many animal and birds to the banks of the river that I won't even bother to list them all.

In short, the neo-tropical rain forests of the Amazon were everything I could wish for and more. It was a magical, wonderful, beautiful place, and I loved it.

However, it wasn't home. I wasn't raised in Yellowstone, so in some way I feel like I don’t have the right to claim to it as home. However, last winter, after an absence of a few months from the area, a friend of mine came up to me, slapped me on the back and said “welcome home”. He was right; I felt it as soon as he said it. Yellowstone place was home.

The Amazon has so much to offer. It is known as the lungs of the earth because so much of our oxygen is created here. Its survival is vital to the survival of the entire planet. I suspect that I will return many times, and I know that I will be supporting charities that do good work to protect it.

But a part of me found it to be claustrophobic. It is so tight with life. Every corner was a wall of green. I saw dozens of monkeys, but most of them for no more than a few seconds.

Perhaps I am spoiled by Yellowstone, where you can sit and watch a herd of bison for hours, or enjoy watching the druid pack on a kill for the better part of a day. Maybe I just like open places where you can see for miles in any direction. Maybe, I just found the place that part of me knows is home.