The Amazon: Terrifying and Awesome

Every time I talk to my friend Jason, he always asks me if I have seen a poison arrow frog yet. Every time, I laugh and tell him no. Like any area around a settlement, the animals who once lived around my village, figured out to go deeper into the jungle where they won’t be disturbed by humans. Honestly, I did not think that I would see one of those frogs my entire tour. Well, Jason, I've seen a poison arrow frog! In fact, I have seen three in the past two days. Two black and lime green:

And one black and neon yellow:

 The Amerindians (American Indians) indigenous to this area used to rub the tips of their arrows in the poison from these frogs’ skin. Once it hits the bloodstream, I am told that it can be deadly. The yellow frog Ryan found next to our latrine…truth be told he peed on it. The two lime green ones we saw while camping at a nature reserve. About 12 of us went for a day and a half, to hike and look for animals. On our longest hike the group collectively saw four snakes. Yes, we are pretty sure they were all poisonous. I was able to get this awesome picture:

 My favorite part of the trip, though, was the monkeys! I saw so many monkeys! Four separate troops of at least three different species. Three of those four troops passed directly over my head! SO COOL. They seem so carefree, frolicking and free falling from tree to tree. We saw tiny ones, medium ones and bigger ones. I think one was a howler monkey. I saw one baby on a mother’s back. They are all so fast, plus very high up, plus covered by the thick trees, so very hard to capture with a camera, but I got lucky with the last troop:

 There were also pretty birds, creepy spiders, lots of army ants, a kokoni (large rodent- not sure what the English name is) and unreal flora. 

We saw a couple Morpho Butterflies. They are beautiful! I see them frequently when I go to the creek by my house to wash dishes and clothes. They do this drunk, kamikaze flying pattern that makes it impossible (for me) to take a picture. They are said to be a sign of good luck. Here is a picture I found online:

I had my first experience with fish biting me hard enough to hurt. No, not piranhas, don’t worry. We hiked for about 2 ½ hours to a fresh water pool and went swimming. The pond had aggressive minnow-like fish that kept biting everyone. Not enough to cause damage but, boy, did they catch me off guard every time.

I would be remiss if I did not mention that the company was awesome. We have some amazing and talented individuals here in Peace Corps Suriname.