My South America Adventure Part 1: Nature

Hello Friends!

It is time for another blog post and I have decided to do something a little different. I would like to share with you the adventure I experienced when I had the opportunity to live in Ecuador, South America for a month. This will be a 2 part series with the first one focused mainly on the nature aspect and the next one will be about the pretty cool places and sites I saw. They are going to be somewhat lengthy posts but my hope is to spark an interest in you to seek adventure and to get out and live! Going to a new place, and even new culture is a little intimidating for sure, but it is also a fun and learning experience that for me, I am thankful for and it was life changing.

In the summer of 2009, I flew down to Ecuador, South America to spend roughly a month with some friends whom are missionaries there. I pretty much hung out in the  Andean Mountains; the Cloud Rain Forest. At the time, we were near a small town outside of Quito, pretty much in the middle of nowhere in the rainforest; a naturalist's paradise!

Cloud Forest

View I got to see everyday!

The first week I was there was pretty crazy but in a good way. I got to hangout with another group that was visiting and doing a missions trip. We went out into La Armenia and did a few service projects for a local school. We also got to hangout with some kids at another school and played soccer and Frisbee with them. One day, we did some outreach projects in the town of Mindo and then had the opportunity to go zip-lining up in the canopy! It was quite an experience!  Sadly, I did not take any photos :(

Outreach. Photo by ME.

During the month I was there, I certainly got to explore and see some pretty neat stuff, sites, and wildlife and plants. The couple that I stayed with knew I love animals and often went out into the forest to help me find stuff. They even caught a snake some time before I arrived and they saved it for me. 

Tropical Whipsnake. Photo by ME.

Ground Snake. Photo by ME.

Flock of Parrots. Photo by ME.

So getting to explore the rainforest was something that I had dreamed about doing since I was a kid, and so, this experience was a pretty big deal for me. Any how, one morning, one of my friends' and I were walking around and encountered a bird that had flown into the window and had knocked itself out; it did live and was eventually released. 

Tawny-Bellied Hermit. Photo by ME. 

I could go on with the neat stuff I saw exploring just the area I was staying at. However, I need to move on in this post. Though I will quickly mention that one day, I got to see a Basilisk  Lizard run across a dirt road on its hind legs! That was cool and sort of mind blowing too; they are known for running on their hind legs on water for a short distance. I never knew they could perform such a feat on land too. Sadly, that event was not captured on camera, but I did get a photo of the lizard.

Basilisk Lizard.

As you can imagine, being in a tropical environment, there are going to be a lot of insects. Well, this region was no exception; there were a lot of insects. One really interesting species of insect I encountered was the leaf-cutter ant. Leaf-Cutter Ants were running all over the place. I had the chance to see them running around, carrying leaf pieces they gathered from various plants. Another neat thing was they had a pretty insane trail going on and I have to say after this moment, I have been rather fascinated by leaf-cutter ants since.

Leaf-Cutter Ant collecting a leaf

Leaf-Cutter Ant Trail

So, yeah, that was cool. Here are few other pictures of some neat stuff :)

Waterfall

Me exploring a river. Photo by Miguel Labrador

Rain Frog

An Orchid of some kind.

So, exploring the tropics is sure to enlighten a naturalist and yield many learning and jaw-dropping moments. On many occasions I got to explore some rivers and see different things. There is a really cool tree I had the opportunity to see and I feel pretty fortunate to have seen it. However, I honestly forget what the actual name of the tree is, one the names it is called is "Blood of The Dragon", a pretty sweet name in my opinion. 

"Blood of The Dragon" Tree

The "blood" sap.

As you can see, the tree is called "Blood of The Dragon" due to the sap looks like blood. The neat thing is, the sap can be used to treat insect bites, or least from what I understand.

A really cool thing that occurred while I was in Ecuador is that many of the locals heard about me wanting to find some critters; snakes in particular and on a few occasions they would bring my friends a snake, they had captured or came across, so I could see it. 

Green Sipo

Both of us "Smiling"

Pretty cool, huh? One evening I was walking around and I got to see a beautiful sunset. The scenery there overall was spectacular!

Beautiful Sunset.

I tell ya, the Cloud Forest is pretty cool! I was pretty much in the middle of the Andes.  There was one day I had the opportunity to explore Quito, Ecuador and checked out the equator but I shall tell more of that in my next post. Here is a pretty cool bird that I saw:

Black-Tailed Trainbearer

So now, I am going to post a few more animal photos and will talk a little bit about them, but mostly it will just be photos and then I will go more into some plants and scenery ( thought not all, as I am saving some really good ones for the next post) aspects of the nature experiences of my trip.

Praying Mantis with a Hood. 

Forest Racer

Butterflies were everywhere!

Ok, so on one occasion, I had the opportunity to hangout in a town called Pacto, I will talk more of it the next post. There, I had the opportunity to see and check out some rather large insects. They are male and female Hercules Beetles as well as a Neptune Beetle. The size of them astounded me for sure, and it still does. They were caught by a local woman who sells them.

Neptune Beetle

Hercules Beetle

How big they were!

Yeah, they are huge! lol.  The one beetle is perched on sugar cane if you want to know what that object is.

So, that pretty much does it for the animal side of things, there are so much more photos and such I sadly have to leave out. but all of my photos are posted on my facebook page if you want to see more.

Now, I will spend some more time on plants :)


This plant below, I wish I knew what it is, but I do not know my plants. I do know that these flowers produce hallucinogens and will make you high if you smell them too long. And no, I did not test it, lol

Photo by Miguel Labrador

Along a river

Pod of seeds of some kind

The next few plant photos are of fruits and coffee! Goods that people use!

Coffee Beans and Tree

Limes

Oranges

So, coffee, a lot of people are really into it. It is commonly grown in the Andes and throughout the Latin Americas as a whole.

Ok, so if you are still reading at this point, thank you for bearing with this lengthy post. I will say that if you ever have a chance to have an adventure in the tropics or in another country in general, I would say go for it! It is an amazing experience! I will end this post with a few scenery photos. Be sure to read my post next month to learn more about some of the other aspects of Ecuador's Andean Mountains I got to experience.

Cloud Forest

River

More Scenery