Meet my new friends..

Bram and Tim are back in Quito. They're overwhelmed by their trip to the amazonas... it was just so amazing. Untouched nature, where man and nature live in harmony. A kind of a "once in a lifetime " experience. And they got it all... You read about the rare species and sightings but not for a second did they imagine they were actually going to see so much. They were guided and catered for by local indians, sleeping in lodges and having local food being prepared for them. Lagoons, paradise nature, so many sounds, surrounding you as you paddle your way up and down the river. Bathing with the pink dolphin... hearing them approaching you by a "swoooooooosh" sound... Diving in, snorkeling with the piranhas. Nude. Night walks through the rainforest, with bats diving all around you, watching some very scary insects. I think. Big spiders, big centipedes, big ants... everything is BIG BIG BIG. Peroquets in every coulour, birds so many and different you just cannot imagine. Caymans hiding along the river banks. Cut-off from the modern world and fortunate to take part of this wonder just makes you very very humble. And hopeful. That mankind is not destroying it all.
But as off today, they need to set their minds to acklimatsation of altitude and prepare for the mountains coming up in a couple of days. But no matter what happens, I think they're deeply touched and will carry this beautiful memory forever.
Meet some of their new acquintances... and read the stories/myths around them!

Bullet ant: The pain caused by this insect's sting is purported to be greater than that of any other Hymenopteran, and is ranked as the most painful according to the Schmidt Sting Pain Index. It is described as being hit by a bullet, causing "waves of burning, throbbing, all-consuming pain that continues unabated for up to 24 hours". In some indigenous communities, to enter manhood a boy has to endure being stung by the ant 20 times without screaming

In a traditional amazon river myth, at night an Amazon River Dolphin becomes a handsome young man who seduces girls, impregnates them, then returns to the river in the morning to become an Amazon River Dolphin again. This dolphin shapeshifter is called an encantado. It has been suggested that the myth arose partly because dolphin genitalia bear a resemblance to that of humans. In the local area, there are also tales that it is bad luck to kill an Amazon River Dolphin. Legend also states that if a person makes eye contact with an Amazon River Dolphin, that person will have nightmares for the rest of his or her life.

The world has many moist, warm, and dark cavities where phobia-inspiring organisms quietly lurk. The tropical climate of South America's Amazon jungle has an unnaturally large number of such pockets, and consequently that region is home to unnaturally large specimens.
One such example is the Scolopendra gigantea, a venomous, red-maroon centipede with forty-six yellow-tinted legs. These centipedes are the largest in the world, and they are more commonly known as Amazonian giant centipedes due to their massive size. Adults commonly reach lengths of over thirty-five centimeters– the length of a man's forearm. Not only are these creatures very swift runners, but they are also highly adept climbers, a skill which allows them to scale walls to enjoy some surprisingly ambitious prey.