We had a fabulous time meeting all sorts of new friends (including ones of different species), visiting many simple communities, and frolicking in the jungle. Highlights of the trip included: interacting with monkeys of all sorts of species in an amazing refuge for monkeys who had been rescued after being orphaned or "kidnapped;" watching fireflies, distant lightning flashes (that looked like the Aurora Borealis), and wild monkey migrations at night; swimming in the Lago Tarapoto (formed by a tributary of the Amazon River); crossing the "border" into Peru; completing a challenging and unique course that included a rope climb, followed by a trip across a very unstable swinging bridge, culminating with a Tarzan-like descent from a Ceiba tree that was over 350-years-old; viewing gray and pink dolphins jumping both gracefully and awkwardly in the Amazon River; and a peaceful nocturnal canoe ride (while being serenaded by thousands of resident insects and frogs) in absolute darkness. Here is a little story book of photos:
This is the scene that appeared before us as our boat took us from Leticia to the simple lodge where we'd be staying in Parque Amacayacu. It is also where we met the 14 lively and spirited "paisas" (people from the province of Antioquia) who would be our roommates for the week. While we found them quite humorous and entertaining, we wished they wouldn't start singing about what a great time they were having at 5:00am daily. =)
This is one of my artistic shots. I loved looking at the clouds' reflections in the Amazon River.
This is Javier, one of our local guides. Like many of the others we met, he was able to teach us a great deal about the medicinal and cultural practices of his people and translated Ticuna (the native language spoken by many inhabitants of the area) for us (which, in turn, I had to translate into English).
The various communities still practice many of their native ways of living off the land. I always ask permission to photograph people, and this woman agreed to let me take her picture-- only after I promised to let her see it afterwards. She and her friends laughed a good 10 minutes after viewing this shot.
The lilly pads of the area are known as "victoria regias." They allegedly are so strong that they can support the weight of a person, although we chose not to test this theory.
We were all told to purchase these stylish boots before embarking on our journey. They definitely were a wise investment!
This is a close-up shot of the platform that we reached after our rope-climbing feat. The technique of this endeavor was a little complicated at first; it involved raising the ascender attached to one's hands, followed by the one attached to one's feet, all the while moving from a squat to a standing position.
This is Carmen as she passed the swinging bridge. Note the excitement on her face because she is almost to the top-- whew, what relief! 
The monkeys in the refuge were very mischievous. I became thoroughly embarrassed after one broke into my backpack, opened the front pocket, removed a "feminine product," and proceeded to taunt me by tearing it into little pieces in front of everyone else-- all in the blink of an eye. How rude!! Another leapt from a tree and quickly removed the pencil that I had used to tie up my hair, after which he promptly began chewing it and holding it in his mouth like a cigar. Perhaps their favorite activity, though, was attempting to grab Erica's eyebrow piercing (as shown here). Poor Erica was forced to keep her eyebrow covered by her hat, as the monkeys constantly tried to get to the tempting pieces of shiny silver above her eye.
Not all monkeys, however, were so poorly behaved. This little gal just wanted to be petted and held.... and ....
... ones like this one (called "abuelas" because they look like grandmothers) seemed to be very kind and peaceful.
Other native animals of the area were a little bit trickier to photograph. Although I tried really hard to capture the gray and pink dolphins as they occasionally surfaced, my reflexes never were fast enough to capture an image of them before they were back in the water again. Therefore, I had to use a secret trick to get this photo of these pink dolphins... ;-) 
Even though these look like some sort of floating buoys, they are actually are faces as we swim in Lago Tarapota, formed by the Amazon River. What was really incredible for me about that experience was that the water was full of many pockets of very different temperatures; one little space would feel like a hot tub and then a spot about a foot away would be freeeeeeeezing. I had never felt such variable water!
The people seemed to find us as interesting as we found them. This group of children watched very attentively as we stripped down to our swimming suits before jumping into the lake. One little boy acted similiarly to the monkeys and had a great time going through the stuff in my backpack, holding each thing up and saying something to me in Ticuna that I couldn't understand. We also found it very amusing as one little girl (the one peaking over the shoulder of her friend) proudly showed us her pet cockroach. I really enjoy little cultural exchanges like those ones.
One of our favorite activities was a nocturnal canoe ride down the Amazon River (as mentioned above). It was both very peaceful and quite intense at the same time, as the darkness of the night was somehow very calming, yet we could hear and occasionally see the thousands of other nocturnal insect, amphibian, bird, and animal companions who surrounded us during our canoeing escapade.
Watching the nightly sunsets was a great way to unwind after a day of constant activity. 80)
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