February 20th - 08:18

Title: February 20th - 08:18 Medium: Super-8 film Aspect Ratio: 4:3 Resolution: 2880 x 2160 File Type: H.264 Codec / MP4. Comments: We left the mountains of the Andes to make our way to the rainforest at the bottom of the mountain. Landed from a small propeller plane to Puerto Maldonado at the edges of the Amazon Jungle. It was hot and humid. The group and crew boarded a bus to the water from the inner city, then onto a boat to cruise to the lodge deeper in the jungle. The water was rising and rushing as it had been raining all week. You could see trees floating in the river flow. We stepped onto the shore and made our way into the lodge. There was a spider monkey named Jennifer who grabbed my hand and led me around the grounds. She was sweet and kind and when I laid on the bench she laid on top of me like a cat would with her tail curled up on my chest. Our host took us out to a nature walk after breakfast with his machete to pave the way. He pointed out yellow fruits in the trees that he chopped down and cracked open. We ate some and it tasted like candy. It was nature's treat. It was raw cacao! This is the fruit that chocolate was made from. As we walked through the jungle we collected more cacao and threw the seeds around the forest to lay down new trees. From one fruit you can plant a hundred trees. Nature is abundant, it's literally programmed into the system where 1 equals 100, all it takes is time for it to grow. These trees grow fast! And even faster under these environmental conditions. The jungle grows in all directions, and if you are not careful it will swallow you up! We walked past caiman, which are like crocodiles. Howling monkeys in the trees. All sorts of spiders and insects. Panthers hiding in the greens. Snakes and anacondas slithering nearby. Life is all around us. Even Ayahuasca growing freely. Nature has her rhythm and systems and its up to us humans to tune back in to whence we came.