I am in a canoe with eight people, rafting down the Amazon Rain Forest. There are two students up front paddling, our guide Randy is maneuvering the engine in the back, and I am clearing out the excess water from within our boat. So in reality we’re floating more than rafting as we go with the current, and we’ve had a very bumpy trip with some collisions. At the same time, we’re seeing all kinds of birds, monkeys and bats, and we’ve been on the lookout for caimans and jaguars.
After one of our tight turns Ryan says, “who ever hasn’t written their blog should write about this!” I stop to take in the moment – trees all around us, all kinds of new animals, warm sun, cold river water, an amazing breeze. I’m actually in the Amazon rain forest, something I first heard of when I was a little kid. This is so much more than what childhood Jose imagined though.
There is a vast biodiversity that is hard to understand and quantify sometimes. Along with this, there is a culture of people, the Cofán. There are actually many more cultures though. The Amazon rain forest is huge and I’m grateful to be able to experience a small portion of it here in Ecuador with the Cofán.
By Jose Ortiz
