Hey there, pirate friends!
It’s time to tell you about all the CRAZY plants that live in the Amazon jungle. I went on a jungle trek through the rainforest, and saw lots of really useful and helpful plant life. Here goes!
The first plant we came upon on our hike was a water vine. These thick vines look just like tree branches, but they have a special secret- they hold water inside! Our guide cut off a piece of the vine for us, and we all drank fresh rainwater straight from the inside. These vines are very helpful if you get lost in the jungle with no water; they can even save your life!
The next tree we came upon also had a tasty secret inside- milk! Not milk like you drink at home, but a special kind of tree milk that is also good to drink when you are in the jungle. We cut off a small piece of the tree’s bark so that everyone could see the milk running down the side. It looks just like regular milk, but I have to say it did not taste very good.
After the milk tree, we found a eucalyptus plant. If you’ve ever put minty-smelling lotion under your nose or on your chest when you have a cold (like Vick’s vapo-rub), you’ve used eucalyptus! They actually use the bark of the plant too, but it’s the oil from the leaves that smells so yummy and minty.
The next tree we came to had sap-the stuff that oozes out of the tree from under the bark- that came out looking like juicy fruit gum but dried black. The native people used to burn the sap as a way to cure headaches.
While we were in the jungle we also learned how to make an animal trap out of tree branches, so you could catch a meal if you were lost and hungry.
We also took pictures in front of a gigantic tree- I don’t know what kind it was, but its roots were bigger than me! Another mysterious tree had really big spikes growing all over it. We had to look out for these on our trek, since you definitely would not want to get a face full of tree spikes!
And those are all the useful things I found in the Amazon rainforest! I’m back on the ship now, on my way to Namibia. I’ll tell you a little bit more about Namibia when we get closer. We have to go all the way across the Atlantic Ocean before we get there. Until next time, adventurers!
9.12.2008
The Amazon!
Ahoy, mateys!
I just got back from the Amazon rainforest! I told you a little bit about it last time, but I discovered so much more while I was there!
I started my trip in Manaus, which is in the northern middle of Brasil. From there, my friends and I got on a riverboat that would take us up the Amazon river. We slept on the riverboat too, in big hammocks. It took a little getting used to, but sleeping in a hammock was pretty great!
The first night of our trip, we went out in little canoes- not the kind you have to paddle; these canoes had benches to sit on and a motor to make them go. We saw “the meeting of the waters”, which is the place where two of the Amazon’s tributaries meet. A tributary is a small river that flows into a bigger river. The meeting of the waters was where the Rio Negro- which is called that because “Negro” means “black” in Spanish and the river’s water looks black- and the brown waters of the Rio Solimoes- that’s so-lee-mo-izh, it’s Portuguese- meet in the Amazon river. The place where they meet is really cool because you can see the brown water and black water mixing! There is a definite line; on one side the water is the color of coal, and on the other it is brown like Hershey’s chocolate. We spent our time traveling on the Rio Negro, where there are less mosquitoes and more awesome animals!
We saw a lot of different animals on our trip. The first one we saw was the pink dolphin. That’s right, a PINK dolphin. They look just like regular dolphins, but their skin looks like light-colored bubble gum. On our second day on the river, we saw a whole pod of them, three adults and two babies all swimming together!
Another animal we saw was the caiman. Caimans are cousins of alligators and crocodiles, and can get to be over 20 feet long! We went hunting for them in our canoes, but we only found babies. They were about 3 months old and looked just like tiny alligators. I even got to hold one! She was only a foot long, and stayed very still while we held her and took pictures. I bet you didn’t know that most caimans are girls. This is because what decides whether the caiman are boys or girls is the temperature! If the temperature is below 100 degrees, there are mostly boy caiman. But it gets very hot in the Amazon- over 100 degrees- so almost all the baby caimans are girls!
We also went fishing for piranhas! Usually when you go fishing, you bait your fishing hook with a worm. For piranhas, we baited our hooks with beef! That’s right, to catch piranhas, you have to use a burger as bait. It was tough to catch them; they were very sneaky and would eat the meat off your hook before you even had time to reel them in. We finally caught one, and it had VERY sharp teeth! It was about the size of my hand, with pretty blue-black scales.
There was one animal we didn’t see, but we could sure hear! In the jungle, there are howler monkeys. These monkeys are called howler monkeys because- you guessed it- they can yell really loudly! They hang out in big groups and talk to each other by whooping and grunting, and you can hear them from very far away.
While we were in the jungle, we also saw HUGE ants. These ants had to have been at least 10x the size of the ants you see at home. We saw three different kinds. There were really big black ants that were not dangerous, and another big brown ant called “24-hour ant” because if it bit you, it would hurt (A LOT) for a whole day! We also saw big red ants carrying whole flower petals back into their hills. Those ants were seriously strong.
Finally, my favorite animal: a frog. But these were not just any frogs. These frogs were super duper tiny! They were so small that at first we thought they were bugs! They would hop around on the beach right next to where the water met the sand, and they were only the size of my pinkie nail. They had the same color skin as the sand, so they could blend in. The ability to blend in with what’s around you is called camouflage.
In the Amazon, frogs have to be able to protect themselves from predators (the other animals that want to eat them). Because these little frogs had camouflage, it is harder for predators to find them. Some other Amazon frogs are really bright colors! But these are the dangerous frogs. These frogs are usually poisonous, and use their bright colored outsides to warn predators to stay away!
I saved my least favorite animal for last. It was really cool looking, but it was a HUGE spider, and I am scared of spiders. I’m not sure what type of spider it was, but it had big reddish-brown legs and a bright yellow and black body. I took a picture of it and then stayed far away, because just like frogs, if a spider has a bright-colored body, it is probably poisonous.
Those were the animals I saw (or heard) in the Amazon. Next time, I will tell you about all the cool plants!
I just got back from the Amazon rainforest! I told you a little bit about it last time, but I discovered so much more while I was there!
I started my trip in Manaus, which is in the northern middle of Brasil. From there, my friends and I got on a riverboat that would take us up the Amazon river. We slept on the riverboat too, in big hammocks. It took a little getting used to, but sleeping in a hammock was pretty great!
The first night of our trip, we went out in little canoes- not the kind you have to paddle; these canoes had benches to sit on and a motor to make them go. We saw “the meeting of the waters”, which is the place where two of the Amazon’s tributaries meet. A tributary is a small river that flows into a bigger river. The meeting of the waters was where the Rio Negro- which is called that because “Negro” means “black” in Spanish and the river’s water looks black- and the brown waters of the Rio Solimoes- that’s so-lee-mo-izh, it’s Portuguese- meet in the Amazon river. The place where they meet is really cool because you can see the brown water and black water mixing! There is a definite line; on one side the water is the color of coal, and on the other it is brown like Hershey’s chocolate. We spent our time traveling on the Rio Negro, where there are less mosquitoes and more awesome animals!
We saw a lot of different animals on our trip. The first one we saw was the pink dolphin. That’s right, a PINK dolphin. They look just like regular dolphins, but their skin looks like light-colored bubble gum. On our second day on the river, we saw a whole pod of them, three adults and two babies all swimming together!
Another animal we saw was the caiman. Caimans are cousins of alligators and crocodiles, and can get to be over 20 feet long! We went hunting for them in our canoes, but we only found babies. They were about 3 months old and looked just like tiny alligators. I even got to hold one! She was only a foot long, and stayed very still while we held her and took pictures. I bet you didn’t know that most caimans are girls. This is because what decides whether the caiman are boys or girls is the temperature! If the temperature is below 100 degrees, there are mostly boy caiman. But it gets very hot in the Amazon- over 100 degrees- so almost all the baby caimans are girls!
We also went fishing for piranhas! Usually when you go fishing, you bait your fishing hook with a worm. For piranhas, we baited our hooks with beef! That’s right, to catch piranhas, you have to use a burger as bait. It was tough to catch them; they were very sneaky and would eat the meat off your hook before you even had time to reel them in. We finally caught one, and it had VERY sharp teeth! It was about the size of my hand, with pretty blue-black scales.
There was one animal we didn’t see, but we could sure hear! In the jungle, there are howler monkeys. These monkeys are called howler monkeys because- you guessed it- they can yell really loudly! They hang out in big groups and talk to each other by whooping and grunting, and you can hear them from very far away.
While we were in the jungle, we also saw HUGE ants. These ants had to have been at least 10x the size of the ants you see at home. We saw three different kinds. There were really big black ants that were not dangerous, and another big brown ant called “24-hour ant” because if it bit you, it would hurt (A LOT) for a whole day! We also saw big red ants carrying whole flower petals back into their hills. Those ants were seriously strong.
Finally, my favorite animal: a frog. But these were not just any frogs. These frogs were super duper tiny! They were so small that at first we thought they were bugs! They would hop around on the beach right next to where the water met the sand, and they were only the size of my pinkie nail. They had the same color skin as the sand, so they could blend in. The ability to blend in with what’s around you is called camouflage.
In the Amazon, frogs have to be able to protect themselves from predators (the other animals that want to eat them). Because these little frogs had camouflage, it is harder for predators to find them. Some other Amazon frogs are really bright colors! But these are the dangerous frogs. These frogs are usually poisonous, and use their bright colored outsides to warn predators to stay away!
I saved my least favorite animal for last. It was really cool looking, but it was a HUGE spider, and I am scared of spiders. I’m not sure what type of spider it was, but it had big reddish-brown legs and a bright yellow and black body. I took a picture of it and then stayed far away, because just like frogs, if a spider has a bright-colored body, it is probably poisonous.
Those were the animals I saw (or heard) in the Amazon. Next time, I will tell you about all the cool plants!
9.02.2008
Pirates In the Caribbean
Hello, adventurers!
There aren’t really any Pirates, but I am finally on the ship, and we are in the Caribbean! We are on our way to Salvador, Brazil (the Brazilians spell it “Brasil”), the 3rd largest city in the entire country! From there, I’m going to fly to Manaus and spend three days exploring the Amazon rainforest. Did you know that the Amazon makes 20% of all the oxygen in the world? That means that when you breathe five times, one of those breaths is from the rainforest!
Right now, our ship is sailing along the coast of South America. Yesterday, we stopped for gas in Puerto Rico. Putting gas in a ship as big as the Explorer took all day! We had a great view off our sun deck on top of the ship.
Puerto Rico is actually a “territory” of the United States. That means that Puerto Rico is part of the USA, but isn’t a state; just a little country of its own that follows some of our rules.
We also passed by the island of Martinique, in the Caribbean Sea.
Even though Martinique is close to the Bahamas and Puerto Rico, it is actually part of France! Most people on Martinique speak French, or their own special island language called Creole, which is a little bit like French and African languages combined.
Next time I write to you, I will have some great stories from Salvador, Brasil and the Amazon rainforest!
There aren’t really any Pirates, but I am finally on the ship, and we are in the Caribbean! We are on our way to Salvador, Brazil (the Brazilians spell it “Brasil”), the 3rd largest city in the entire country! From there, I’m going to fly to Manaus and spend three days exploring the Amazon rainforest. Did you know that the Amazon makes 20% of all the oxygen in the world? That means that when you breathe five times, one of those breaths is from the rainforest!
Right now, our ship is sailing along the coast of South America. Yesterday, we stopped for gas in Puerto Rico. Putting gas in a ship as big as the Explorer took all day! We had a great view off our sun deck on top of the ship.
Puerto Rico is actually a “territory” of the United States. That means that Puerto Rico is part of the USA, but isn’t a state; just a little country of its own that follows some of our rules.
We also passed by the island of Martinique, in the Caribbean Sea.
Even though Martinique is close to the Bahamas and Puerto Rico, it is actually part of France! Most people on Martinique speak French, or their own special island language called Creole, which is a little bit like French and African languages combined.
Next time I write to you, I will have some great stories from Salvador, Brasil and the Amazon rainforest!
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