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Amber of Mars Confectionery* 橘小姐面包店 * November 16 The Child In USprasanna vadanaaM saubhaagyadaaM
bhaagyadaaM
Turn around and smell what you don't seeWho is of smiling face, bestower of all fortunes, hastaabhyaaM abhayapradaaM whose hands are ready to rescue anyone from fear, maNigaNair- naanaavidhair-bhuushhitaaM who is adorned by various ornaments with precious stones Find the truth in you. Find the Child in you. I am a big fan of Enigma. Close your eyes ... it is so clear Here's the mirror, behind there is a screen On both ways you can get in. Don't think twice before you listen to your heart, Follow the trace for a new start. What you need and everything you'll feel Is just a question of the deal. In the eye of storm you'll see a lonely dove The experience of survival is the key To the gravity of love. "O Fortuna velut Luna" [Whispers:] [Woman :] The path of excess leads to the tower of Wisdom [Man :] The path of excess leads to the tower of Wisdom Try to think about it... That's the chance to live your life and discover What it is, what's the gravity of love "O Fortuna velut Luna" Look around just people, can you hear their voice Find the one who'll guide you to the limits of your choice. But if you're in the eye of storm Just think of the lonely dove The experience of survival is the key To the gravity of love. November 02 Eso es una bromaI am not going to trust anyone any more
but I shall first get to better terms with myself July 27 COLOURS OF AMAZON - photo story!
Rio AMAZONAS, always dashing forward, unmindful of the past. I chose a window seat to view how AMAZON river looked like from above. Then just like magic, we landed in the middle of the jungle! It is a minuscule airport with only 2 boarding gates.
Then we stolled in the city of IQUITOS, largest city impossible to access by car.
The next morning, we met our guide Alejandro, then on a powerboat we began the journey in the rainforest of Amazon. we then reached our lodge in the jungle,by the side of Sinchicuy river, a tributary of Amazon. the lodge is a more comfortable option than camping; but still you wouldnt expect much. it is a semi-open air wooden house, the roof laid with some kind of leaves. there is no electricity and water is directly pumped from the river, other than that the rooms are adequately furnished and there is even a bar in the lodge. they hang bunches of bananas outside to attract monkeys, and some monkeys did come and discover this paradise where there is free flow of bananas and they claimed themselves permanent residents here. and we had two giant parrots too.
- Visit of the tribes -
Nowadays most tribes are civilised and speak a little spanish. we visited the Yagua tribe, they are famous for their blowgun. we have seen it many times in movies, some one walking in the jungle then suddenly get shot by poisonous darts! this simple and powerful hunting tool really exist and i have tried it out:) it works really well.
A visit to a Shaman has been equally impressive. A Shaman is a local herbalist-cum-doctor, he uses various types of herbs available in the jungle to cure diseases. I am not sure whether i had remembered the names of the plants correctly:
AYAWASCA - a plant which causes vivid hallucinations. people are said to see beautiful things, sometimes they think they have seen the truth of the universe... and its medicinal properties made a very important prescription on the Shaman´s list.
Uña de Gato (Cat´s Claw) - from what the Shaman said, this plant seems to cure everything.
Sour Cane - attention it is not SUGAR CANE! the sour cane tastes really nice, not to mention its healing properties.
- FLORA and FAUNA -
above is my shoe on the muddy trail...
GUABA the ice-cream bean
The most KIASU bean in the world - before they even fall on the ground, they ve already have a head-start
Squeezing sugar-cane juice
The three-toed sloth - that is a good name. video-ing him is wasting away my memory card! maybe their ancestors fed on some narcotic leaves and sabotaged their offsprings to perpetrual stupor. i watched him for 10mins and he didint even turn his head. books about wildlife said that ´ two-toed sloth when cornered can be very aggressive.´ i wonder how aggressive can they be when they are so slow...
A green parrot! well-camouflaged among the leaves.
MATA-MATA the river turtle
In amazon it rains almost everyday; when we are in the wildlife sanctuary suddenly came a thunderstorm, so we hurried back to the lodge. it is already late afternoon and in a place without electricity, it was alr getting very dark, and the lodge is dimly lit by kerosene lamps. I asked for ´typical drinks´ in the bar, and this is what we had:
cocktail of Uña de Gato (cat´s claw) and CHUCHUHUASA Sour, both are made from medicinal plants and are supposed to have magical healing properties. It tasted really good. when i was sipping my cocktail , Alejandro, our guide, brought out his guitar and started singing. everybody listend and clapped with the rythme. it felt totoally magical, admist dense jungle in a shabby wooden house with little liquor and people singing. whats more, the staff at the lodge are very friendly and approachable, although their english is limited and my spanish is limited we talked and had a good time.
AMAZON - continued
On the second day of our trip we went further upstream to the deeper jungle.
beautiful YANAYACU River
-BIRD WATCH-
As we canoed on Yanayacu river, we were fortunate enough to spot some of the inhabitants - colorful and cute birds. filming them was hard though and required luck and substantial zoom lenses...
Blue Amazon KING FISHER (maybe not very visible in this photo) - a petit agile predator , always swiftly flying across the river to scan for food
birds by the river side... however i forgot their names
on the tree top...
- Go Fishing Piranhas! -
i have always had the impression that piranhas ( SHI REN YU) are such fierce predators that they can devour a cattle (who unfortunately fall into water) in minutes!
however in fact in spite of their aggressiveness they are not so dangerous after all, in seasons when preys are scarce they will also be vegetarians for a while. there are plenty of piranhas in Yanayacu river (and in every other river in amazon area), and you can even swim with them :)
now lets go fish piranhas then! they are a rare delicacy that this may be your one and last chance to taste them
now the piranhas had become dinner! and our dining table lit by oil lamps ( no electricity in the jungle)
- Searching pink dolphins -
before i came i didnt know that there exist freshwater dolphins... ignorant me
the amazon river pink dolphins might be the cutest of all rare species of freshwater dolphins
but observing them isnt easy. we followed them for three days, the first day we were not particularly lucky. naughty dolphins always liked to play tricks with you. however on the second day we met a group of them, a few baby grey dolphins are also among them. They appeared to be very happy that day, flipped over river surface, splashed water, flaunted their pink fins, chased fishes and giggled... and us , struck by awe, hurried to follow their erratic path and tried to photograph them (futile attempts... but i did manage to film a short video)
waiting for dolphins
thanks to these playful dolphins, we saw a beautiful sunset on amazon river while following them
- RAINFOREST at night-
A night of the rainforest is not to be missed... we canoed at night in yanayacu river , i d say i had a RP burst for having chosen the right time to come to amazon - it was mid-july and we had a FULL moon, and the constellation is clearly visible. It was BEAUTIFUL. there was no artificial lighting and no artificial sound. we stopped to listen to the symphony of the jungle - birds , crickets, owls, insects...
i cant show any nice photos though (not enough lighting), dommage. but a night of amazon is totally MAGICAL.
maybe only this one. not well-taken, the moon was much brighter.
-trekking in primary forest -
I expected to see more flora than fauna - observing mammals is extremely hard, but we were lucky enough to spot a couple of beautiful butterflies.
this is a surreal picture of Uña de Gato
the bright red colour suggests that it is a poisonous tree
a giant tree (but only a baby !)
well here comes a bigger one!
this is how to hydrate yourself in the jungle
a huge nest of red termites.
DOnt run away** do you still remember in Indiana Jones episode 4 , the scene that people yelled helplessly and devoured by red termites in seconds (leaving only the skeleton)?
this is not the movie though, in reality this kind of red termite are quite benign. in fact Alejandro has cut the nest open with a knife and rubbed the termites on the arm - the fomic acid it contains is a natural mosquito repellent
giant water lilies ( more than 1m in diameter). there is a white Caiman (crocodile) in this pond but he didnt like sunshine.
people say that in this swamp lives a white Caiman of 13m...
- the villages -
the chickens liked me...
ant-eater! In deeper amazon ant-eaters can grow to the size of a bear
baby parrots! oh you like my shoes huh?
a yellow boa... he is not aggressive. he only likes to curl himself...
Caiman hatchery
skull of a giant caiman
piggie!
- delicacies -
In Bellavista, we searched for the notorious BUG KEBAB. Alejandro said they will roast ant queens on a stick. i was very much insterested to see how an ant queen looked like. however we didnt find ant queen but his fat juicy lavae:
EAT me! i am juicy!
so i decided to be more adventuous and gave it a bite! only one is enough
now crocodile is also on the dining table
turtle eggs...
April 17 .there you walked in the fields of dandelion
watching their feathered seeds blown away unnoticed
were they as helpless as you were |
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