Gate of the Sun - Evan's Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia - Amazon Wildlife and Finding the Larvae

Evan's Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia

Amazon Wildlife...
and Finding the Larvae

Chumpi was our Achuar guide.
He knew where to find the larvae for me.
He really knew the forest and wildlife!

When I went to the jungle I wanted to eat some larvae so I asked our guide Chumpi. He found some for me when we went on a walk in the forest. The Achuar people cut down palm trees and the beetles lay their eggs in the rotting wood. Later, they harvest the beetle larvae and eat them. They usually cook them, but some people eat them raw! We ate the cooked ones...	© Jeff Waugh Delicious and crunchy larvae
At night we went out to see caiman. We saw three of them. One was a white dwarf caiman. I have seen them only one other time in the Amazon.	© Jeff Waugh Black Caiman of Kapawi
When we went on a night walk we saw some cool lizards. We also saw a snake. It was black with white stripes. We did not know if it was poisonous or not. Everyone kept their distance just to be sure. We also saw a BIG gecko on one of the signs.	© Jeff Waugh One of the night lizards...
We saw a leaf insect. It looked like a leaf! There were stick insects - walking sticks and jumping sticks and flying sticks. The flying sticks were poisonous! I couldn't believe all the insects we saw at night! And the sounds...	© Jeff Waugh and one of the many leaf insects

Evan's Video Theater

School Notes...
"The Achuar live in perfect harmony with their environment, where all animals and plants have human-like attributes with a soul and an independent life. According to the Achuar every plant or animal has its own language and some elements of this language can be understood by the Achuar.

The rain forest doesn't possess any secrets for these people. They know every type of tree and every animal species. They know where to fish, how to hunt and when to sow their crops. The forest is their nourishing mother."

Evan's Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia