Once upon a time, an oh so very young Jack would spend hours creating imaginary animals. A dark blue creature with the head of a lion, wings of an eagle, feet of an elephant. You get the picture. When we heard that fabled pink dolphins swim the Amazon it seemed so Jack. We had to see for ourselves. I tried to manage his expectations… there is a reason things are referred to a mythical. We hopped on a little boat and headed to Peru. Continue reading
“You never took us to Disney land” my kids complain whenever we fight. What a bad mother I have been. “But you got to swing, Tarzan style, on a vine in a real jungle” I can now snap back, at least at Jack. I thought I’d been to the jungle before. But, once I got to the Amazon I knew everything before this was just jungle lite. I had never seen anything as dense, tangled and creature filled. Jack and I spent many wonderful hours hiking, wading and slipping through the rainforest, carefully following our machete-wielding guide. Continue reading
Seems gap years are absolutely not for hanging out with your mother. So I was particularly pleased when Jack agreed to spend two weeks of his surprisingly action packed year traveling with me. We met in Bogota. Then we headed 1000 km south to the small town of Leticia right where Brazil, Peru and Colombia meet. A two-hour boat ride up the Amazon later we pulled up to Calanoa, a tiny jungle lodge in the middle of nowhere. We had found heaven. Continue reading
