In Which I Learn the Glory of Ficus

Yesterday I climbed up a huge strangler fig (ficus). A ficus is a vine that climbs down from a tree from the top of a tree and strangles it. The tree beneath dies and rots away leaving a hollow tube of vines that are awesome to climb. I climbed up the hollow tube and looked out the holes. I climbed up such a high strangler fig that when I looked out the hole I was looking down on the canopy of the forest. I picked a leaf from way up there that I am pressing in a book.

I also learned about the most venomous spider in the world, the Brazilian Wandering Spider. When it gets ready to fight it puts its front forelegs together like its doing karate. My dad's friend Geoff made a video of one attacking his flip flop. It's on Youtube and I put the link in this blog. You can hear Geoff's girlfriend in the background saying "no, no, mi amor!" Notice the ant calmly walking by.



We went on a walk in the rainforest that was mostly skybridges which are long swaying bridges that go through the canopy. It was an amazing sight to look down. We tried so hard to see sloths but we didn't see any. I bet we passed five of them without knowing it! We did see lots of hummingbirds.