Swimming in a lake (Sandoval) that is infested with piranha, caiman, electric eels, carniverous otters, and (worst of all) the candiru (look it up).
Rio Madre de Dios -- from the air. Note the oxbow lake. Such lakes have clearer water, and unique wildlife.
A small isolated town on the headwaters of the Amazon. Virtually inaccessible by road, but not by internet.
Fruit and vegetables available at the market in Puerto Maldonado.
Children at the market. Tourists are rare in this town, so we were not treated as special -- not even as foreign.
Typical scene of shores of the Rio Madre de Dios. The bank shows how high the water rises when it floods.
My daughter Melinda with a strangler vine that has overwhelmed its host tree.
Flower in the jungle.
Tree with fruits.
Making our way through the Sandoval swamp.
The edge of the swamp.
The shoreline at the oxbow Lago Sandoval.
Turtles in a typical pose on a fallen log.
Palm trees on Lago Sandoval.
The two dark spots in the middle are howler monkeys. There was poor light (it was late in the evening) and these were the only photos I got of the red howlers.
Sunset on Lago Sandoval.
Squirrel monkey walking along a vine.
Hoapsin bird. Beautiful, and common on oxbow lakes.
Early morning mist on Lago Sandoval.
Brown Capucin monkies in a palm tree.
Bats, in typical evening pose, upside-down on a tree.
Lago Sandoval, from the lodge. Most of the visible forest is secondary growth, although there is a lot of primary growth behind the lodge.
Heliconia and some beetles. Much of the diversity of the rainforest is in insects.
Me (Rich Muller) in front of the "walking tree" which can move many centimeters per year by extending roots.
This ant had a nasty bite. It is only 1.5 inches long.
Melinda smelling the quinine bark.
Capok in the trees.
Jose Antonio, our naturalist-guide, paddling the catamaran along with Elizabeth.
Note the tarantula on the tree trunk.
Back though the swamp.