In March, Gonza and I had the opportunity to visit Cuyabeno, a wildlife preserve in the Amazon. It involved a seven hour bus ride, two more hours in a car, and two hours in a motorized canoe to arrive at the lodge. There was no cell service, electricity from solar panels, and plenty of hammocks. We saw monkeys, a sloth, many insects that looked like they were straight out of a sci fi book, ants that indigenous people used as stitches, parrots, pink dolphins, a caiman, and more. We swam in the Amazon. We boated in absolute darkness back from a lagoon one evening guided just by the light of the moon. We hiked through a gaseous swamp. I did headstands on a board in the lagoon at dusk. Gonza ate ants that are lemon-flavored. It rained and the ground beneath our lodge became alive with little fish that we saw swimming on what had just the day before been grass. It was a marvelous adventure of a lifetime, and I’m so grateful to Gonza for helping me make this dream happen and sharing it with me.
Elizabeth Seeks 