In the jungle

Shortly after breakfast, we went on our first walk into the jungle.We were 4 people - The guide, Lia, me and Robert, the Polish guy who travelled with us. Anita decided to sleep in and Katie (Robert's girlfriend) was not feeling well. It was raining.


It was funt o find ouselves right in the middle of the jungle. Trees everywhere, not a sign of civilization anywhere. All the trees looking the same, all the tracks seemed to take us to the same places.
While we walked, Kennedy, our guide, was explaining everything around us:

The bark of this tree here is used to treat diarrhea. The natives boil the bark and drink it. This other leave here is the natural Vicks. The other plant over there is used against snake bite, this one is for maaria, and if you cut this trunk, you can get drinkable water...

We also found a funny kind of ant that lives in a specific tree and acts as a natural insect repellent. It works like this:

You place your hand inside the ant's home - they will all crawl onto your hands and arms. Then they bite you, and you keep quiet, letting more and more ants walk all over you. When your arm and hand is all covered in ants, you scrub them into your skin. Yep, I am not joking. You simply squash hundreds of stinky ants into your body and the smell repels other insects ( and probably will also repel other people too)
After thinking for a little while, I found it all very logical. The poor insects that would love to take some of your blood for dinner can smell the massacre in your body and avoid getting close to you, thinking they will be next.
Observing the jungle closely, Lia and I come to some important conclusions:

In the jungle, all leaves can be boiled to produce medicine against malaria and/or diarrhea.
All trees look alike, and although they are different, most of them serve the same purpose ( anti malaria and diarrhea)

There are no animals in the Amazon jungle. We saw none. Ok, I lie. We saw a micro frog. (When I mentioned it, the guide told us that 80% of the animals are nocturnal, and because the forest is so dense,  we can only see animals that are right in front of us - and he added: animals are not stupid to parade in front of humans)