asakiyume | Back from the Amazon

I have so much in my head that the words pile up behind... my mouth? or my typing fingers? jostling to be first to come out. So before I try to say anything, I'll just share two clusters of photos, first an assortment of four I shared on Facebook (but you guys here get more context!)

In general whenever I saw a plant that interested me, I asked what it was and scribbled down notes. But this one I just saw and snapped a picture of because it was so pretty... and I didn't ask what it was. ETA:

amaebi suggests it's likely an ismene, called variously a kind of spider lily or "Peruvian daffodil."(You can click through any of these to see them bigger.) Further ID suggests it is officially "Amazon lily, Urceolina amazonica".

This is me helping with fariña roasting! What a dream come true! I'll have more photos when I do a post about this day.

This is a shot from the dock of the mixed-ethnicity Indigenous community of Mocagua, a community of 800 people. I liked the kid, just entertaining himself on the small boat. The father of the family that runs the lodging where I stayed is involved in the Organización Nacional Indígena de Colombia (National Indigenous Organization of Colombia, a self-governance body).

And here is a banyan in the flooded forest, the part of the rain forest that the Amazon rises up and covers each year. So architectural!

And here is a lower-water, higher-water comparison. The first photo is one I took in July, when we went when the water was low, but not as low as it gets. The second is a photo in the same spot that I took this trip. I thought March was the highest-level time, but it turn out that's in April. So this is high--but not as high as it gets!

....lower