Questions...

We've gotten some questions on the blog, so will answer them now...

The black and brown animal in the photo is a 3 toed sloth - the only type of sloth they have in this part of the Amazon. There are other kinds of sloths, but these are smaller than many of those. They spent most of their time in the trees.

The dolphins are fresh water dolphins, different than the ocean dolphins that most people know. They are completely harmless to people, but over the years, they have become a superstition and parts of legends so they are regarded as bad luck and are avoided. Generally, this is probably a good thing for the dolphins as they have not ended up being used for food and oil as the manatee have. The manatee species here is also a freshwater species, different than their ocean going counterparts that can be seen (and hit by boats) in Florida among other places. These are completely harmless and actually provide a vital function to the river by eating huge amounts of vegetation that would otherwise clog up small tributaries. They have been hunted to very low numbers (nobody really knows how low since they are extremely difficult to track - as is anything in that brown/black water). Unfortunately, no myths have developed around the manatee.

I'm not sure it's been mentioned so far, but we are traveling on this trip with friends we met actually on the last trip in Canada, Erin and Bill from Washington, D.C. (or close to it). They have traveled extensively throughout the world, probably more than we have, and have been great to travel with. They also both enjoy photography so we spend a lot of time (sometimes with Karen and our guide standing there looking bored or confused) trying to get good and interesting images.