A different way of life!✌🏻️

As expected, my heart was smiling all day long!💓 We started with 6am birding - apparently, watching the sunrise from a boat on the Amazon River is something teenagers will get out of bed for...first hour at Mountain Pointe High School, not so much.😳 With our experience this morning, Wildlifing is a much better title.  We saw lazy sloths, jumping fish, 8 legged freaks and a few birds flying around. Coupled with a picturesque sunrise and Rainforest stories from the guides, the kids easily started to fall in love with the Amazon. 

Our morning continued with an overview of Yagua culture and lifestyle, presented at our lodge by the natives themselves. The students had the opportunity to paddle a dug out canoe, perform native dances, sample local foods and drinks, build a thatched roof, experiment with natural dyes from plants, play with a machete😳 and shoot a Blowgun!🎯 They went all Yagua in - so much so that I thought I was going to have to institute a dress code for the rest of the trip!😁 After lunch, they visited the Yagua Trading Center and picked up a boatload (literally) of souvenirs - all handmade in the Amazon.  Some may say that teenagers are close minded to things they don't know - they haven't met the #PeruCrew (the official Jungle hashtag)! They shook the hands of the Yagua presenters, learned how to say thank you in their native tongue, willingly volunteered to dance/paint their faces/try new foods - all with a smile on their face! They're not afraid of different - they embrace it (real world Mp style)! It didn't even cross their minds to be or do anything else, and everyone affiliated with these students (family, friends, MP) should be bursting with pride right now, just like I am! We have a community service day with the Yagua soon - better get the box of tissues out now for those happy heart tears!😂 

We also found time to meet with Dr. Linnea Smith today. She is the American doctor from Wisconsin who came on a trip similar to mine, fell in love with the magic of the Jungle and never looked back...sound familiar?✌🏻️ She spoke with them about healthcare in the Amazon, the differences in America and perspective. To be wealthy means many things, but to the doctor, it's having clean drinking water, a plumbing system and a little bit of perspective. My trip to the Jungle put my world in focus. The reflection time we had with the students at the end of today showed me this trip is already helping them find their own pair of glasses. 👓🌎 

We finished with a very brave night hike that brought out the Indiana Jones hiding inside all 16 kids - and ended with a glowing red eyed...moth? Good thing the guides have our back! The kids continue to amaze and inspire me with every activity we do. Tomorrow, I'm certain will be just as Oscar worthy with a visit to the Shaman and more wildlifing! Thank you to everyone who's following our Jungle journey and commenting/sharing my thoughts - the #perucrew appreciates it more than you know! We are moving to a lodge with weaker Jungle wifi and a collection of monkeys known to chew up in bandwidth.🙊 If the lines go dark, please wait patiently - the day tripping resort of Ceiba Tops is on the horizon and has guaranteed postable wee-fee!📲 Thank you!😍