Meinhardts in Colombia: Amazon Small World, Ecuador

The Amazon isn't all big, Big, BIG. We were intrigued by the small details that we saw. Some, like the glowing red eyes that floated behind us on a night hike, we couldn't photograph. ("Glowing red eyes. That's almost never good.", Skipper)

Without a guide, we would have passed over many creatures that were so very close. The pile of bird poop on the leaf shown here is really a frog. The frog dries itself out, to make its body very thin. Who knew?

Luke is quite skilled at finding critters, small and large. A walking stick makes its way across the forest floor.

This centipede and nearby pill bug are being dragged into an ant colony. I'm betting on the ants.

Here we see two soldiers moving mountains, well, actually a tree. Luke and I saw this colony stripping a tree piece by piece and dragging it down a hole. Dawn until dusk, day after day, they cut it apart and hauled it about 75' to their hole.

Some displays last only a few hours. This white lace mushroom rises, spreads, then withers all in only 24 hours. (Phallus indusiatus. We have a better photo than Wikipedia, don't you think?)

We found other mushrooms fascinating. Here are some our of favorites. (The short 'macro' camera lens really helped bring some details into focus. It has a focal distance of about 3 inches.)

This specimen is one of hundreds growing from a tree trunk.

Reptiles and amphibians were out there, but sharp eyes were required to spot them.

The variety of plant shapes and their rhythms was inspiring.

Moths and butterflies were beautiful, but you can't photograph them in flight (When they are in flight, you can see the topside of their wings). Here we see two using their long proboscis to eat.

This "owl eye" moth presents a good example of mimicry. (As a footnote from the Galapagos trip, the existence of mimicry is one of the best examples of an argument supporting natural selection. We won't cover the inescapable logic here.)

Of course, before there's a moth or butterfly, there's a caterpillar.
If one look doesn't give you the hint, Don't Touch!

Small doesn't always mean insect. Here we found seven sharp-nosed bats lined up under the thick branch in the photo below. Biggest on the left, smallest to the rear of the line on the right.

Green walking stick

Dragon fly with crimson body

The photographers of the tarantulas, large wolf spiders and scorpion spiders didn't want to get too close to their subjects, so instead here's a cutey that wasn't as threatening.