After traveling 12 hours overnight and getting into Manaus at 5am, we got into a small passenger van and drove two hours to the Maroaga Cave, in the Amazon Rainforest. We were all fairly exhausted but that also made it fun. We had all started interacting with each other heavily in the last 12 hours, we were walking through inches of mud in the rainforest together, en route to a waterfall and gorgeous cave.
We were making our way, slipping and sliding down the hills and creating some of our first memories together. It was incredibly warm and humid, different from the chilly late February weather we are used to in the Northern hemisphere. But we got down to the cave and it was stunning, gorgeous waterfalls with the most incredible greenery surrounding it. But what I don’t remember capturing in the photo, and maybe it was the pure exhaustion, was this spiny creature lurking in the water of the cave.
We were led into the beginnings of the mouth of the cave, and got to see some of the bats and when I turned around I saw this gorgeous view of the waterfall, the greenery, and just the most authentic view and picturesque Amazon Rainforest photo. I took it, with my feet in the water and didn’t notice anything in the water until I was editing the photos when we got back. I think it would be fascinating to see if this is an undiscovered species…