Jungle stuff

I thought this mushroomy stuff was cool, so I snapped a picture.  After I got home from my trip to Panama, Thomas looked at my pictures before I did. While browsing he asked me to come over and see if I could find the lizard in the picture.  I had no idea there was a lizard in the picture.  This sums up the jungle/rainforest.  You don't even know half of the creepy, crawly things all around you, waiting to attack, poison, or frighten you to death.  Here is a tiny fraction of what I saw at the Gamboa Rainforest Reserve in Panama.

 This little guy deserves two pictures.  If you touch one of it's little spines, it will poison you.

pretty leaf canopy

 funghi

 I need a macro lens to do the little critters justice.  

photo courtesy of Tom

The little pieces of leaves on the tree trunk you see here were cut off by leaf cutter ants. (if this were a video, the pieces would be moving) They hike up the tree, cut off a little piece of a leaf, march down with their bounty, and take it home where they add it to their compost pile, which becomes a nest.  We saw little caravans of these ants everywhere!  

This video captures the time when I thought I would pee my pants out of sheer fright.  The scary monkeys in the Wizard of Oz kept coming to mind. 

This was the only thing in the jungle that didn't skeeve me out.  Actually, I did see a Toucan and of course, my camera wasn't ready.  I was too dazzled by how cool it was.