The Adventures of Rob & Lauren

I can’t believe how many things we were able to do when we visited the jungle! More than that, I can’t believe how incredibly photogenic everything was. Even a short walk out your door provided some incredible photographic opportunities! Sitting here in winter wonderland Edmonton, I definitely miss that!

These palm trees create this shape in a really awesome way. They first grow the new leaves straight up, and then as those slowly age they droop lower and lower, until they die, hang straight down, and eventually fall. It’s a continuos cycle. Very cool. 

We walked through a small village to see our sugar cane demonstration, and as always I loved taking shots of all the adorable kids. 

Doesn’t this chicken have the best colors ever? Incredible!

So, the purpose of all of this strolling was to witness a demonstration of how the juice is extracted from a piece of sugar cane. They have this pretty hardcore piece of wood, and through the strength of a lever, crush the cane bit by bit, releasing the juice. 

It took quite a bit of muscle to break that cane down. 

And then, in the really neat finale, the lady twisted the mashed up cane really tight, and a whole slew of juice poured out! Now, I’m sure you’re wondering, what was the point of all this? Well, the sugar cane juice by itself is very delicious! But you can leave it to ferment and it turns into a form of rum! We tried some that had fermented for a couple days and developed an alcohol content similar to beer. It was still yellow, and tasted pretty nice. Then we tried one that had been fermented for a week, and was more along the alcohol content of rum. It was clear, had quite the kick, but was delicious! If I lived here, I’d totally make myself some awesome homemade sugar cane rum!

I was called upon to try my hand at it. It definitely was a lot harder than she made it look! I tried my best, but didn’t get near as much juice out of it!

Rob, in the meantime, found a couple turtles to play with!

So tiny!

And, as always, managed to delight the kids by taking their portrait with his Instax!

Loved this cute little boy and his turtles!

On our walk back, I again found myself drawn to taking portraits of the people we passed. This little guy was playing hide-and-seek I think! What a mischievous little grin!

And this gentlemen had such a wonderful face I couldn’t resist asking to take his portrait as well!

These kids had just come back from a quick dip in the river.

We then hopped back in our boat to sit on the river and enjoy a sunset. I loved the light playing on the water.

And the birds flying above the clouds. What a magical day!