When I was a child I didn’t need many excuses to explore the vast Sonoran Desert around my home in Tucson, Arizona. Family camping trips in the area, boy scout jamborees, or just the time it took me to ride my bicycle home from school every afternoon, were all great ways to look for and find critters of all shapes and sizes. My mother would simply roll her eyes and worry a little whenever I came home with my latest treasure, some wild thing that I would keep for a short while as a pet before returning it to its home in the desert. Snakes and lizards (including a couple different Gila monsters and even venomous snakes), spade-foot toads and canyon tree frogs, and the occasional horned toad and tarantula were all part of my early menagerie.
Oh to have grown up in the Amazon rain forest! This morning I met an 11 year-old version of my younger self in the village of San Francisco. Pedro Nasate is totally enamored of seemingly all the wildlife to be found here near his village. How could life be any better for a kid looking for adventure and critters along the way? With over 380 species of reptiles, 430 species of amphibians, 600 species of mammals, 1,500 species of birds, and a whopping 2.5 million (and counting) insects this place is a wonderland for a youngster with a curious mind and quick hands and feet.
Pedro was only too happy to show me his brown-throated three-toed sloth as well as his baby black caiman, Amazon River turtle, monk saki monkey, and a blue-winged parakeet. After photographing all of his current critters, I noticed while walking around San Francisco I was surrounded by kids with their own wild pets on display. Another young sloth, several parakeets, and many lizards were all proffered when I enquired of youngsters if they had any animal friends!
Later in the afternoon, exploring Clavero Lake, I contemplated the reason that so many of us travel to such remote places to see and discover for ourselves all the wonders of such a unique area. I like to think that the answer lies in the same impulse that drives kids in tiny San Francisco to go out into the rain forest to find interesting animals to keep for a while, study, then let loose again back to their homes. Could it be simply a child-like wonder of the unknown, the un-experienced, and the unexpected? To go and see, to immerse ourselves into the great outdoors, to simply experience firsthand all that we can fit into our time here on this planet?
As I gather my years I hope to never lose that inner child-like curiosity. I hope to Always Wonder. Like so many of you reading these words, I hope to travel as far as I can, as often as I can, for as long as I can. Hope to see you out there!
