9781422279175

introduction INTRODUCTION

Imagine if you were dropped into the middle of a rainforest. A spider as big as a baseball scurries near your feet. Huge, col- orful birds fly over your head. The ear-shat- tering howls of monkeys make you think you are most certainly not welcome here. But that green anaconda over there, her long, thick long body entwined in the branches of a tree, doesn’t seem to mind your presence. She might invite you to come in just a little closer, for a hug . . . . If you can escape the snake and ignore the monkeys (like the rare uakari, pictured at left), the amount to explore here is mind-bog- gling—but you’d better do it fast. By tomor- row, the patch of land you’re standing on

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