So, what’s your Amazon power animal? This sounds like one of those Facebook surveys doesn’t it? Like, “what city should you live in? What colour are you? If you were a tree, which one would you be?” So, before FB, there was the Amazon Jungle, and many tribes within it. And, apparently, just by answering a few simple questions, local tour guides from these tribes can tell you what your Amazon spirit power animal is. Yay! We can finally know – are you agro alligator, cheeky monkey or sneaky slimy anaconda? Colourful toucan perhaps, or my personal favourite power animal – the three-toed tree sloth?

 

Having just spent 5 days hacking our way through jungle vines and alligator invested waters, I would say I am definitely the sloth. I much preferred the laying around in hammocks day dreaming and reading rather than the chest-high-swamp-trekking. I’m sure a lot of you would be with me on this one. A guide from another group agreed with my self-assessment of me as a sloth, which was ‘proven’ through a fool proof power-animal-questioning tool.

 

Are you ready for the fool proof question? You too can discover your power animal! Ok, so imagine you are in the jungle (insert humidity, insects, canoe rides, leeches, amazingly tall trees, screeching birds, tree-swinging monkeys etc etc), and you are walking (hacking) your way through it when you reach a brick wall. Looking both ways you can’t see the end of the wall, and looking up you can’t see the top. After some exploration of the wall you confirm that there’s no way around it or over it. What do you do?

 

Ok…… So what did you say you would do? Share it with the person next to you (especially if you are reading this on the bus or train). Your answer to this question will reveal your power animal!! It’s that easy. For example, if you said you would bash through it, this indicates you like changes in life and you are a…. Butterfly 🙂 If you said you wouldn’t do anything and remain on your side of the wall, then welcome to the kingdom of sloths!! For every other response there is a power animal.

 

This fun tone turned a little more serious when we went to visit the local shaman, as you do. It soon became obvious how genuine their belief in the animal spirit world is. Our crazy, joking, boat-rocking guide suddenly spoke seriously about the process which the shaman goes through in accessing the animal spirits while healing others. Not an eye flinch between them when speaking about chugging down the hallucinogenic healing plant Ayahuasca and communing with the jungle animals to get their assistance in removing the dark energies from the person the shaman was trying to heal.

 

Being in the jungle it made sense to me too…the animals rule this huge sprawling dominating jungle. Even while lying in my hammock they were never out of swat-distance or ear shot – birds screeching, monkeys hooning past. The animals are truly kings there and we are the town jesters surviving our brief moment of wilderness living. The tribes who live there do so with respect for the animals and their spirits.

 

If I lived there (never happening by the way) the first thing to do would be to seek the animals’ permission; throw some Ayahuasca down and get in touch with those Amazon animal spirits, ’cause you gotta make friends with the locals right.

 

So, I’m happily getting used to my sloth-power, finding the power in stillness and slowness. What do you think is your Amazon power animal?