Introduction 2

You are a young, inexperienced biologist working the heart of the Amazon rainforest. It has always been your childhood dream to explore the unseen corners of this immense jungle. As you hear overhead monkeys howling battle cries and tropical birds cawing to their lovers, you look around the spot the path has taken you to. You are in a relatively clear area amidst nearly impenetrable underbrush all around you. The stifling heat and the constant humidity have you to rest and guzzle what was almost all of your water. You kick yourself for not packing for a longer day. You know you should start looking for new species of plants to collect, or you might be to leave empty-handed. However, you don’t think your chances of finding anything exciting this close to camp are very good.
The path continues deeper into the woods. You may have a better chance of finding new species of plants if you go deeper, but the woods seem even thicker that way. You hear the soft sound of water in the distance. Perhaps it would be good to fill your water bottles, and maybe you could even catalogue some of the aquatic plants. Or you could stay put; after all, there are some flowers around you here that might warrant some closer inspection.