Flashback Friday: 2004

This is for you, Meli! Happy Flashback Friday. Welcome to March 2004. I was in Brazil, the Pantanal, a tropical wetland. I took this while riding in the back of a truck on a "safari" of sorts. We stopped and this native hyacinth macaw flew down and landed on the roof of the truck. I guess the parrot was accustomed to travelers in these parts. He walked right up to me, so I snapped a photo. The people in the background were my Israeli friends that I made while on this leg of my journey. I wish I could remember their names...I wonder what they're up to. They had all recently served their mandatory military duty and were on an around-the-world travel adventure, a very common custom in both their culture and a lot of European cultures.