Rain forest: Lots of plants that are all very green. It rains about once a day, and it's just really humid.

That definition of a rain forest comes from 13-year-old Kirsten Olson, who recently traveled with a group from Indianapolis to see the Amazon rain forest.

Kirsten went with Rick Crosslin, a fourth-grade teacher in Wayne Township, who takes interested students and adults to the rain forest. This year, Crosslin has a trip planned in late October, which is summer in the Amazon.

Y-Press interviewed six of these travelers. Besides Crosslin and Kirsten, there were her brother, John, 16, and father, Dr. John Olson Sr., a physician interested in fish and snakes, as well as John Moore, 19, and his mother, Barbara Reger, a Warren Township science teacher interested in tarantulas.

Crosslin explained that getting to the Amazon rain forest takes some time and energy -- as well as about $2,200. First, the group flew from Miami to Manaus, Brazil, in the middle of the Amazon.

"You leave Indianapolis around 6, 7 in the morning, get to Miami, leave there around 8 at night, get to Manaus at 4 in the morning. You're dead tired, you've been up all night and then you get on the boat just as the sun's coming up," he said.

There are always some surprises upon landing in Manaus.

Canoeing through treetops

"We got off the plane and instantly everybody's glasses fogged up, our cameras fogged up," Crosslin said.

The flooded forest also was a surprise to the group, which spent the entire time in the forest on a boat.

"The Amazon River is just really, really wide. It took forever to cross it. Once we got into the rain forest, it was just amazing," said Moore. "You're seeing a different plant or tree or animal every step you take."

"In the dry season, a little narrow stream courses with broad, muddy banks. During the wet season, the rivers and streams have come up about 20 to 30 feet," added Olson.

"You really know you're in a rain forest when you're canoeing through the treetops."

All of the creatures that live on the ground during the dry season have to head for the treetops in the rainy season. All of the plant life needs to be able to survive three months underwater.

The travelers marveled at the vegetation and animal life.

"I was taking pictures of tarantulas, plants, snakes, monkeys, flowers, bridges. Everything you looked at was so beautiful and so different from Indiana," said Reger.

There were lots of different types of snakes, monkeys, insects, fish and birds, Moore said. "We saw an anaconda when we were in the river, waiting to cross."

One famous occupant of the Amazon was rather scarce during their trip.

"You think you'd see a lot of piranhas, but I only saw one when we went fishing, and I was the only one who caught one," Kirsten said.

Added John: "All those stereotypes of piranha attacks and whatnot didn't really exist. We were swimming on one side of the boat, and the people were pulling piranhas out of the water on the other side of the boat."

The nights brought new opportunities to the travelers. "Nighttime, a whole other range of animals and experiences is available," Olson explained.

Kirsten and her father spent the night in the jungle, sleeping under mosquito netting in hammocks.

"All you could hear around you were frogs. They were so loud that they kept you up. You almost had to shout to the person next to you," she recalled.

And that wasn't all, Olson said. "Early in the morning, the howler monkeys woke up, and they have a very loud call that can be heard for miles."

So what does a howler monkey sound like? "It actually sounds like an airplane flying over, or a truck on 465," Crosslin said.

The sights at night are as remarkable as the sounds.

"Down there, they don't have any light pollution," Reger said. "If you have any interest whatsoever in constellations and looking up at the night sky, it's the neatest experience."

"I could read my book by starlight," Crosslin added.

The bugs will get you

The rain forest holds dangers as well as wonders. Mosquitoes can carry disease, and many creatures are poisonous.

Reger was stung 21 times by bees after the boat hit a branch with a beehive in it. Moore had an unpleasant experience with fire ants.

"We were walking on one of the little islands to get spiders and stuff, and we were walking right on the side of the water because we didn't want to go in because there's a lot of stingrays.

"My legs started to get eaten up by fire ants, and I tried stepping in the water, but when you go into the water, they don't stop biting you. You have to brush them off because they're still biting you in the water," he said. "That wasn't fun."

But there were many more pleasant experiences.

"Something that was really interesting was where the Rio Negro and the Amazon River connect. It's called the wedding of the waters. One is a lot colder than the other, and it stuns a lot of fish. A lot of freshwater dolphins just hang around there; when the fish get stunned, it's easy to eat them. So we saw a lot of dolphins on that part of the trip," said Moore.

Kirsten had two favorite experiences: splashing down a waterfall and seeing the interrelationships of animals.

"There's this place called the tourist trap, and you got to see some caimans and stuff and some monkeys. They had a baby red howler monkey and a woolly monkey, and it was just so neat to see all these animals interacting with each other," she said.

"Every time I think of the rain forest, I just remember the beauty of it, the excitement of it, and when you share an experience that is so unique with people, you build relationships," Reger said.

The travelers are worried about man's relationship to the rain forest.

"I think there's no doubt that humans pose a threat to the rain forest. Development of the internal combustion engine has probably had the greatest effect on the face of the Earth, including the rain forest, because it has allowed such access for people to come into an area and to mine, to cut, to log, or to move things out of there," said Olson.

"It's not just tearing down this much or that much of the rain forest -- they're really hurting it percentage-wise a whole lot more. I think you realize that when you get in and you see that not-indelicate ecosystem that's in there," John said.

Competing interests

The trouble with cutting down the rain forest is not only that those trees are gone, but then the soil washes away, too. Natives of the Amazon, though, often need to do those things to survive.

"They're trying to feed their family, so they cut down a section of it to try to farm the land," Reger said.

"You really don't think there's any other cultures that still exist on those levels, where the weight of the entire family really rests upon what each person can bring home," added John.

Another problem facing the rain forest, according to Crosslin, is the big companies that go down there and bring back exciting ingredients for new medicines or oils.

"We make all these cool things from our discoveries, but the people down there don't get one penny of that discovery money," he said, adding: "Somewhere, there's got to be something given back. Maybe it means the next time we buy a medicine, that a penny of it goes to saving something or someone down there. You're going to see in the future, countries are going to say, 'Stop. You can't come down here and take anything back unless we get part of the profits.'"

Everyone is concerned about conservation for future generations.

"If things are continuing as they are, there's going to be a lot less rain forest when my children are around. And I hope they are concerned about it, because one day they might find a cure for cancer in the rain forest.

"It's going to be important to them, not only just for things like cures, but it's just such a wonderful place to go to," said Kirsten.

ASSISTANT EDITOR: John Wright, 14.

REPORTERS: Ross Sergi, 13, and Stephen Miller, 11.