That Wednesday that we spent at the station was one of the more active days that we had during the trip. As I mentioned in the last entry, breakfast was served every day at 6:30 am, lunch was always at noon, and dinner was at 7:00 pm. This meant that we had to wake up earlier than most of us are used to getting up. There was always water, mangos, and a variety of snacks available in the cafeteria so that we were able to go there and eat when we weren’t out in the forest. Most of Wednesday, however, was indeed spent out in the forest.
After breakfast we again split up into three different groups and my group was based on the people who had not before gotten a chance to travel the trails with Myers. Myers is a fantastic guide who grew up in the Amazon and is thus able to spot animals that we would pass by without a glance in the right direction. At one point on our hike, he called up to where he knows a pygmy monkey colony lives in an attempt to get them to come out of hiding. Although they did not show themselves, it was still cool to see a skilled guide at work. All of the guides at the station were at his level in their ability to find creatures and point out different plants.
The first place we headed to on that Wednesday morning was the canopy bridges. I am very glad that we had climbed the 45 meter observatory tower the day before or I probably would have had a much harder time climbing up to the canopy. We were in harnesses that attach to steel cables while you are crossing the bridges and if you climb a ladder to a small platform. It, like most of my experiences in Ecuador, was a unique one that I will never forget. The bridges are probably around 40 meters and the small platform is again at 45 meters. Walking on those bridges was liberating. We saw parrots flying around our heads and some large black birds that may have been vultures. I managed to climb part way up the ladder to the platform, but was afraid that if I got onto the platform, I would not be able to climb back down. Of course, our guide scampered, whom at this point I believe was actually Jose, climbed on the bridges like a monkey.
For a shorter amount of time we clambered up the observatory tower to try and see the wonders that the Amazon has to offer. The lack of rain and the heat of the day meant that no animals were active other than the bullet ants that we saw constantly and the sweat bees that were also around. There were sleeping bats hanging on the trunk of the Kapok tree that we could see as we clambered up the tower. Bullet ants are a species of ant that is used by one of the Amazonian tribes in coming of age rituals. The bullet ants are much larger than the ants we are used to in the Northeastern United States and their bite is incredibly painful. Sweat bees are in insect that do not look like a typical bee but land on you and drink your sweat. I never actually saw one of them land on anyone though so I do not know how true this actually is. Because we could see very little from the observatory tower, we went back to the cabins early and several people napped while we awaited our delicious lunch. I suppose it appears that our schedule at the station was centered on our meals, and in many respects that is how our lives have revolved since coming to Ecuador. In Cumbayá we were given lunch at the university and the “cafeteria” opened every day at 12. We were generally there early and often stopped for a snack on the way home between lunch and dinner. On the islands we are now fed breakfast and dinner almost every day so we are willing to get up for food and are still generally early for dinner. At Tiputini we should have been arriving early because the meals we served on time and the kitchen closed soon after the meals. There was one night when the group from Saint Olaf had dinner late because they came back later from the caiman searching and for that matter we were probably fed later when we came back from the same activity on a different day.
The later part of Wednesday was left to hiking with Myers in the woods to a lake where we spotted some crazy animals. Hiking around the Amazon rainforest is always a new adventure because you see vines in the most improbable shapes, climbing around trees to reach towards the sunlight or towards the ground depending on from where they started growing. The trees that I stood next to easily had the ability to make me feel small and like a blip on the map of the universe. On this traipse, we found several kinds of lizards/geckos as well as large tortoise hanging out in the woods. One of the other groups heard a tapir moving through the forest, but we were unable to find it. We also saw a beautiful butterfly down by the lake and, as I mentioned, some crazy things like these evolutionarily old birds that only eat leaves. Canoeing on the lake at sunset was beautiful as we saw the bats start to come to life and the different birds flying around. Once we were back on shore, Myers split several fruits in half and had us press them on our hands for ten minutes. The fruit was jagua and it creates a blue stain that grows darker over the course of a day and can color the skin for more than a week if you were to not put on your hands, which you wash too often. While Myers was cutting the fruit, he told us a wonderful story about how his ex-girlfriend came into the forest and he told her that the fruit creates a very good insect repellant and to rub it all over her body. The woman refused to speak to him until all of the color went away, which took several weeks. We really wanted to cut the fruit into the shape of a mustache or sabotage people with it at night by putting it on their foreheads. We never actually succeeded in these pranks.
Although we spent 5 days in the Amazon rainforest, it really only felt like 3 days because Monday and Friday were full of traveling and, as anyone who travels knows, it is tiring to be traveling for much more than 3 hours. Therefore, Thursday was really our last full day in the Amazon and we once again had adventures beyond anything I had imagined before coming on this trip. Have I mentioned how amazing and mind-blowing this whole experience has been? I really feel badly for those who are unable to study abroad because it is an experience that should not be missed in one’s life. But onto what we did that Thursday. (Can you see the lizard in the middle of this picture?) About 5 of the students from our group were willing to get up at 5:00 am in order to climb the observation tower and observe the change from nocturnal to diurnal life. Once again, due to the lack of rain and possibly the season, we were not able to see a whole lot. We saw the branches move as monkeys swung from tree to tree. We could hear a colony of howler monkeys off in the distance. We were able to see scarlet macaws off in the distance and a baby bird that sat on the Kapok tree in which the platform was perched. There was also a really cool view of a crescent moon through the trees and a beautiful sunrise through the fog. Seeing the sunrise in the Amazon was well worth waking up in the morning and I wish I had been able to force myself to get early more often. It is also a bit sad that the sunrise cannot be seen from the side of the island on which we live here, but there are refreshing sunrises that mean cooler temperatures (and the onslaught of mosquitoes).
Between breakfast and lunch we were in the classroom working on the project that I described earlier. As I mentioned, the oil company really has control over much of the Yasuní National Park and the Waorani have been hunting and living unsustainably. There are also scientists around the national park looking to do research and the national park itself whose infrastructure could use some serious help. In about an hour and a half, we had to come up with a strategy that would overall help the environment of the park and the people involved. My group decided an artisan market along with domestication of small typical farm animals would be the best way to go. None of the groups ever actually won out because the professors thought each group had its pros and cons.
After that rather stressful project (I was reminded once again why I switched to a zoology major from the environmental science major because I have no wish to deal with policy), we had some free time before our next scheduled activity. What did we decide to do with our free time while in the Amazon rainforest? Play barefoot soccer with some of the staff and eventually our professor. As I mentioned before, I am not good at soccer because I always want to try to use my hands, but informal soccer games are really fun. We had planned on playing often on the island, but I do not think we even have a ball yet. After the game another amazing adventure began. This is probably one of the greatest experiences I have ever had, in part because so few people have had the opportunity to float down a tributary of the Amazon River in search of the wildlife. Being on the Galápagos Islands is an experience that I hope to repeat later in life; however, the Galápagos are a true tourist destination. A rather absurd number of people make it to the Enchanted Islands each year. Far less than a thousand people are able to get to the TBS each year. We literally floated down the Tiputini River with life vests (or seat belts, as my professor kept calling them) on for an hour or two. We were able to let the current take us and just had to avoid the trees and rocks that were sometimes in the middle. On this trip we saw an egret fishing, blue and yellow macaws, some form of flycatcher and other birds. Once we were tired we climbed back aboard the boat and stopped a ways downriver in order to fish. Several people actually caught some smaller fish before our final night adventure began.
We took the boat back up the river rather slowly, as Myers stood majestically at the bow of the boat with his searchlight looking for the glinting of eyes. We saw 5 or 6 caiman, which as I said are related to crocodiles. These were all rather small caiman. Black caiman that live in different parts of the Amazon have been able to get up to 30 feet in length; however, no one has been able to confirm that the black caiman are still extant (which is the opposite of extinct, so alive). We were also lucky enough to see a pair of capybara that I saw several other times as well and a kinkajou! A kinkajou is an odd species that I believe is related to raccoons, but I could definitely be wrong on this point. Sadly enough, mammals are very difficult to photograph because they are skittish and move under cover quickly. That night there was also a gecko in our cabin! One of the guys in the group managed to catch him and get him outside. In fact, I now have a tiny lizard living in my shower and I know several of my friends also have lizards or geckos in their rooms. And that night we once again went to bed at a reasonable hour as we had to get up early Friday morning and start our journey back to the Andean region. Traveling back on that Friday was also made more difficult due to the lack of rain. We left right after breakfast to make our way back up the Tiputini River to the port. We once again were traveling with supplies that needed to be replenished and were squished onto one of the safari trucks until the other one came by and half of us switched over. We made it to the station where we once again went through security. We waited around for a little while as the professors tried to figure out what was going and we tried not to die in the heat and humidity. We were given several different explanations, but we ended up taking the trucks to another dock, taking smaller boats across the Napo River to another dock in order to take a bus to Coca. The river was literally too shallow to navigate. On the way there we had to zigzag across the water in order to avoid sand banks and on that Friday we were able to see most of those sand banks completely uncovered and dry.
Driving from the Yasuní to Coca was actually quite interesting. I would have loved to sleep on that bus ride, but it was rather bumpy so I watched the scenery and the small towns that we went through. Ecuador is a country in the middle of change (I suppose most countries are always changing). In the cities you are able to see all of the different socioeconomic classes literally living right next to each other. There are paved roads and giant green road signs identical to those that we are used to in the States and houses that we would consider shacks. There were also some really cute kids playing Ecuaball and others trying to get their friends or siblings to throw something down from a roof. I think traveling through a country by slower means of transportation is one of the best ways to get to know a country.
Luckily our flight was not until later in the day and luckily there was a flight just leaving when we arrived at the airport that had the exact number of seats needed for both the GAIAS group and the Saint Olaf group. Ironically as we flew into Quito there was rain coming down and, it being a Friday evening, we were also stuck in traffic so it took at least an hour to get home. What was roughly a 6 hour day of traveling turned into a 13 hour day of traveling by the time we all made it home.
All in all, going to Tiputini was one of the best experiences I have ever had. I still do not know if research is exactly the path I would like to pursue, but these opportunities that I have had to go out into the field are certainly ones that I never want to forget. My current professor is actually leaving the islands for a few days to take a group of botanists from the states to Tiputini. I think we might all be wishing that we could go with him, but I suppose staying on the islands is not so bad either.
As I approach the halfway point of my trip I find myself getting a bit too comfortable with San Cristóbal. By that I mean the “honeymoon” phase of studying abroad has passed and now I need to find more to keep me busy. Although I have been volunteering at CIMEI, I think I need to find something more beneficial to do and find a way to interact with more locals or at least Spanish speakers. There are many Ecuadorians here from the mainland for their summer vacation. I am very excited to visit Santa Cruz, Isabella, and take a four-day cruise around the islands. Those journeys start in about a week and a half and until then I will be observing pollinators that come to a few different plants for my class on the native and introduced flora of the Galápagos.
Best wishes to everyone reading this! For UVM students, enjoy your spring break next week!
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