Amazon Trail

Back from the Oriente..alive!

Friday morning we hopped on a 30 minute flight to Coca, which is a gateway town to the Amazon region. From the window of the plane I got my first view of the rain forest. It was incredible; I've never seen such a vast stretch of untouched land before.

The climate was drastically different as soon as we landed in Coca - around 80 degrees and extremely humid. My friend from Alabama felt right at home. We took a 10 minute bus ride to a hotel on the Napo River where our first boat was taking off. As we were loading up into our narrow, open-sided motorboat with two rows of chairs, I got a glimpse of a river dolphin! It wasn't pink sadly but it was really cool. We were on that boat for two hours heading down the Napo, which feeds from the Amazon River. It was a relaxing, breezy ride with jungle on both sides and the occasional canoe or group of people on shore who would wave.

We arrived at the entrance to Block 16, controlled by the Repsol petroleum company. Here we had to pass through a security check then board a chiva bus (not the discoteca kind) for two more hours. From there, we got into a second boat on the Tiputini river, which is about the size of the Shetucket or Willimantic River but murky brown and with a much faster current. Two hours downstream, and we arrived at the Tiputini Biodiversity Station run by Universidad de San Francisco de Quito, with which IES is associated.

The station is very basic. The dock leads up the riverbank to a kitchen attached to an open dining area, and a series of paths from there lead to an air-conditioned library/lab building and further to the little cabins we stayed in. The electricity is run by a gas generator so they only use it for two 3-hour periods each day, except the library which always has power. The water comes from the river and goes through a purification system so it's all potable.

We got to Tiputini in time for dinner then listened to a presentation about wildlife in Yasuni reserve. The station has a series of cameras throughout the jungle that are activated by heat and motion sensors, so the researchers can track different animals. It was really cool to see the wildlife that was surrounding the station, especially the really evasive animals like deer species and wild dog. Out of 20,000 photos some species were only caught once or twice. We were all exhausted and ready for bed at 9:30 when the electricity turned off. We were 6 hours deep into the jungle, and it was awesome.

Saturday breakfast was at 6:30 am. Then we put on our big rubber jungle boots and grouped up with guides to head out. My group hiked with our guide, Ramiro, to bridges way up above the canopy. We had to wear harnesses because the bridges were pretty rickety (built by BU researchers, so we trusted them anyway!) As soon as we got to the top, we saw two scarlet macaws fly by. That was when I realized I was IN the Amazon. They're bright red parrots with colorful tails and always travel in pairs, and are really amazing to see next to all the green. One of the platforms connecting the bridges had an aluminum ladder up to a higher platform. This was a scary climb, especially in clumsy boots when the ladder got shaky near the top. It was worth it though, especially because some yellow parrots camped out on top for a while. This was precisely the moment when my camera stopped working! I was so mad - really, you break now??? It ended up being nice to not have to worry about taking pictures all day and just enjoy looking around, but I'm disappointed I have to steal my friends' photos instead. Anyway, the canopy was awesome aside from the vicious little ants that kept biting us.

After that we hiked further with Ramiro, and saw another pair of macaws much closer. They were definitely my favorite animal of the trip. Ramiro was so smart, and kept coming out with crazy animal sounds. We saw three species of monkeys, and got to watch them climb around the trees. It's WAY cool to see them doing their thing in the wild. We saw peccary and tapir tracks, and some intense insects like military ants that followed one another in a perfect line, a huge centipede, and these nasty flies that bite you and lay their eggs under your skin..seriously.

After four hours of hiking we were sweaty and exhausted. The humidity was much worse than the hottest day in CT in summer, and there isn't too much breeze to be found. I passed out on the tile floor of the library until our second hike. This time Ramiro took us on another path that led to a small lake. At one point he stopped and started poking at a leaf that was folded over on itself, and a big fuzzy tarantula crawled out. At the lake, we climbed into a very narrow canoe meant for 5 people - and there were seven of us. Gloria and I could not stop laughing at the situation, because we were clearly much lower in the muddy water than we should have been and any shift of weight sent the canoe listing to one side or the other. Of course laughing just made it more unsteady, especially at one point when we got caught on a log under the water. This was while Ramiro was paddling around and telling us about the piranhas and anacondas living there. I think that was the most terrified I've been in Ecuador so far - really! Murky jungle water scares me like no other.

There was a group of film students from USFQ who came to the station with us to make a documentary about Tiputini. They were friendly and very excited about their film but they got really pushy and annoying on the hikes. Every time there was an animal or something interesting the camera guy had to shove ahead and get the best shot - we were all ready to knock them off the canopy by the end.

We survived the canoe ride, a strenuous stair climb into a wooden observation tower over the canopy, and a (larger) canoe ride back to the station. Ecuador was playing Uruguay that night so they dragged the TV out to the dining room so everyone could watch. It was so funny because we were basically watching TV outside, with bats swooping in and out of the roof. Ecuador totally blew it. They scored and everyone went nuts, until Uruguay scored less than a minute later. Shameful. Uruguay ended up winning on a penalty kick right at the end. Later that night we went on a boat ride to look for caimans, a small type of alligator/crocodile. We saw a few but again the film crew was incredibly annoying. They got mad at us for talking too loudly when we sat for 10 minutes so they could film one caiman that wasn't even moving or anything, when we could have been going further up the river to look for more.

After breakfast Sunday we went out on another early morning hike where we saw a lot of Wooly Monkeys gallivanting through the trees, some kind of snake, some frogs including one called a BUFO!!!, and more bugs (not to mention the ones constantly buzzing around our heads.) Ramiro showed us some crazy trees too. One of them starts its roots at the top of another tree carried by birds or the wind, grows down and plants into the ground, then slowly grows up around the original tree until it takes over and the tree dies. Another one sheds its bark every few months so any threatening vines or other life forms can't harm it. Another called the Walking Palm constantly grows new roots to one side so it appears to be moving. We climbed the highest observation tower (140 feet or so) which was like the most B.A. tree house ever. On our way back to the station we ate some ants that taste like lemon.

That afternoon everyone got into the boat to head down the river, where they let the crazy American students jump out to float down the Tiputini in life jackets. This water is so brown and muddy you can't see six inches, hiding a myriad of creatures I don't even want to know about. I obviously wasn't about to stay on the boat so I went overboard. The current was very strong under the surface so even if you swam hard upstream you barely made any progress. We floated for an hour or so, luckily from my fetal position I didn't brush against anything unknown like some friends did. I was talking to one of the guides after we got back on the boat and he said we definitely passed over several anacondas...eek.

I was sad to leave Tiputini the next day. I woke up early every day and sat by the river before breakfast to look at the water and listen to the rain forest sounds. I wish I could have camped out in the canopy for an entire day to see what animals would show up. I told the cooks I didn't want to leave and they promised I could come back and wash dishes to earn my stay. I loved being so immersed in the jungle far away from civilization, even the bugs and humidity didn't bother me after the first day. It was genuinely upsetting to see the oil companies on our way back and evidence of the forest being cleared for farming or building. The situation in Ecuador looks hopeless. The country depends on petroleum as a primary export, and they can't afford to just stop exploiting it for rainforest conservation. The remaining oil reserves will only last another decade, so either way Ecua is pretty much screwed until they figure out some way to re-figure the export economy and develop industry. It sucks that the rainforest is going to deal with the consequences.

I'll put up some pictures as soon as I can get them from my friends. My camera appears to be working now so I think it was just the humidity...either way I hope it doesn't act up for the rest of my trip. Even camera-less the Amazon was an amazing experience and I need to go back!