As promised, a full update on my 5 (well, 6) day trip to the jungle and back. It was an amazing experience and there is NO WAY I can fit everything into a blog post (I took over 1,000 pictures). I'm going to post this one as a picture story - lots of pics with captions underneath. It might be boring for people besides me to read through all that so if you want to just look at the pictures I think that's a great idea :-P But if you're interested read the captions and/or I'd be happy to give you a full recount of the awesomeness that was this trip!
On Monday, 6 of the 7 Portland ladies ready to go (our last day being clean and dry!). From l to r: Me, Christina, Shelby, Jacquie, Elysse, and Shelby
First mode of travel was a plane to Rio Coca (well, technically it was a 20min ride to the airport via bus). Rio Coca is only 30min by plane but about 9hrs by bus because you have to go over the Andes. The ride was bumpy but uneventful. Unfortunately, the airport is very small and a bit sketchy and some friends had some important personal items stolen =\
At the airport we took a bus to this hotel where we could use the bathroom (that took quite a while with 3 bathrooms and 34 ppl). Then we got on these two boats for part 2 of the trip - a 2 hr boat ride! I was in the boat on the left. The boat on the right had lawn chairs for seats!
Traveling down the river - I was so comfy in my seat. We had a boxed lunch and the temperature was perfect for shorts and a tshirt. I know the location is all wrong but I felt like it was a trip right out of Apocalypse Now/Heart of Darkness. Very cool.
Part 3 of the trip was on this crazy "bus". We got off the boat and onto what was basically a trolley cart on a the bed of a truck. Our luggage was thrown up top where you can see the guys feet. We traveled for just over an hour this way. It was our first taste of the jungle (we were in the Yasuni National Reserve) and though we didn't see any wildlife we did see houses of the Waorani people (one of the indigenous groups that lives on this land).
This land is highly competed over between the Waorani, the oil companies, the research stations, etc. There are lots of problems and complications. For example the oil companies are taking the Waorani land BUT they give the Waorani free rides along the roads. The Waorani use these rides to transport illegal wild meat to local markets. This is causing problems with endangered species. That's just one of the complications that's occurring... Wikipedia actually does a decent job of giving some info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huaorani
After the bus ride we all squeezed onto this boat for our last stage of travel - a 2hr boat trip down the Tiputini River. It was SO HOT while we waited to get everything loaded. I was sitting still and still sweating. The temps were in the high 80s all week with humidity levels 85% and above!
When we arrived we got to try one of these (along with free coffee, tea, and other snacks!). It's a type of passion fruit and it's SO delicious. The seeds are a little intimidating but they are quite yummy.
This was 1/2 of our cozy little cabin. I had the top bunk, Christina had the bottom. Across from this was Jacquie and a girl from Sweden named Linda. There was no glass, just the wood part and screens. Behind the curtains was all screen so you could really hear everything - it was so loud at night with all the insects!
Day #2 (our first full day there) we broke into 6 small groups (to have a better chance to see wildlife and such). Up first for my group was this amazing tower to a platform (top right of the picture).
It was so neat to be at the top! We should have been able to see a lot of monkeys from here but unfortunately we didn't see any. It's been very dry and hot and so the fruit hasn't been growing as well. This has affected the monkeys quite a bit (although we still saw plenty from the bottom).
It seemed like the jungle went forever - as far as you could see!
Our second stop was this amazing bridge set up. There were several platforms, 4 bridges, and a ladder.
Although we walked on the bridges we all had these great harnesses that attached to a metal cable above. The bridges were the first high bridges built in the Amazon several years ago - pretty neat!
The flowers we could see were amazing - so colorful!
This is looking down from the top of the ladder we climbed. It offered a neat perspective and a cool view. The only bad part was the number of bees and wasps around. They were small ones but there sting still packed a bunch! They literally swarmed us while we were up there. We had to put on sunglasses to protect our eyes.
When we came down we got to head to lunch BUT not without a stop to the lemon ant tree. This ant secretes an acid that actually cleans out an area of the forest (taking down plants, trees, etc). This cleared out area is about 10ft by 10ft and is known as "devil's garden" because you can't see why it's being cleared out. We got to eat these ants (they are very small) and they actually taste like lemon! A crazy but unique experience!
After lunch we boated up river and took a trail back to camp for the afternoon. On that trail is this amazing lake. We got to take that little paddle boat around the lake. Unfortunately the weather was SO hot and sunny that many of the animals were hiding (I wanted to be hiding too!). However, it was still really neat!
In the middle of this picture is a bird known as a Hoatzin! This bird is prehistoric and very fascinating! It actually still has claws on the end of its wings!
I felt like I was in Jurassic Park as we boated around the lake. It made me think a dinosaur was going to come out like at a Disney theme park - it just didn't seem real!
We finished the day continuing to hike through a great trail. Shortly after this tree one of the other girls spotted rare white bellied spider monkeys about three trees away! No good pictures but we watched them for probably 20min. We also heard howler monkeys from across the river (they sort of sounded like errie wind - it would have been a strange noise to hear alone at night).
That night we learned about the camera traps they have throughout the jungle to get pictures of the hard to spot animals (like jaguars). This helps the researchers get an accurate picture of who lives here. They've been documenting for 6+ years and have over 24,000 pictures of animals!
Day 3! Our morning was a long hike around the jungle to see what we could see.
This was a dream come true! I got to swing on a jungle vine (twice!). Most of the people in my group were bio majors or ecology majors or the like. One of them saw this vine and asked our guide if it was the type we could swing on. He said yes and then decided we could take a ride. It was amazing:
A short clip of my ride (I know, it's sideways....)
All the of the plants in the jungle were so big and colorful! Everywhere you looked you saw something new.
Don't mess with this tree! Not sure what it's called but the spikes go all the way up!
A (non poisonous) frog! One of MANY that we saw.
Bugs were everywhere you looked here. In a different setting it might have been disconcerting but in the Amazon jungle it's just expected!
This is our guide high up in a tree. He took a vine and made it into a climbing device (made a 0 shape with it and put his feet inside the 0 and then used it to shimmy up). Try as we might, not one of us could get up more then 3ft....
A real true poison dart frog! So poisonous that had you touched with your bare hand, and if you had a cut, it could kill you. Wild. This one is carrying, I think, her eggs on her back. We saw a second one of these but it hid way too fast to get a picture.
That afternoon we spent time talking and learning about the Waorani and the oil companies - really interesting. Then that night we headed out on a boat ride to go caiman (mini alligator) watching! You might be able to tell from this picture it's still quite warm out (we are sweating). I couldn't bring myself to wear long sleeves!
We saw lots of caiman! Our guide stood at the bow of the boat, swung his light from bank to bank, and would spot the eyes glowing. This isn't my best picture but you can see him sitting on the rock. We really got this close! The caiman we saw were 3-5ft but they can get up to 9ft and one kind, the black caiman, can reach 12ft!
We also saw TWO capybara! They were on the sandy banks and this guy decided to pose for a while. They were pretty cute to see after all those insects, frogs, and caiman.
Day #4 was another great morning! We got sooo lucky with the weather - hardly any rain (though extra high heat). This is a shot of a VERY cool tree that was right near our cabin. The soil here is not very good so the roots grow very differently. This tree has huge roots, others grow very long roots, and others actually "walk" across the forest by growing new roots and breaking off their old ones.
In the morning we had to do an experiment. This was more geared to the non IPSL folks but it was interesting enough for me also. We had small plates of dog poop that we took to different spots in the jungle (gap area and non gap area). We then measured how many insects came to eat the poop and in what order. It wasn't exactly riveting but I did see this neat spider monkey while waiting!
Turns out that the poop is also very important. Because there are not that many large mammals it can be hard for the insects that eat the poop. This can affect the animals that eat the insects and so on and so forth. Circle of life and all that :)
I also happened to be very lucky and had an awesome guide with my group. While we were waiting he wandered into the forest, grabbed some vines, and created both this backpack and this hat in about 20min. Incredible. His name is Myers and he has lived/worked in this area for 40+ years. We loved him. (Yes, I'm super warm in this picture - despite my hate for heat I actually didn't mind it here. Again, because I knew we were in the jungle it was kind of okay!).
After the lunch we got to do one of my favorite things - swim!! I don't have footage of us floating down the river because I didn't want to deal with my camera for a 2hr float. But the above is a video I took from the boat (it's not very exciting) and it gives an idea of what the river was like. We had on life jackets and we boated about 15min downstream. Then we jumped out of the boat and let the current take us! It was warm enough (until the very end) and quite relaxing. We knew there were 9ft electric eels, piranas, anacondas, and caiman in the water but because the water is so mineral rich it's brown and you can't see anything. Maybe it was better that way? :)
That night, our last night, we got to do a 1.5hr night hike with a guide and our flashlights/headlamps. This is a picture of a huge toad we saw as we were leaving. My hand isn't even that close - he is even bigger then he look here. I also already posted a tarantula pic - we saw more of those too!
Large creepy crawler
Large millipede
Conga ant - to me one of the scariest things in the jungle. Also known as the bullet ant because this little guy stings so hard it apparently feels like you've been shot. It's poison affects you for 24+ hours with fever, vomiting, chills, etc. Wicked because they are really all over the place.... And they really are huge for an ant!
Wolf spider
Snake #1 (harmless)
Snake #2 (also harmless)
Another HUGE spider. I didn't want to put my hand too close so I' not doing it justice. I would be screaming if I found one of these in my room - very creepy looking. (However, in the middle of the jungle, at night, it was just cool).
At the end of our hike we turned off our headlamps and stood still for two minutes. I couldn't help but think of that battery commercial - they are in a cave and their light goes out and it says something like "If your light goes out here, nothing can save you". Ok, so it wasn't THAT intense but I decided I wouldn't want to be alone in the Amazon in the middle of the night lost and without a light.
Also, at the end of that a piece of wood from the tree above me fell into my hair. Let's just say it was startling (no, I didn't scream).
On our last day we got an early start out. 10 of us got to ride in this awesome little boat! I still say it was the best boat but there was a slight issue - there was no cover so when it down poured for an hour we got absolutely soaked! I'm not trying to fly here - I'm trying to dry off! Luckily it was pretty warm out and the rain wasn't so bad.
Back where we were to get on the "bus" a local woman was out with her two 'pet' peccaries (a type of pig). They were babies and she let us pick them up - they weren't super keen on being held but it was neat to feel them... very prickly!
We made it through our second boat ride and back to Rio Coca. At the little hotel we landed at there was a little "zoo" and the animals just wandered around. This little monkey actually walked along my arm and then came and sat on my seat!
However, it was here that we learned our flight to Quito had been cancelled! They said it was for weather but apparently it's much more likely that some important politician or public figure paid to get the plane. We would be staying the night at a hotel paid for by the airline. Rio Coca isn't exactly a big tourist town and isn't super safe for those who aren't locals. We were worried about this hotel but it turned out to be quite nice. We even got to go to a shop run by Waorani women that sells handicrafts! After a mellow night we managed to catch a special 10:30am flight in the morning (special because they usually don't fly out of Rio Coca on Saturdays).
The flight back was smooth and it was *amazing* to get a hot shower and wash all my clothes. We were all really tired and lots of naps were taken that afternoon!
This was definitely my favorite experience in Ecuador - so unique and unforgettable! I doubt I'll be back but I'll always remember my time in the jungle!
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