The Amazon

We were meandering along the Napo River in a small, open aired boat. The wind felt amazing against the humid air and the scenery was ever so captivating. We spent a couple hours in this boat Friday morning before we transferred to chiva for another two hours. A chiva is a basically a bus without sides and is generally used as a party bus during celebrations. Not ideal for a rough, dirty ride through the jungle, but whatever. We then had another long boat ride on the Tiputini River before we arrived at the ever so remote Tiputini Biodiversity Station. It was surprisingly neat and modern there with their own water system, electricity in the morning and evening, a really nice library/laboratory, and a great little dining area. The station is run by the University of San Francisco in Quito (where my classes are) and is used only for government approved research and for certain classes from the University. They have this really awesome research project that we were able to learn about. With help from Nation Geographic, they have placed a bunch of heat & movement sensing cameras along their trails. These cameras have captured over 25,000 photos of wild animals in the nearly untouched rainforest. This site has produced some of the only pictures of a couple of rare species. We were able to view some of the pictures one night. It was really cool. We also had to look out for the cameras and disable them as we walked by. Lindsey messed up once so Colin, Kate, and I are all in a picture!
While we were there we spent our time rotating through the many sites of the jungle. I went on a four hour hike through the rainforest where we saw many insects—a jumping stick, a bull spider, the tarantula, bullet ants, butterflies, etc—and a few other animals—lizard, toad, monkeys. I also saw the biggest tree of my life! It was a buttress tree probably is as wide as 20 grown men with their arms spread. Here is a picture of me with about half of the trees trunk. In the rainforest the layer of nutrients in the soil is only right on top and does not go very far down. Therefore it makes no sense for trees or plants to have deep roots. So in order to support themselves, trees like the buttress have really tall, wall-like roots outside of the ground. The also have a system of tunnel like roots that spread out for miles to help support and to find a major water source for the tree. The researchers measured a root of one of these trees and it was over a mile long stretching all the way to the river! This hike was pretty adventurous for me. I caught a toad, pet a tarantula, and ate ants! The ants are a local favorite—they taste just like lemon!
I also hiked to a bird tower. This tower is over 120 feet tall and the top balcony sits above the canopy of the forest. Here we were able to bird watch. We saw toucans and macaws and some of the prettiest birds ever! Look up a paradise tanager—seven colors on one bird! We stayed until sunset that night. My group enjoyed this tower so much that we decided to return for the sunrise on Sunday. We had to leave the station at 5:30 am. The sunset was not quite what we expected—there were so many low clouds that the sun was impossible to see. Still, it was amazing. We sat and ate our breakfast while we watched birds and enjoyed the early morning. When we got back, I accidentally, well at least unknowingly, picked up a baby poison arrow frog! I saw it and thought it was really cute and wanted to show everyone else—it was only as big as my fingernail! Fortunately, they are only dangerous if their poison comes in contact with a mucus membrane so I just had to wash my hand immediately!
There was also a canopy walk. This is like a giant playground where we went to hang out with the monkeys and other animals of the canopy. We had to wear harnesses and strap to a rope as we crossed those bouncy bridges that were at least 100 feet above the ground. Here we saw quite a few monkeys and more really cool birds. I also got bit by a lot of ants! The live on the trees and protect them from invaders—including humans. It was pretty scary up there but I really enjoyed it!
One evening we went on a night float where we were able to see caimans! I was also hoping to see the stars, but it was really cloudy. Apparently it is cloudy a lot there, probably because it rains nearly everyday. I don’t know what I was expecting in the rain forest.
At least it was sunny our last afternoon when we all took a float down the river! With life jackets on, we let the current push us down the Tiputini River as we laughed and splashed around. I was pretty hesitant about getting in, but it was so much fun! A boat followed us down and greeted us with cookies when we were ready to head back.
It was so humid there! Showering was useless, as soon as you put clothes on you are sticky and gross again. It was so nice to come back to Quito and put on dry clothes. Haha. The Amazon was amazing. I definitely want to go back.