Day 11 - Ride the Rio

So today, a new group with a different friend of Las Piedras,  now known as the "yoga people", will arrive at site. We’ve been told by one of the guys that’s helping organise their stay that we basically have to disappear. They are coming for a tranquil zen stay, so having a bunch of unsocialised scientists isn't cool. We’ve been moved to a small campsite (that the workers built just this week) not too far from the lodge. We had to be packed and out of our rooms by mid morning so that there was plenty of time to sort the place out before their arrival.  We were told “You guys can’t be here when they arrive”. So basically, fuck off and be invisible. I told him that my invisibility coat was still in the post, but I'll do my best. It hasn’t been so helpful that we’ve been given wrong/differing information from different people - again, the difficulties with communications in the jungle showing it's face again. We were packed to leave yesterday, then told we could have an extra night in the room as they weren’t arriving til mid morning. We didn't complain, as this was great - we had one last sleep in a room, but a little annoying as everything was now already packed, it was just prolonging the situation. We all enjoyed the last of the freedom we had around the lodge; making the most of tables, a roof, easy access to toilet/showers, the kitchen for tea, and a socialising area with comfy seats/hammocks that we all become so familiar with. 

The new campsite, "Platforms" pic by Marcus Rhodes

Inside the campsite, pic my Marcus Rhodes

To get away from the hustle, bustle and stress from the whole thing, me, Zoe, Tom and Harry went with one of the workers, Melo, to deliver a message for someone at Arcc. Arcc is another field site, which is about a three and a half hour boat ride up river. A few tourists made the journey a few days ago and were lucky enough to see a Jaguar on a beach on the river bank, so we were keen to go check it out and see if luck was on our side....

Melo

Looking fabulous in the Amazon

Fresh brazil nut

Digging in to the delicious brazil nut

Goofs

Goof

Julia butterfly that drinks salt from sweat, also decided to poo on me. Lovely. 

Tom

Zoe

Tom the Explorer

We fell at the first hurdle; the boat we were travelling in had a motor that sounded like a fucking chainsaw (a different boat to the one that the other tourists used the other day). It was SO loud, so unless there was a deaf big cat out there that had no idea we were coming, we weren’t likely to see one. And we didn’t. We did however see some tracks, which were most likely a big cat. We couldn’t see the tracks well enough so couldn’t make out what kind of mammal it was but it looked like it could have been a puma/jaguar track – and they were so fresh, seems like this cat was unfortunately, not deaf. What we did see what some turtles, lots of birds and a Caiman though!

An Amazonian beauty - butterflies drinking turtles tears

Once we got to arc, our butts hurt and the sun had gotten to us – today was particularly hot and being on a boat with no cover didn’t help. We were told we had half an hour to chill at Arcc and then we were off again. We had just enough time to see the lake at Arc and the accommodation there, which was fancy!

Lake at Arcc

We made it back to the port at 3pm, but Melo, who was driving, didn’t actually come back ‘til 4pm. Not knowing where he was meant we hung around near the boat waiting for him, where there were hungry sand flies and mosquitoes, so we all got bitten to shit. Sandflies are quickly becoming my #2 enemy after Mozzies. But, in return, we were travelling back through dusk, and it was so beautiful. It felt like the stress and frustration that’s been consuming us the last couple of days just disappeared along with the sunset. I’ve never seen so many colours in one sunset, purples, pinks, blues, yellows, oranges, and red. It was incredible. The sheer beauty of the rainforest never ceases to amaze me, it just reinforces the idea that we need to protect and preserve this incredible place. 

                        

                   

When we got back it was dark, and we still had to put sheets on our beds and hang up our mosquito nets at the new campsite. This was harder than it felt it should be, but in the middle of the dark jungle, bugs everywhere, flying into your face thanks to the head light, ants and other bugs all over the bed, and trying to hang nets on sticks that were definitely not designed around mosquito nets - it was a challenge, I'll give ya that. It turns out that the yoga group didn't actually arrive in the morning, but they passed our campsite at around 8pm "glad we're not staying there", we giggled as we overheard one of them. "This'll be a fun few days" said a scientist! 

It'll be interesting to see how we all sleep tonight... Let's hope no bullet ants fit through the gaps of the bed. Eeek.

Fx

Day 7 - Rain, machetes and caimans.

Rain, machetes and caimans. What more could a girl want?

Rain. Rain. Rain. It’s been raining here all morning, which means that it’s not a good idea to go out. The jungle reacts so much to weather, that when it’s raining and windy it makes going out potentially dangerous. Trees can fall, rivers get high and conditions are unpredictable. Just the other day there was a fresh tree fall on one of the trails, it was lucky that no one was out at that time, but it just shows how much the conditions here effect the jungle – so staying away when it’s stormy is a wise idea.

By the afternoon the weather cleared up, so Zoe and I helped out the herp team to cut a new trail where they heard some frogs the night before. The herp team usually go out at night, so listening as well as using their torches is key to finding frogs, snakes etc. They heard some noises in a swamp nearby a trail, so we just cut a new short trail that went through the swamp so they could get closer to that site the next time they go out at night. It was the first time I’ve used a machete properly. I’ll be honest, I did feel a slight connection to Michonne from the walking dead; pretending that tree stumps were zombies and that I was in imminent danger from the swarm of zombies, which were just twigs and vines that surrounded me (I was probably in more danger due to my over-enthusiastic swinging of the machete than anything else...). That’s all I need now to complete the look is a serious tan and some rippling muscles and badass hair. One day, one day... Sigh.

Me, Harry, Zoe and Tom post zombie apocalypse training

After dinner we went out caiman spotting with a few new volunteers on the boat with coordinator Luix. It was only a short boat run but we saw a young caiman that wasn’t even a foot long. Luix ran into the water to try and catch it but it was too quick and got away. I admired Louix' instant reaction, which was to jump into the water, this definitely isn't the first time he's done that, I thought. Myself and everyone on the boat just stared in amusement at the fully clothed and drenched Luix, who was empty handed. Internally I think we all thought "that's fucking brave", caimans can mean serious business if they want to fight you, it was almost a relief that it swam away. The new guys, who were only in the jungle for a couple of days, must have thought we were all insane. 

Wait, maybe we are?

Fx

Day 6 - Sharing is caring.

This isn’t a place where you can be selfish. You have to share everything with the selva. 

You share a room with not just a roommate, but spiders, mosquitoes, cockroaches, you share your food with friends and flies, the kitchen with bats and rats, your showers with spiders and frogs, and ditto with the loo too. You also have to share your body; I currently have a fly on my foot and a friendly looking long legged spider on my arm, about 20 mosquito bites on my left shoulder/arm alone and sand fly bites on my hands and forearms. Wasps are a big fan of me too. I'm told I have sweet blood. I personally think they all just see me as an easy target.

My body is no longer mine, I’m sharing it with the jungle, it's about as intimate as it gets, but as long as I don’t inhabit any parasites then I’m happy!

Today has been spent relaxing around the camp, playing an awful (but secretly quite fun) game called Catan, with a few of the guys. I stayed in bed ‘til 8am this morning, what a lazy shit I am! But I guessed I deserved it after realising I haven’t actually slept much since Grand Cayman, and tonight I will be going out on a night trail with coordinator Brian and a few of the volunteers. Last night they brought back the most tame snake and a friendly frog (pics below). 

Phylamedusa Palliata

Me with the most lovely Imantodes Cenchoa

(Oh, just caught a fly in my eyelashes, what’s next I wonder…)

Some new people joined the camp today, some that have been here before and others who have not, so it’ll be great to get to know them too and to expand the team – it’s really interesting to hear what people are up to and what projects they’re doing, it’s great content for my internship too. I feel like I've already made some great friends from people all over the world, so the more the merrier, I say. 

(Oh, and now a butterfly on my leg!)

Also, today the boat came with some supplies as well as volunteers, and Bloody (Vladmir - the chef) ordered me in a big tub of peanut butter after finding out I loved it (anyone who knows me will understand how much of a big deal this is!). What a guy! 

Fx

Day 5 - Early bird catches the worm, or in this case, the bird

Day 5

Another 5am wake up. This morning it was for the bird team though, I was told that there’s a lot of sitting involved, I won’t lie that it was a bit of a relief. After a short walk we got to the bird traps, a loose black net like trap that captures low flying birds. Once all three are set up we wait for a short period of time and then go to check them to see if any birds have been caught. It was a pretty successful morning; we caught many different birds, identified them, studied them, tagged them and then let them free. Louis, the bird coordinator showed me how to get the bird safely from the net and back to our site location out in the jungle.

The mist nets, by Zoe Cole. 

Zoe and Louis would go to one location, Pedro and I went to the other, and we meet back with our newly captured birds. Both Zoe and I caught and secured our own birds for the first time ever. Which is awesome. It was great to be so up close to the birds and to see them more intimately.

Measuring the birds' wings

Identifying the birds

Louis looking for signs of molting 

          

Pedro (Jesus) guiding us back to camp.

It was a successful morning for us and it was a change from hiking around looking for mammals, this morning, in my opinion was a lot more hands on and I felt I learnt a lot (but then I didn’t know much to begin with!). We came back around 10am for a late breakfast and to have to little time to relax on the hammocks. We had some crazy weather today too, there was thunder like I’ve never heard before, the whole camp was shaking and the sky was roaring. It was so beautiful in the morning, the weather can change so rapidly here, one minute it’s sunny and clear, and before you know it there’s a downpour. And it’s supposedly the dry season here. Ha!

We had another evening of dinner by candlelight and played some cards. I was able to stay up a bit longer as I knew I didn’t have a ridiculously early morning ahead of me, so a few of us stayed up and discussed life, love, religion, and finally, buffy the vampire slayer, and stayed up ‘til the wee hours of the, errr, night, which was 11:30pm, which honest to goodness is late when the sun sets at 5:45pm and everyone crashes at 9pm!  

Day 3 - Awake in the jungle

Day 3 – 3^rd May

First day waking up in the jungle, I slept quite well considering the almost deafening noise of the crickets, monkeys, birds and all the other wildlife, but I found it quite relaxing to hear the outside noise while I was safe under my mosquito net.

I woke up about 7am ready for breakfast, which was a huge bowl of chocolate oats, boiled eggs and more bread than you can shake a stick at, but I made myself eat as I knew I would be hungry while trekking so I filled up. Me, Corrie and Juancarlos, the Mammal coordinator, went for a mid morning trek along the river trail towards the waterfall, it was too late in the day to see any mammals, but we saw some spiders and insects, lots of butterflies, fungi, a couple of bats and birds, and some cat tracks - which was awesome. We think it was an Ocelot track, and it seemed pretty fresh. It's known that the cats do use the bridges and trails than man has made, it's so amazing to think that I'm walking in the same paw steps as these amazing cats. At the end of the trail we had the satisfaction of sitting on the top of the beautiful and serene waterfall. I could have stayed there all day. Before I leave I have to go back and just sit there for the day, it's so peaceful. 

          

Being out in the jungle is so amazing. It's everything I hoped it would be and more. I feel instantly at home here; walking through the trail and following the marks and taking time to soak in all the different plants, trees, insects, smells etc. is an unique feeling. There's so much for me to learn here, 

                   

We made our way back to camp along the waterfall trail and were yet again, greeted by lunch (I love that this is becoming a thing!). The rain came in the afternoon, most people were out on field so it was peaceful at camp and the smell of the rain was wonderful, and the gentle breeze that came with it was even more welcomed.  So I spent the afternoon rummaging through pictures, drinking tea, and slapping myself every once in a while to see if I'm actually just dreaming that I'm in the Amazon or not. It seems that I am most definitely awake and alive in the jungle. 

Fx

P.s Coca tea is my new favourite thing.