I got up early on Friday since I had to be at the airport at 7:30 that morning. I was the first one at the airport- almost 30 minutes early. I knew I’d be early so I brought a Sudoku and did that until the rest of the group showed up. At the meeting I didn’t go to Daniel told them he would be at the airport earlier than anyone but he never showed. Instead some guy came up to our group, asked us if we were going to Tiputini and said ‘follow me.’ It turns out he was our guide of sorts.
We all made it through ‘security’ with no problem (even though Bianca didn’t have her passport) and waited for our only slightly delayed flight. I sat next to Emily on the tiny little plane but mostly slept the whole time. The flight was so short we basically ascended then descended. Upon arrival I had to pee really bad so Emily Bianca and I went to the bathroom for deformed women. The women’s bathroom sign had this weird deformed-looking drawing of a woman on it. It was scary. Also scary was that there was no toilet paper- but luckily I had thought to bring some. We got on the bus as it was about to leave and it took us to a dock that had several long boats ready to head down the river.
Our group got our own boat since there were so many of us and we were off! Sort of. For the most part we maintained a steady clip down the river but the water was really low in some places so the driver- who was at the back- had to choose his route carefully. It was a really long ride, about 2 ½ hours, so after taking some pictures and eating our sack lunch that was provided, most of us ended up napping at some point. Before falling asleep the driver stopped so we could take pictures of a gigantic plume of fire close to the riverbank- a burning oil well- welcome to the Amazon.
Eventually we reached the oil reserve where we had to go through a checkpoint and from there continue on chiva- a large covered truck with open sides. The chiva ride was about the same length as the boat ride- maybe a little shorter. I sat with Emily and Lauren and we talked most of the time.
When the chiva arrived at its destination, the foot of a bridge, we got out and kind of slipped down the bank to yet another river- the Tiputini. We got on a similar but slightly smaller boat and settled in for another 2+ hour ride. Finally, after what seemed like days of travelling, we reached the dock and we were there!
Exhausted from the trip we dropped our stuff and plopped into the chairs in the dining ‘room’ which was the first structure we came to. It was basically a covered platform with tables and chairs and a small adjoining kitchen. After a rest and devouring some Oreos that we put out for us the station director or something told us about what we would be doing during our stay then showed us to our cabins. Emily L, Lauren, Bianca and I shared a little cabin. It had running water but since it came from the river and went back in the river we could only use the ‘soap’ provided for us. It smelled faintly of bananas and did almost nothing to clean my hair.
After we got settled into our cabins we decided to take a dip in the river since we were all SO hot. We broke all but one of the rules the guy had just given us but nobody died so we were fine. After our swim we made our way back to the dining room for dinner. We had a very Ecuadorian meal of meat beans and rice I believe. Once we finished dinner we all decided to hang out in the only air-conditioned building at the station, the library. There we play Piccharades- charades with Pictionary cards since we had nothing to write on.
I grabbed a copy of Fahrenheit 451 and resolved to finish it before we left. It is pretty short so I figured I could do it. We went back to the cabins and at 9pm the electricity went off (the generator is on a timer) but luckily all the cabins were equipped with a good supply of candles and matches. I read by candlelight for a while then went to sleep.
In the morning we had breakfast at 7:30 but being so hot and sweaty- and now smelling a little like the river- I needed to take a shower. I got up first and steeled myself for the freezing water- the buckets of which I could see out our window- but it wasn’t too bad. Unfortunately the banana soap didn’t do much but I felt better for a little while at least.
After breakfast our group (the girls of cabin 1 plus Kevin and Andrew) got our boots and met our tour guide. Just as we started our hike he spotted some spider monkeys up in a tree above the path- our first contact with animals! We took a short hike to this enormously tall tree- taller than all of the trees around it- and climbed up a tower to a viewing platform in the tree. From there we could see the canopy from above. Since we were there so late we didn’t see any more monkeys but we did see some cool birds. I spotted a little green parrot that was hanging upside down munching on some of the tree’s fluff. Our guide spotted several other birds and even brought a small telescope up there so we could see the really far off ones.
There were also some pretty cool bugs around all the way at the top of this tree. I got some good pictures of a horny ant and a cute little bee guy. We also saw a really cool bird fly by. It was a reddish brown with a dark yellow tail. I only saw it for a few seconds but that was long enough for me to think, “Griffyndor!!”
We didn’t see much else because it was getting late in the morning so we climbed down the tower (which seemed to shake more on the way down) and checked out this hollow tree. This “tree” is actually a parasite that grows up around trees and remains standing after it has killed the tree- which eventually rots away. Then our guide told us to come over and find the animal that was at his feet. We looked down and there was nothing but dead leaves and dirt. Then I spotted something moving- it was a toad, just barely breathing. It looked just like a leaf! It even had dark spots on its back that looked just like the holes in most of the leaves that cover the forest floor. It was truly a marvel. How an animal can evolve so precisely is beyond me.
On our way back to the station we stopped while our guide picked the stem of some plant, peeled it and gave us the inside to chew for 2 minutes. After two minutes we spit the juice out and stuck out our tongues. They were blue!! We got no explanation and moved on. Then we went off the track to a clearing that had nothing but a few skinny trees. There is a lot of underbrush in the jungle so it was strange. Our guide told us it was called a Devil’s clearing (or something like that) because nothing but those specific trees can grow there. The indigenous peoples of the area assumed that spirits prevent things from growing there but our guide showed us the real culprit.
If you looked closely at the smallest branches of the trees you could see little one-inch sections that were thicker. He told us that inside these sections were ants! The ants live in the trees and are all over the ground too. They don’t allow anything but their tree homes to live in these clearings. Stranger still, our guide broke off one of the twigs, opened the cavity where the tiny little ants live and ate some! They are called ‘lemon ants’ because they taste like lemon! I tried one but I had to take it out of my mouth because it freaked me out. I did taste like lemon though.
Then we went back for lunch. Lunches were usually typical Ecuadorian food- meat, some rice and fried plantains for example- but pretty good. We always took advantage of the cookies and fruit put out for us, as well as the tea and coffee even though it was hotter than hell.
After lunch we went on another hike, this time to a small lake which was a bird haven. But first we got our faces painted. Our guide picked a fruit, crushed it up with ad little stick and used it to paint our faces with little designs. From there we took another hike across some pretty sketch bridges and saw a huge turtle!
We opted to take the short way instead of a longer hike all around. We got there and the seven of us got in a long canoe and our guide quietly paddled us around the perimeter of the late. I heard later that the lake has piranhas and caimans in it so I’m glad we never flipped over. We saw several Watsons which look like flamboyant pheasants and only live near water. We also saw a bunch of other birds.
When we got back we had several hours until dinner so most everyone decided to take a dip in the river. I was exhausted so I, as always, took a nap. That ended up being a terrible idea because about a half hour in I woke up because I was sweating so much. It was awful. By the time I was mobile everyone had come back from the river and I was sure I didn’t have time to get down there before dark so I just suffered through it. (I also didn’t want to take a shower since water was so precious and I’d already taken one that morning.)
One dinner, maybe this one I don’t recall, we had tacos. And not Hakuna Matata “tacos” with tuna salad, but legit tacos! It was so great! I ate three! After dinner we met in the library- air conditioning!- and we had a presentation about one of the research projects done at this station. They have several motion capture cameras set up along the trails- none that we walked, however- to capture and track the animals in the area. We saw a lot of really cool pictures of animals we hadn’t seen in the wild. They were out there, just not where we were. After the talk we went back to our cabins and I read Fahrenheit 451 out loud to our bunk until they fell asleep.
Up Next: More Amazonian Adventures!
Hasta Luego,
Caitlin
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