Day 15: TBS

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Today I woke up at 6:20am because the alarm clock got messed up. I had breakfast (pancakes) and then went on a canopy walk with Steph, Sam, Lianne, and Kaya. Timoteo was our guide, and by this time I was absolutely in love with him – he was such a cutie and so nice! Because we went in the morning, there were fewer bees around than in the afternoon. Sam is really afraid of bees, however, and put on her “bee suit” anyway.

On the way to the canopy we saw wooly monkeys eating, and then howler monkeys. One started howling and I had no idea what was happening – I thought we were going to be trampled by a tapir or peccaries! The huge noise we heard turned out to be just one monkey looking for its friends. When we got to the canopy we climbed up ~ 30 meters to the canopy where we hooked our harnesses to the wires for safety. The bridges were pretty cool, but very skinny and there were lots of any on the ropes. I was the first one to walk across, but when I got to the end I could barely touch the bridge because my harness was pulling me up high – Timoteo had to come unhook me because I was too short and couldn’t reach my carabineer.

The bees started to come out because it was really hot up there and we were all sweating a lot – unfortunately Lianne got stung by a little wasp. Sam decided to go down because she was getting hot and really doesn’t like bees and hasn’t been feeling well lately anyway. I walked to all the platforms. On the last platform, Timoteo and I got a cool picture together. I felt like I was in a tree house almost. Timoteo was singing with a toucan, which is known as the guardian of the jungle. Its call apparently signals when danger is coming or when everything is ok.

After the canopy walk, Timo took Sam back to camp because she was feeling really poorly by now. Steph, Lianne, Kaya, and I climbed up tower 1, which is more than 45 meters high! Talk about conquering a fear of heights in a short time period… The tower platform extends above the forest canopy, giving us a great 360 degree view of the jungle. From the top we were able to see butterflies, toucans, macaws, and more monkeys. It was so peaceful none of us wanted to leave; the only reason we did was because we had a presentation to do at 10 am and it was already 9:50!

The hike back was a fast one – we did not stop to look at any wildlife. The presentations went well – the first group didn’t get to make a power point so they did a creative presentation. Forrest dressed up like a tree covered in vines and leaves and the group demonstrated how they took their measurements. Both the next group and my group did projects on fungi, and while their study was better than ours I think our presentations were about equally well performed. We had about 30 minutes before lunch so I changed into my bathing suit because my bra and underwear were completely soaked in sweat.

Lunch was good (as usual); after lunch a few of us went down to the river to swim. I didn’t really swim, but Annie and I did get to go out in a tiny tippy canoe. The current was really strong and we kept trying to get out of the eddy that takes us in a circle but couldn’t paddle fast enough! We ended up laughing so hard we could hardly paddle anywhere and eventually made it back to the steps. After sitting on the steps for a while, partially submerged, I wanted to go back to the cabin but there were bees everywhere. I finally got my stuff and headed back, but not without getting stung on the leg by stupid bee. Then, while hanging my suit out to dry I got stung by another one! I rinsed off because I felt really dirty, and put my suit right back on because we were all going on another float.

Around 2:30 the boat left the station and we went and fished for piranha using chicken fat as bait at the black water stream. David was the first to catch one, and then Lindsey caught one too! The boat driver caught a Lisa fish; we kept all three to take back and eat at dinner tonight. While some people were fishing, others of us decided to play in the mud on the shore. It was the coolest feeling mud ever! Annie even got down on the ground and covered her entire body in it – unfortunately, as we were all playing in it we didn’t think about getting clean because the river right there had a lot of piranhas and sting rays. Luckily that ended up not being a big deal at all because we got in the boat, went to the middle of the river, and were able to jump out and swim!

We all wore life jackets for safety, and pretty much just drifted downstream in the current for a while. David got in with us and had a good time dunking people (including myself). Some people peed in the river because David said it was ok, but then Maller said peeing in the river was not a good idea because there was a high probability that some parasite or fish could swim up into you…I really hope he was joking (don’t worry, I didn’t use the river as a toilet). After about 30 minutes of floating down the river we got back in the boat because we needed to get back to the station and it was still a bit further. Some people had tried to swim back – we ended up picking up Sam, Tom, and one other person – only Forrest and Jon actually made it all the way back by swimming. Maller said it was about 7 km that they swam! And when we were getting back we saw a caiman on shore but decided not to tell the boys that were still in the water…

Once we got back, we showered and the ecology group had to go listen to some more oral presentations. While I was able to stay awake during Danielles, I couldn’t keep my eyes open during Zim’s. Finally it was dinner time: mashed potatoes, chicken, and salad = so yummy. Overall the food here in Tiputini has been better than back in Quito by far! When dinner ended, Timoteo talked to us a little bit about Huaroni culture because he didn’t want Tomas to represent the Huaroni in the way he had the night before. Timoteo is much more into keeping the culture and traditions and trying to save the indigenous people’s ways. Basically he made all the girls swoon as he talked because by this point we were all in love with him.

Then we got to go on a night hike! We split into three groups, and I went with Timo because I had fun talking with him. In our group was me, Caroline, Katie K, Steph, Danielle, Shawna M, and Zim. We saw lots of bugs, spiders, tarantulas, and tons of other poisonous stuff. I even held a gigantic millipede! (Emily gave me a kiss on the cheek for that because she was very proud of me). The trail Timo took us on was very clearly not frequently traveled, so it was kind of hard to walk along but very cool none-the-less. By the time we got back to camp the generators were turned off again, so we had to pack in the dark. Everything was just gross and sweat and I had the worst time sleeping. I woke up around 2:30am to go to the bathroom and ended up sleeping on the floor the rest of the night because the beds were just gross and damp and moldy. Morning could not have come sooner for me – I was ready to be dry again. We had breakfast, got our shirts (which was good for me because I didn’t have one to wear on the trip home), said our goodbyes, and loaded the boat. Now for the long journey back to Quito where I will finally be dry!
Adios Tiputini!