Journey into a World UnknownDavid O’Donnell

Foreword

I’ve been meaning to recount my recent trip to the Amazon and let everyone in on the action. Initially, I was going to briefly summarize everything – maybe a page long – but I felt compelled to continue adding material in an effort to do my experience justice. This is the end result. It’s a long entry straight out of my journal, so I tend to ramble and get way too descriptive. Anyway, the trip was incredible; I hope you enjoy.

Monday, January 18, 2010

We got to Tiputini biodiversity station late in the afternoon, after a lot of travel…

At 7am, we took a bus from USFQ (my school’s campus) to the airport in Quito. We flew to a place called Coca (flight ~ half an hour), where we saw some cool parrots, toucans and horny monkeys. They came close to us, looking for food. I squatted down for some pictures, and the toucan hopped within a foot from me, dangerously eyeing my pockets with his massive beak. Later buddy … I got out of there.

[Haha]

From there, we took a boat down the Rio Napo (~ 2 hours), then hopped off at a security checkpoint where they scanned all our bags. We took another bus down some dirt roads (~ 2 hrs) until we reached the Tiputini River. Finally, another boat ride in store (~1.5 hrs).

There were a lot of mangled branches and logs from fallen trees jutting above the water’s surface or lying just beneath out of sight, capable of some serious motor damage; every so often we’d hear ominous scraping from beneath the boat… The water was just as you’d expect – a thick shade of light brown – so you couldn’t see any of the massive anacondas lying in wait to stake their claim on our flesh.

[Tiputini River]

We finally reached the station’s dock, and from there we had to climb a high-ass wooden staircase (maybe 100 feet vertically) with all our bags. Of course, with my athletic physique, I wasn’t phased... [I’m joking with the arrogance … but seriously.] The cafeteria (and adjoining kitchen) was the first building in view right at the top of the stairs. The dining area was elevated from the ground, and it didn’t have walls, just a roof and railings. Cool stuff eating there everyday, totally surrounded by jungle.

[Owl-faced Moth, right corner]

We gathered in the cafeteria, and one of the guys working at the station went over some tips to follow while living in the jungle. [Pretty basic stuff: wear long pants, don't go barefoot, don't touch the Congo Ants; their painful bite will put you out of commission for days.] After that, we checked out our cabins on the other side of the station. It was a decent hike to get there, down a sloping trail of slippery log steps, across a thin wooden bridge spanning a rivulet, continuing on the trail of logs (uphill this time). At the top of the hill, we came to the station’s library. [Equipped with classrooms, AC and dry boxes to keep electronics out of the humidity. Our cameras would’ve shit the bed otherwise.] From there, it was about a hundred more feet along a wooden boardwalk to the cabins.

The cabins were nice – very basic but just what you needed. Each one slept four people (2 bunk beds) and had a small bathroom with a shower (cold water only, but not even bad for being in the Amazon). We got to pick our own cabins, so I snagged a good one with a couple other kids (at the back corner of the lot, right up against the jungle's edge). Then we went down and had dinner (served at 7:30 every night).

After dinner, we had a class discussion. This was basically an information session about the local problems facing the Ecuadorian Amazon. Indigenous peoples are losing their cultural history due to encroachment from the modern world, and vast tracts of forest are chopped down for various uses (major causes are agriculture, cattle ranching, and road construction to access oil sites). There’s no support system for any conservation efforts because the Ecuadorian government is in shambles. [They threw their previous three presidents out of office.] The talk was enlightening… and disappointing.

On that bright note… after the discussion, it was time for bed. They served breakfast at 6:30 sharp every morning. If you’re not there, you don’t eat. […You snooze, you lose… cheesy saying, but I had to do it.] As I lied in bed waiting to fall asleep, the sounds of the jungle resonated in my ears. So many noises of insects, birds, frogs, monkeys … everything combined into one awesome mess. Surprisingly, it was very calming. I fell asleep quickly and only woke up once in the middle of the night (5am) to take a leak. I decided to utilize Mother Earth as my bathroom. It was still dark when I walked outside; I could tell the sun was getting closer to the horizon, but still dark. I looked up at the night sky to the tune of thousands of stars. So I went back inside to grab my glasses, then came out again and stared up for about five minutes… the best bathroom I’ve ever been in.

Tuesday, January 19

We ate well in the morning. Thick pancakes with fruit were a pleasant surprise, and they had one of the best creations known to man – peanut butter, jars at every table. Then it was time for a day loaded with some quality jungle exploration. They split us into three groups so that we could travel more smoothly, and each group had a local guide. [They only spoke Spanish. I enjoyed that, good practice.] So my group began trekking through the jungle. Our destination: the canopy tower.

On the way there, we saw a couple of monkeys moving silently high in the trees. We also found a tree with Lemon Ants tending to it. The ants get their name from their taste – as in, they taste like lemon – and yeah, we totally ate them. I couldn’t really taste anything (probably because I was chewing gum), but I didn’t care; I just wanted to eat ants “loaded with vitamins and protein” (imagine the Bear Grylls accent).

We hiked further on and got to the tower a minute or two later. The thing was massive, a gigantic emergent tree; it reached above the entire canopy. A steel framework staircase rose up alongside and led to a huge lookout platform in the top of the tree. I don't know how high it was, but I counted the sets of stairs as I zigzagged up – 22 total. Each set had six stairs. Sources tell me that’s 132 steps up in the air.

[Base of the emergent tree]

[Looking up] [View from the framework, halfway up]

I got to the top and the sights were ridiculous, an endless view over a sea of trees straight out to the horizon. We saw a few monkeys bouncing around and a lot of different birds. My camera screen wasn’t working too well at this point so I had to do some guesswork point and shoot, but the pictures came out surprisingly well. We stayed up there for a good while just enjoying the views, then headed back down. Naturally, I took my time with this part (as with most things in my life); I wanted to stay up there as long as possible to soak in everything, so when the second to last person was on the ground, I still had to climb down about 8 flights of stairs.

[Above the canopy]

We hit the ground again, and someone pointed out a hollow mess of vines in the form of a big tree – Strangler Fig vines. They grew up around the tree, fully encasing it, and the tree suffocated as they grew larger. With time, the corpse withered away to dust. I’ve definitely seen a show about Strangler Figs – Planet Earth, maybe. I never figured I’d see them in real life (because I never thought I’d be in the Amazon Rainforest), so that was a cool encounter.

[Strangler Fig] [From inside, looking up]

Our next destination was a series of rope bridges at the top of the canopy, which joined three separate lookout platforms within emergent treetops. After about 15 minutes, we found the high metal staircase up to the bridges. We would need to wear harnesses latched to an overhead rope when crossing each bridge, so the guide pulled a mess of harnesses out of his pack and untangled them… only to realize he was one short. I was the odd man out, so I made the rounds across the swaying +100-foot-high bridges without any insurance of survival…

No, not really. [I’m so hilarious.] I climbed the stairs without the harness and then waited at the top until the first person finished. Soon after, it was my turn to suit up. I fit the harness on, latched it and went on my merry way. I felt a bit like an action hero (…Rambo, perhaps) as I swayed back and forth across each bridge.

The views were the same as those from the tree tower – incredible, just from different vantages. On the final platform there was a tall ladder, reaching up to a small wooden shelf at the top of the tree. Nothing to it but to do it. I climbed up, plopped on and soaked in all the glorious landscape. The sights all around blew my mind; I was higher now than at any point before. After a few minutes of appreciation, I climbed back down the ladder, then crossed the bridge to the staircase and descended to the jungle floor.

[High in the sky] [Crazy views]

At this point, we headed back to the station to get some much needed grub. [Lunch was at 12 everyday.] After that, it was time for some more exploration.

So our last venture of the day was to a small pond in the jungle, and there was a 5-person wooden canoe waiting for us when we got there. Three other classmates and I waited on the shore as the first half of our group paddled out with the guide.

[Amigos] [The safari hat makes the picture.]

The others got back after about 20 minutes, and the rest of us hopped in and shoved off. Not even a minute into the float, we saw a Caiman hanging out in the shallows. [If you’re wondering, a Caiman is like a small crocodile.] It was hard to spot at first; its eyes and nose just reached above the water’s surface, and its body blended well with the murky water. After a few minutes ogling at it, we paddled on around the edge of the pond and enjoyed the scenery. We saw a few different types of exotic birds and one small turtle hanging in the middle of the pond, and that was about it. We made one roundabout and then hit the shore again to make our way back to the station. On

the hike back, we saw a decent-sized three-legged tortoise with some orange coloring. …There was nothing too special about it (besides the three-legged part); I just thought I’d mention it. We also spotted a few other things with some awesome colors and markings. Check them out below.

[Jungle pond] [Guide scaring the tortoise]

[This thing’s awesome]

We got back with about an hour and a half to kill before dinner, so we just sat around the cafeteria… drank some tea, a ton of water – maybe six tall glasses – [I’ve recently discovered that water is the elixir of life.], mowed down some cookies and grenadillas (sweet South American fruits. You crack them open and eat the contents, which look like fish eggs.)… some good, gluttonous relaxation time after a long day. After dinner, we met with our teacher briefly to go over plans for the next day. Then, time for some much needed sleep.

[Amazonian Sunset – 1/19/2010]

Wednesday, January 20

The next morning, we met after breakfast to form groups for a field experiment. The experiment involved using dog poop to see how many Dung Beetles we could attract to three different sites in the jungle. [I know, such a riveting adventure.] On the way to the sights, we saw a lot of Howler Monkeys in the trees overhead. They sounded really cool, and weird; sometimes it seemed just like the sound of the wind, very faint, and other times it was much louder and raspy (when they were marking their territory). I thought they were mating… or masturbating... I eventually got my mind out of the gutter.

It wasn’t long before we arrived at the experiment sites. We spent an hour and a half there, total. [A long time to be watching flies swarm around a lump of smelly shit, but I used that time wisely. I appreciated the jungle surroundings, and of course, I kept myself busy with some widdling.] We saw a few dung beetles and they surprisingly looked pretty cool – green and shiny, like metal. A couple of them teamed up to roll the poop wad into a ball and transport it under some leaves. It was so exciting…

[Teamwork]

After the experiment, we met back at the station to discuss our results, which turned out to be inconclusive. I think we were supposed to see more Dung Beetles as the day progressed. Those feces hoarders are just a big enigma. We had lunch and then went back out for another hike through the jungle.

We got a new guide for this hike, and he had a bit of a different style; he was a lot more interactive. At one point, we spotted a tiny Poison Dart Frog (about the size of a fingernail and with awesome colors). Our guide picked it up and held it out to us for some pictures. I was thinking… definitely not a good idea to hold that thing. Farther down the trail, he found a strong thick vine hanging down from a tree, and we all took turns swinging on it (Tarzan style, at least twenty feet through the air).

[Poison Dart Frog] [Fun time]

Later on, the guide found some sort of plant that he wanted us to chew on for two minutes and then spit out. I was tentative; he had touched the frog and now was handing out this plant, but I stuck it in my mouth anyway. [Very stupid in retrospect; I got severe diarrhea because my body had to flush out the toxins… No, that didn’t happen. I probably would’ve died if I actually ingested poison.] End result of the plant chewing, it made our tongues green. I asked him about the frog afterwards, and he had cleaned his hands right after handling it… so I’m not dead right now.

So when we got back to the station, we waited around for a little while, watched the sunset (amazing; see for yourself), then ate dinner.

[Sunset – 1/20/2010]

After that, we went on a slow night cruise down the river to try to see some wildlife. This was fun, even though I was having trouble staying awake. [Jungle hikes can be tiring.] Our teacher stood at the front of the boat (a long wooden boat with a canopy roof and two benches lining both sides), and he scanned the river and shore with a powerful flashlight while we sat in silence, immersed in darkness. We saw a Caiman right on the shore where we entered the boat. This one was pretty small, like the one from the pond. Down the river, we saw a Capybara (a huge rodent); it scurried into the shadows within a few seconds of lamplight. There wasn’t much else – a few turtles on logs, and that’s about it. I was holding out for some Anacondas… but no go.

I went to bed as soon as we returned because there was an optional morning hike to visit the canopy tower for some bird watching. [Birds weren’t motivating me; I just wanted to get up there again.]

Thursday, January 21

We had to leave at 5:30am, but it was worth it. I got some great pictures. [My camera screen somehow repaired itself Wednesday morning – awesome timing.] There were birds, though I don’t know which ones. [Macaws for sure, but who knows what else.] We saw some more monkeys up there too. It’s always cool to observe some monos. […That’s Spanish for monkeys.]

[Above the canopy, panorama shot]

They packed a breakfast for us, a lot of carbs and not a lot else – 2 PB & J sandwiches heavy on bread and light on peanut butter (not the easiest to eat. A lot of salivation required…), 6 oreos, 4 lemon cookies, crackers and orange juice. It looks like protein was running low today… It was the epitome of an unbalanced breakfast, but I still downed it all. I find that these days, if you put food in front of me, I’m going to eat it. Resources are scarce… and you can always stuff your face if you drink a boatload of water. [Seriously, it cranks your metabolism to full gear – the elixir of life.]

We got back to the station around 8am, just in time to begin the final class discussion. Our teacher divided us into four groups and asked us to come up with solutions to the jungle’s conservation issues (deforestation, indigenous peoples losing their cultures, etc.). We came up with some ideas and met again at 10:30 to discuss everything. You might’ve guessed by now that discussions weren’t too enthralling, comparatively, so I’ll exclude those. After class, we went down for lunch, and followed that up with some downtime back in the cabins.

At about 2:30, it was time for the river float down the Amazon; the plan was to jump into the river with lifejackets and let the current carry us. We all descended to the dock and got in the long wooden boat. After motoring along the river for maybe half an hour, the guides banked the boat on the shore and we started fishing off the side with some wooden poles, hooks and raw meat. Our objective: man-eating piranhas.

A couple of people caught some catfish, but that was all – an anticlimactic experience. We still had a good time with it. After fishing, we put lifejackets on and leaped into the water. [It wouldn’t seem like a great idea after baiting piranhas and who-knows-what-else with bloody raw meat, but I guess piranhas don’t eat humans or big animals (…unless they’re severely short on food). As for the other unknown creatures, we took our chances.] Then we just floated down for about forty-five minutes, slow and easy. The boat eventually picked us up and we cruised back to the station. I had gotten cold from being in the water for so long, and the wind whipping past my body compounded the feeling to where I was shivering pretty uncontrollably. It was sweet salvation to finally get back on land.

We sat around for a little while. Then it was time for dinner, which was delicious tonight – chicken, corn, mashed potatoes and green beans. I licked the bones clean and ate the cartilage… You wouldn’t guess, but its tasty stuff and probably good for you. [And yeah, I’m pretty weird sometimes.]

Then we grabbed our flashlights for a night hike through the jungle, the last adventure we’d have at Tiputini. We met with our guides at 9pm and went on our way. Along the trail, many huge spiders (some of them poisonous) waited placidly on intricate web-work for their next meal. Our guide seemed excited rather than afraid when we passed by the poisonous ones. [“It’s very poisonous,” he’d croon with a Golem-like grin on his face and a glint in his eye.] We saw a bunch of other massive insects all around, and we found a small snake that we took turns handling. Its skin was smooth, and it moved delicately around my fingers.

[These aren’t from the night hike, but they are massive insects.]

[Tarantula] [God knows]

At the farthest point into the jungle, we stopped and turned off our flashlights, then briefly stood in silence to listen to the sounds of the jungle. We waited as noisy darkness enveloped us with each

extinguished light. The sounds were amazing, just as the first night in my cabin. I suppose it all came full circle with this final appreciation.

Our trek into the jungle took about forty-five minutes, but we hadn’t ventured far; we had stopped often to observe… the creatures of the night. The journey back to camp took no more than fifteen minutes – we were back by 10pm. Now, it was time for one final rest before our early departure.

Friday, January 22

I awoke at 6am to pack my things and bring everything down to the cafeteria in time for breakfast. Then we ate our last meal – hearty pancakes again, the same as the first morning (another full circle coming out of the woodwork). I warmed up with a bowl of granola cereal. Then, bring on the pancakes. I scarfed down one with fruit and honey, one with Aunt Jemima’s finest maple syrup, and had some peanut butter on the side for dipping. [Good eats.] With the last heaping down my gullet, it was finally time to get on the boat.

We plodded back down the immense wooden staircase to the dock, boarded ship and sailed off into the morning sun. So ends my unforgettable journey into a world unknown…

…I had a wild time.