Rain Forest Exposure

I close my eyes, the noise grows and continues to please the mind. there are songs of all forms, both beautiful and soothing. My mind begins to wander, then it settles into the flow and comes to rest. I wake and open my eyes to see only darkness. my senses are dancing and I am in the rain forest.

The past week and a half have been extremely busy for all of us here at the GAIAS program. Last Monday we traveled to a research station on the Tiputini River, which is completely immersed in tropical rain forest. We returned to Quito on Friday and we were given a days rest so that we could wash some laundry. Early Sunday we left for three days of travel around the Volcano alley south of Quito. Now I suppose I will go in depth about the trip details.

Tiputini Biodiversity Station
Leaving early Monday morning we were in for a full day of travel deep into the Amazon. Our itinerary consisted of a 30 min plane ride to Coca, 2 hour boat ride, 2 hour bus ride, then a final 2 hour boat ride to the station. On top of all that we were forced to wait in the town of Coca for an additional 2 hours. While we were waiting in Coca we decided to have a few beers and play cards. Eventually we were visited by a small group of about five spider monkeys that decided to cause a ruckus by throwing cards and tipping our beers over onto the table. We were able to distract them with some fruit and continue our game. The 2 hour boat ride after Coca was both long and painful as many of us had a few recreational beverages and were forced to hold our bladders.

We made it to the station at dusk and proceeded to consume a delicious prepared dinner. The rain forest during the night is probably the most amazing thing I have ever experienced. After dinner a group of us went down by the river and just listened to the forest symphony, completely content with silence. I was able to do this all four nights that we were at the station. One of the nights we heard what seemed to be a jaguar, which consisted of a loud noise then a series of low growls. I was fascinated with this experience but the other person I was with was very frightened and so we left. On site they had a designated hammock area with a roof and several hammocks I spent a good amount of the nights dozing of listening to the frogs, crickets, monkeys, and other assorted critters.

One of the purposes of this trip was to conduct an experiment for our tropical ecology class, which involved a study of dung beetles. We were looking at species abundance with relation to disturbed areas. In order to count the beetles we set up a series of traps with poo bait, sadly I was chosen to be the dung distributor on the first day. On most days we would go on long walks through the forest with the local guides who were able to point out insects on the underside of leaves, they had such a close relationship with the forest. We hike to a few canopy towers, which took us above the canopy for a better look at tree epiphytes and great views. Several times while in the treetops we were able to see large groups of wooly monkeys, which are fun to watch as they jump tree to tree.

On the second day, after collecting dung beetle data we hopped into a boat and traveled a few kilometers up stream. With life vests on we all jumped into the river for a long float back to the station. The cool part about this experience is that you get to see and hear the forest without the roar of a boat engine. During this float we saw a lot of birds and some of us were fortunate enough to spot a family of giant river otters before they ran into the woods. One of the biggest problems with this float was the fact that there is a type of parasite which will swim into your urethra if you pee in the water, this caused a lot of pain for some because as soon as they jumped into the river they had to pee really bad. We floated for about 2 hours so by the time we got back to the station these people were about to explode with urine.

The last night we spent in Tiputini the guides took us out on a night hike where we were able to see snakes, spiders, frogs, and all kinds of insects. Friday morning we had an early start once again. On Saturday I was able to find a cheap place to get my laundry done. Saturday night I took a cab to the airport in order to welcome Molly to Quito, I wasn’t sure which flight she was on but I had a rough guess of the arrival time. When I got there she was with her new host family and I surprised her with a big hug. It was so good to see her even if it was for a short time. Sunday morning we set out for the Cotopaxi Volcano. I’m tired of typing so I will talk about that trip some time soon. I will post the photos soon.