The Amazon Jungle

NOTE: The day before my trip, I went to go get my haircut. An unfortunate language barrier resulted in a more unfortunate communication mishap which resulted in the most of all unfortunate incident, a bald Josh.
Regards,
Josh

Along with the other study trips, we also go to the Ecuadorian Amazon for two days. We went to the Tiputini BioReserve Station, a research laboratory located in the middle of pristine Ecuadorian Rainforest. The station is managed by the Universidad of San Fransisco, Quito. However, scientists from all over the world pay a small fee to use the facilities and conduct their own independent projects. The facility has dormitories, a dining hall, and a state of the art research lab, all in the middle of the jungle.
A typical dorm room

The facility runs off of gas powered generators and purified water from the Tiputini river. When I was there, there was a group of US scientists from National Geographic who were studying the family dynamic of Howler monkeys. Some students from Boston University were there as well as assistants.
In order to get to the station, we took a 45 minute plane ride from Quito, to Coca, Ecuador. We then took a boat up the river for 2 hours, boarded a bus for another 2 hours, then took another boat for another 2 hours. We passed through a Repsol Oil checkpoint in order to reach the station.
Chillin on the roof of the bus



The last boat we took to get from the bus to the station


The stairs from the Tiputini River to the bio reserve station. With consistent rains, the water rises to the fourth staircase, about 25 feet.

Not surprisingly, one of the leading threats to the Amazon ecosystem is oil exploration. Numerous foreign oil companies have literally purchased sections of the Amazon from the government of Ecuador. They control all activity within their zone, and have gone so far as to hire private armies to maintain order. However, they only protect current exploration projects and abandon dried up wells. The native tribes, the Waorani and the Kichwa, are supposedly "provided" for by the big oil companies.
Just like everybody else, we had to pass through a military checkpoint in the middle of the jungle. Complete with camoflage soldiers with M16s, army barracks, and a metal detector to check your stuff, it was a rather peculiar experience. Photography is strictly prohibited inside the checkpoint. On our bus ride, we were accompanied by a group of Waorani children who were coming home from school. Sadly enough, Oil exploration has led to many non direct threats to the Amazon ecosystem. The first night in Tiputini, we had a presentation on it. In order to harvest the oil, large roads are carved through the jungle. Not only does that disrupt the environment, but it also leads to a number of other problems as well: illegal settlement along the newly created roadways, illegal wood harvesting, and illegal hunting. Sadly enough, due to the nature of oil employment (which is the only thing available to the natives who live within oil territory) many native tribes have turned to the only thing that they have for free in order to survive: the land itself. Since they know it well, they are experts at big game hunting and make a lot of money in the animal trade and meat industries. Sadly, they tax the ecosystem to an unhealthy point. But there isn't many other options for them since big oil pays horribly and more money is made in the fur and meat trades. Even more sad is the fact that nearly 50% of Ecuador's revenue comes from oil taxes, so the illegal activity is not going to stop anytime soon. The government needs the money way too badly. On a brighter note, the Tiputini Bioreserve Station is located in a protected piece of virgin jungle, so I was fortunate to see some really cool stuff.
Along with our Naturalist guides, we went on different walks through the jungle. The explained the different flora and fauna to us, none of which I remember in any great detail, but it was still really cool to see. We had to wear big rain boots (the same ones I wore in San Clemente when I went bug hunting) due to the muddiness of the pathways.

One of the many cool looking trees.

A spiky tree my friend tried to push me into

A leaf bug on a leaf.

A flower and a bug

A tree with a lot of stuff growing on it

A jungle bridge

Birds of paradise

A milipede
A blob

another jungle bridge

A frog
Me doing my best impression of Tarzan, by swinging on a jungle vine.

A vine called the "monkey's ladder" because monkeys use it to ascend to the treetops.

A cool jungle scene



Some monkeys that we found. One of them peed on me. It really sucked.

The culprit. Well maybe not the exact one, but part of the same species. Although he's cute, he urinates a lot for a little guy.

The same little buggers who urinated on me. This time, up close and personal.

One night we went out to see Kaman, or little crocodiles. We found one. The next day we went swimming in the same river.

Here is me spearing my friend off the boat into Kaman infested waters

The bioreserve station also built a series of catwalks in the middle of the jungle. Sitting at about 60 feet in the air, they provide a fantastic view of the tree tops and the vastly different ecosystem that lives there:

One of the catwalk towers built around a tree trunk.

The catwalk

A view from the catwalk

Chillin on the catwalk in my harness and rain boots.

One of the planks was missing from the catwalk. Good thing we were wearing harnesses!

My Captain Morgan "Do you have some Cap'n in You?" Pose.

Treetop view from the catwalks


There was another ladder on top of the catwalks that allowed you to ascend to an even higher point, around 150 feet above the jungle floor.

A view down from the highest platform


A view from the highest platform

another day we hiked to a lake and cruised around on a little skiff. I had a few butterfly visitors who kindly landed on my arm.

our skiff

My butterfly friends


Two of them landed on my arm at once!

That day I also ate some "lemon ants," which taste like, well, lemon. I ate a lot of them because I was hungry.

It rained there. A lot. But I was prepared with my Lacoste Raincoat, rain pants, and rain boots. Legiiiiiiiit.

Besides a lot of rain, there were a lot of mosquitos. They loved me.

Well that was my trip to the Amazon! I only have a month before I go home, but there will be plenty of adventures still to come!