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Published: June 17th 2009
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On the Road
Oil Pipeline with rural housing in the background. A lot of Ecuador's wealth comes from oil and natural gases from the Oriente (amazon region) and yet little to no infrastructure or investments are developed in this area. Greetings,
This weekend we ventured into the Amazon for our second taste of life outside of Quito. It was a pretty epic journey. It takes about 10 hours to get to Tiputini Biodiversity Station from Quito and we needed a plane, 2 boats and 2 buses to make it there. Once we got there, it was so amazing.
The station was set up about 15 years ago by USFQ and Boston University and its primary focus is ecology and biology research. They have about 700 square acres in the middle of nowhere. We slept in little cabins and only had electricity a few hours a day and very limited water. They process all the water from the river and apparently its a very extensive and expensive process so we woke up every morning and didn't have any water. Needless to say, we were all a bit dirty but it was a nice change of pace. I really love not having the pressure to get dressed, put on any make up and try to look 'presentable'. We all just rolled out of bed each morning and put on the same mud caked clothes from the day before.
When we got there
Dig, Baby, Dig
New oil well being dug. the first night, we had a little bit of down time to relax and explore before dinner and our first hike. In that time, I took the opportunity to just sit in the little gazebo by the river and unwind from the ridiculously long day of traveling. As I sat there, I watched ants crawl around, the river pass by, and the sun start to set. After a while I noticed huge, dark clouds starting to roll in from the east. The air cooled off a bit, and the wind picked up and within 15 minutes, it was a torrential downpour. I really have never seen so much rain fall in my life. It was so loud that I had to scream to talk to one of the professors, who was sitting 5 feet away from me. The rain just pounded on the roof of the gazebo, the trees, the river, the ground, everything and it rained like that for hours. The rainstorm was awesome. It was definitely one of my favorite parts of the trip.
That night, after dinner, we went for a short hike through the woods. It was really freaky because it was pitch black and we
Our Second Bus
...yes.. we rode in this for 2 hours along unpaved bumpy roads. a bit uncomfortable but definitely worth the experience. weren't at all familiar with the trails yet. We all had flash lights but it was still crazy dark and I was convinced that a jaguar or anaconda was going to jump out and drag me into the woods at any minute. Obviously, that didn't happen though so all is well. We did see this GIANT!! grasshopper on a tree though. I think it was about the size of a lobster or huge crab and kind of resembled one because it was really colorful. It scared the living life out of me.
The second day, I had to skip the hike in the morning because I felt really sick but it was really nice to get some extra sleep. After lunch, my group headed to the canopy walk which was incredible!! We climbed up about 35 m to the main walkway. The canopy walk was basically several tree platforms connected by a series of rope bridges. I have officially decided that I want to live in tree houses for the rest of my life, which was always a dream but now I really won't accept anything else. It was so amazing to be up there. We were above the tree
line and could see forever!! I also saw some monkeys and a toucan, albeit they were pretty far away. I was pretty disappointed when we had to go back down to the ground but luckily, there are two other bird towers that my group climbed the next day. Afterward, we went out on the boat and went swimming in the river.
That night, we got to go for a boat ride after dinner. We went looking for Caiman (little alligators that live in the river) and we found 3 or 4. They were pretty scary looking but a lot smaller than I expected so that wasn't bad. My favorite part of the night was when we turned off all the lights and motor of the boat. We just floated for a couple of minutes (inevitably crashing into the river bank but it didn't cause any damage) and we could hear all the animals in the forest and see so many stars. There isn't any light pollution like in the city or at home so we were able to see almost every star and constellation. We saw a bunch of shooting stars too. It was an incredible experience.
The next day,
Sunday, we went on a couple more hikes. In the morning, my group headed to bird tower 2. Unfortunately, we didn't see much of anything while we were at the tower. It was raining while we were up there so apparently that keeps many of the animals from being out and visible. On the hike back though, we saw some cool spiders and conga and leaf cutter ants. Conga ants are about 2 inches long and will completely ruin your day, if given the chance. They have a poison that gives you a fever for about 12 hours if they bite you and possibly more serious consequences if its not treated. The leaf cutter ants are pretty cool, and generally harmless. They just bite off sections of leaves and then carry them on their backs, which look like little green fins. On our hike in the morning, too, Jose, our awesome guide, showed us how to make a backpack out of a type of palm tree and vines. Very stylish.
After lunch, we headed to the other bird tower. This time, we had a bit more luck and got to see a group of howler monkeys. They were in a
another view of canopy walk
... i really want to live here forever. tree about 30 m from us but they stayed there for a pretty long time and we got to watch them until we got bored because the monkeys were just sitting there. We also watched this lizard for a while as it crawled around our tree fort. It was pretty simple looking at first glance, but a couple of times, it showed off the skin under its chin which was bright red with orange and yellow stripes on it. It was pretty cool to watch it scurry around.
The next morning, monday, we packed up, ate breakfast and started our journey back to Quito. It felt good to come back and get a shower and everything but I'm definitely going to miss the rainforest. Its a lot more relaxing to fall asleep to forest sounds than to the sounds of sirens and airplanes.
This is our last week of class at USFQ which is pretty exciting. We leave for Galapagos on Saturday!
Hasta Tarde
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Gwenn Laragione
non-member comment
Hi Kat
Wow Kat! What an amazing adventure!!!! Your mom emailed this to me. I'm so glad she did. I hope you continue to have wonderful experiences! Stay safe and enjoy!!!!!