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Published: March 31st 2007
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The end of my second week in the rainforest, and it’s really starting to feel like home. Although I am finding it very hard to remember exactly what I did this week… Everything is so laid back here that I keep finding time drifting away. Jobs that I have done this week include:
Reptile traps - these are basically buckets that they set up along a line of plastic sheeting, dug into the ground. The hope is that frogs, snakes and other reptiles will fall into them. But we mostly found tarantulas. Seven of them. It is strange to think that before I arrived here, I would certainly be running as fast as I possibly could in the other direction if I saw a tarantula. Now I just peer closely and then set it loose.
Eco walk - one morning Stuart, one of the people that run the lodge, took us on a walk through the rainforest and explained about some of things that we see every day but never really know what they are. He told us why the various roots of the trees were shaped the way they are, and what adaptations various plants have for
living in the rainforest. It brought back strong memories of geography lessons, except the closest thing that we came to the rainforest then was David Attenborough videos. This way was a lot more exciting. On the way back, as well as collecting a few frogs, we found a tortoise, about 20 cm long. It was very cute. We brought it back to the lodge and fed it some papaya, but it turns out that tortoises are a lot more speedy than everyone would have you believe, and it soon escaped back into the rainforest.
Coffee peeling and picking - one of the projects that is currently running at new farm is coffee growing, as it is a crop that doesn’t take up too much space yet could potentially bring in a lot of income for local farmers without them having to cut down new areas of rainforest. The first stage is picking the beans, which are red and green, and the second is soaking them to make the skins easier to peel off, which is the next stage in the process. They are all rather boring jobs, but it is satisfying to think that eventually real coffee will be produced.
Painting a tree frog on the side of the bungalow - all over the lodge we have pictures that volunteers have painted in the past, and as there are now some newly built bungalows that have yet to be decorated, this week I got my turn. I copied a bright green tree frog from a wildlife book. This means that I am once again covered in paint. But it was worth it. I’m rather proud of him.
Introduction talk - Rachel, one of the staff members, explained to us what the various projects that we have running at Taricaya are, as well as a bit about the history of Taricaya. It has been running for about five years now. It was interesting to finally understand exactly why they have us picking coffee beans for hours on end in the sun. She also informed us that the name Taricaya is the name of a breed of turtle that exists in this part of the Amazon, and that the turtle project that we currently have running is for Taricaya turtles. Yesterday whilst we were sitting in the bar watching a film, Eugenio came into the bar holding a baby Taricaya turtle. They have little yellow patches on their legs, and they’re very cute. Not such a nice thing that was found in the bar yesterday was a Fleur de Lance snake, one of the most poisonous snakes that we get. Stuart chopped its head off with a machete. Everything around the lodge feels so safe that it’s a bit of a reality check when something like that happens, but I don’t think that there have yet been any volunteer deaths…
The most exciting day of the week was probably Wednesday. In the evening, Stuart gave us a talk on Camen, the crocodlians that live in the river which are one of his specialities. There are four types in total, and we commonly get two of them in the rivers around us, one of which is Black camen, the other of which I can’t remember… After supper, we all got in a boat and headed out to hunt for camen. I had heard much about these before… they involve Stuart shining a torch over the water, and then jumping on top of the caman and wrestling it into the boat… this all sounded a bit risky, but apparently if you hold their jaws in the right way, it is reasonably easy to keep them shut… It was about 45 minutes before we found anything (Stuart said that he was starting to get rather despondent) but then Stuart started flashing his torch about on the river bank, and we pulled over so Stuart could get out. A minute later, he emerged holding an 80cm long caman. He brought it into the middle of the boat and explained a bit about it, and then he brought it back to the lodge so that he could photograph it before we set it free.
After the caman hunt, myself and three other volunteers decided that we would go and sleep on the canopy platform for the night. We set off at 9.30 for the half hour walk through the rainforest, feeling very adventurous. It is pretty hard work, involving lots of mud and a number of very narrow rope bridges, made even harder by the fact that it was pitch black. When you arrive at the bottom of the tree there are a number of ladders to climb, and then you arrive at a platform where you have to remove your wellies before you clmib the final rope bridge as it is so slippy and sleep. At the end of the rope bridge, there is one final ladder to reach the canopy platform. The platform itself is about a 5 metre square, and at 42 metres high is one of the highest rainforest canopy platforms in South America. Once we arrived we set up mosquito nets and chatted for a while whilst looking up at the moon through the leaves before setting down for a rather uncomfortable night´s sleep.
The next day we had to get up at 6 to walk back for morning activities. That evening we had a birthday party for two members of the group. The theme was come as something that begins with the first letter of your name. Eventually I settled on an unimaginative Alice in Wonderland. Unless you decide to come as a tree, it is pretty hard to find a costume in the rainforest. We spent most of the night dancing in the bar area. Thankfully someone had the forsight to cancel bird obs at 5.45, so Friday was a pretty relaxing day. In the afternoon we had a talk on bats, and then on Saturday we headed back to Puerto.
This week there are lots of new volunteers arriving and lots leaving, about which I have mixed feelings, but at any rate it will be all change!
Missing everyone at home xxx
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Nicky
non-member comment
Ummm Miss Blake, are you sure you're telling the truth about you reaction to the tarantulas...