Blogs from Shiripuno River, East, Ecuador, South America

I have just been told off. “Would you stop looking at facebook and write a blog?!” Its about the 10thtime iv been told so here I am! Blog time! :) Thank goodness I have a giant bag of choclate eclair lollies next to me to help get me through! The last day in the Amazon... We woke up early this am as the Huaorani's don't understand the meaning of sleep in or even sleep! At about 5am we heard them up and about but managed to doze in our very comfortable tent till about 7am. We both actually slept pretty well despite me naturally being bitten by mossies up and down both arms. This time my legs were safe! Ben naturally got no bites. We were up for breakie at 8am and they had made us ... read more

We had talked our guide, Hamir, into the slightly later start of 8am for breakfast. Rach and I had pretty good sleeps with the rainforest sounds to keep us company for the night. Unfortunately, there must've been a rogue mosquito buzzing through Rach's bed because when she woke, her legs were covered in mozzy bites. Me on the other hand got away itchy-bite free. We woke up however at 730am and it was bucketing down - let's hope it's a morning shower. We got up and freshened up with a nice cold shower as our lil huts don't have hot water! (well, I had a cold shower, and Rach sort of patted her limbs not wanting to get anywhere near the freezing cold water). We then headed off to the other hut for breaky. Carmen, one ... read more

Dear Friends, It had been a while I haven´t post. Shiripuno is getting better and better;now there is no loggers anymore,weare encountering bigger mammals such as Jaguar, Pumas, Tapirs, Peccaries; despiting with the seven species of monkeys and the 450 species of birds. Macaws are so abundat that you want to shut them, very noicy animals. Christmas is coming and the bird count to. See you there guys,... read more

Dear friends, Shiripuno Amazon Lodge and Shiripuno Research Center, whose mission in the Huaorani Reserve is to promote ecotourism and tropical ecological studies, invite you to the very first bird survey of the Shiripuno area. . May 7-13, 2007 (Monday to Sunday) From Coca, the Shiripuno Amazon Lodge is seven hours from Coca (three hours by car and four hours by motorized canoe) The Shiripuno River is located about 75 km southeast of Coca and just outside the Yasuni National Park boundaries, has a wide variety of habitats, such as terra firme, old vàrzea, riparian forest, small oxbow lakes, clay licks, moriche swamps, and small streams. A check of the “Birds of Ecuador” by Robert S.Ridgely and Paul J. Greenfield reveals that the avifauna of this area is little studied and poorly known. Our Goal: ... read more

I´ll keep this one quick. In the morning we went to the local indigenous community. On the way into the jungle, we each had to pay them $20 because we were technically on their land. $20, FYI is a fortune out here. So we were expecting quite a show when we went to visit them. Well, let´s just say we didn´t get it. The community was very basic, but they didn´t take particularly good care of their land, and in the school all the desks and chairs were tipped over. It was still pretty amazing to see how a community could live out in the rainforest and how they survived, but I´m not exactly sure where that $20 is going. The four hour boat ride back was a pleasure. We saw tons of birds and even ... read more