Rainforest life

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Hello again. Sorry about the lack of entry last week for anyone who was expecting one, but the internet is so slow out here that I have spent the last 45 minutes sitting here just waiting for this page to load... it gets a little bit frustrating after a while.

So my life in the jungle continues. Lots of the activities that we do are the same, so I´ll just write a bit about some of the newer and more exciting things.

This week we have started up a new project: collecting and identifying butterflies. I think I have decided that they are some of my favourite animals in the rainforest. There are some absolutely amazing ones. My favourites are blue morphos - they are very large, about 12 cm wide, and bright, metalic blue with blacik around the edges. We haven´t managed to catch one yet, but they are beautiful just to watch fluttering along in the jungle. So over the past two weeks we have spent a lot of time making butterfly traps and then setting them up at strategic intervals. Apparently a butterfly´s treat of choice is vinegar soaked banana. We were going to use rum and coke, but everyone found better uses for the rum...

Another new activity this week was bridge building. There is a creek that we use for drinking water and swimming that cuts off the lodge from the path that leads to the farm. There is actually a bridge there, but because it´s coming to the end of the wet season and the creek is so deep, it´s usually a few feet underwater, and now it´s starting to break altogether. We have been using a canoe boat to paddle across, but that too is rapidly degenerating... it´s got holes in both sides, and every time you get in it you have to sit there voraciously bailing water out with a bottle so that you don´t sink before you get to the other side. So we´re now in the process of building a bridge that´s high enough to stay above the water.

Hmm, I can´t really think of much else new and exciting... I caught my first frog the other day, which was a personal triumph. But it was a failry common one, so I let it go straight after. We also went on another caiman hunt the other day, and this time we caught a dwarf caiman, which is even rarer than the black we caught last time. It was small but nippy... Stuart had to run back to the boat pretty fast after he let it go on the sand.

On Friday of this week we went to see a man who is known only as Enrique... or occasionally "the Jungle man". Enrique used to be part of an indiginous tribe that live down the river from us, but he parted with them about 8 years ago. For a long time he made his living through hunting for taricaya turtle eggs, but then the staff at the lodge helped him to set up his own sort of business. He has built some examples of tradtional huts that the tribes build and he does a sort of showy talk where he explains about their ways of life, shows you bows and arrows, and then tops it off by bringing out a rainbow boa for people to wrap around their necks. His style was a little odd... but it was still a pretty entertaining way to spend an afternoon. He also sells jewellery... I didn´t think it would be possible to shop in the middle of the rainforest, but apparently it is... so I now have even more bracelets.

I think that´s about all the news for the week! xxx

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Comments

[Joya]

Learning lots from you!!!
I keep having to "googlise" all your words like "caiman" (very cute), etc. as well as a vinegar soaked banana (yuck!)...take care alex!