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Published: March 10th 2007
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So this blog took a while to get to you, hope it was worth the wait...
After a 3 hour road trip from La Paz to Coroico on the "World's Most Dangerous Road" (which actually wasn't much scarier than lots of roads in the Andes of Peru and Bolivia), we found ourselves in a little town surrounded by cloud forests and farms. There were lots of hikes available in the surrounding areas, and we chose one that visited a few nearby waterfalls. Little did we know the purpose of our trip would be much more than getting to the falls.
We started off by passing some coca plantations- which look a bit like coffee plantations, but smaller. These particular plants aren´t used to make anything illegal. In most any restaurant you go to in Bolivia and Peru, they´ll serve "mate de coca", or coca tea. It´s used for all kinds of ailments including altitude sickness and stomach problems. They even sell little coca candies. The Indigenous people regularly chew the leaves to help them to work longer in the high altitude. We even visited a Coca Museum that explained how people have been using coca leaves for thousands
of years. It hadn't been a problem until North American people chemically isolated certain parts of it and made it into a drug that people abuse. Very interesting, anywhoooooo.....
Between plantations we discovered these 2 dung beetles on the path, and guess what they were playing with? That's right, donkey dung! Now correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe they role the dung into a ball, bury it in the ground, and lay eggs in it. What a way to come into the world, in a pile of ****! ( Wasn't able to put the video on the blog/ sorry!) We also came across these neat "sap sucking hopper guys" I'll call them, all living on a single plant.
As we entered into the more forested areas, suddenly we were surrounded by different shades of green with multiple kinds of butterflies and birds twittering around us. Then I saw him- cuteness of cuddly fluff yet gruff, with a green shimmer on his back, sitting in the middle of the trail; the littlest hummingbird.
He must have fallen from his nest just moments before we arrived. He was almost big enough to fly. Must have been practising
and got just a bit too confident. If I hadn't been looking down I might have gone right past, or worse, stepped on him. I had to do something. So I scooped him up into my hand, and Stevie and I began the search for his nest. We then noticed who I think was the parent, frantically calling out and flying from tree to tree around us. Every once and a while the baby would answer back with a little chirp. Stevie climbed up the steep hill by the trail through all kinds of prickly things in search. Meanwhile, we're both getting feasted on by all kinds of blood sucking flying and jumping things.
A while went by and we had no luck finding the nest, they're usually hidden under big leaves hanging from the trees. I remembered hummingbirds need to eat about every 20 minutes to maintain their high energy levels. So, we had to act fast. We played mother bird. Using a sugar candy we luckily had brought, I sucked on it and then spit the juice onto my finger. The little bird happily lapped the sugar/spit concoction up. We just couldn't find the nest and weren´t
sure what to do. Do we put the bird back on the ground- you know, the circle of life and all, let nature takes its course. But I just couldn't do it. I felt like we were there to give this little bird a chance in life. It had gained our trust and its mom was there ready to care for it. I had an idea- if we can´t find the old nest, let's make a new one!
Good ol'Stevie had his trusty bandana tied to his backpack that he takes on every trip. He happily donated it to the hummingbird project. We picked a safe spot near where we found him, and wrapped it securely around the tree like a basket. Now we had to get him in. No problem, he hopped right in! Then it was time for us to go and let Momma Hummingbird take over.
We continued our hike. The waterfalls were cool, but we were a little disappointed in them because there were fences and junk closing them in. But it was a beautiful day and we had such an incredible experience- to be able to hold a baby hummingbird, and feed it
and keep it alive, truly unforgettable. We were a bit nervous what we would find upon returning. Would he still be in the nest? Would Momma Hummingbird accept our contraption? We would see.
As we rounded the corner our hearts jumped! Momma was in our homemade bandana nest! Yeay! We learned afterwards from a friend that hummingbirds also make and change nests frequently, good news for the baby!
Every once in a while we'll be sitting around at night and one of us might ask the other- "what do you think the baby hummingbird is up to? Do you think he's flying yet?"
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Bobbie & Don
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You Guys are Great!
What an amazing story! You guys are so amazing, loving, kind, what more can I say! The best!!! We all love you and miss you and are so glad your adventure is as enriching as it seems to be. Hope it gets even better!