Friday was a good day for me! My face was magically all back to normal, and now I can get out there and see whatever there is to see! Yipee!
That day, I went to the lake, which is about 2 km from camp. We took one of the station’s boats. On the trail, we came across a highway of leaf cutter ants, and followed them back to their colony, which was (for lack of a better term) very cool. I want to do a big project on those guys! The ants don’t actually eat the leaves that they carry back to their colony; they use the leaves to cultivate the subterranean fungi that they do eat. The leaves that the workers carry back to the colony often have other ants, called hitchhikers, that ride along. These hitchhikers supposedly protect the worker from a parasite fly. There are other hypotheses as to the function of the hitchhiker, and I’m planning to look more into this.
Saturday, around midday, it finally stopped raining. It had been raining for over 16 hours. When we arrived at Tiputini, the river level was about 3 m, and now it’s at 9.1 meters. That’s why they call it the rainforest I guess.
After lunch, I went back to the lake with Eushavia and Ali to check on my precious leaf cutters. We took Guacamayo trail (3 km), which was partly underwater. It wasn’t too bad; none of the water got into our boots. When we finally got to the lake, we were unable to find the colony. I am easily turned around in this forest--every single tree looks almost the same to me. I am working on setting landmarks and making better mental notes of where I am coming from.
We eventually gave up and started walking back to the trail, where we found Meyer (a TBS guide) and three of the station’s visitors. Mayer insisted on showing us where the nest was, and he lead the way. We were, of course, very close to the nest when we were looking for it.
Instead of going back to camp on Guacamayo, we decided to go on the Lago trail, which runs along the Tiputini river. The trail is in varzea, the area around a river that often floods. We figured it would be a great adventure, and indeed it was. All of the bridges on the trail were completely submerged, and the water was up to my belly button in some places. Don’t worry, there were no anaconda encounters, though there was an incident in which a guan (a chicken-like bird) startled us. We returned to camp half-soaked and muddy.
Recent wildlife sightings:
- 3-toed sloth
- 2-toed sloth
- anaconda
- pink river dolphins (2 separate sightings)
- curassow
- hoatzin (a chicken-like bird)
- scarlet macaws
- crested owls
- laughing falcon
- spiny devil
- click beetle
- assassin bug
- red howler monkeys
- wooly monkeys
- spider monkeys
- dusky titi monkey
- super mega bat (meter wingspan)
As expected, life continues elsewhere in the world. There is internet here ($2/24 hours), but it is slow and doesn’t work if it’s too hot, or if it’s raining... But I do get to check my e-mail here and there. The biggest news from the outside world is that my host sister is pregnant with twins!!!
More in a week or so...
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