Back in business. Also, I hate ants.

I'm currently in a small town called Mancora on the Northern coast of Peru.  The town itself is kind of crummy and touristy but the beach here is great, the water is warm, and the waves are fun to play in.  My last few weeks in Villa Carmen were wonderful and involved working with a scientist doing a fish survey, a camping trip into the cloud forest to put up camera traps for spectacled bears, and floating through down the Pini Pini river in an inner tube.  I haven't posted about these things because some goats (or horses, we aren't sure) managed to bump into the satellite dish and knock out the internet.  Imagine the normal response time to get the cable company out to your house, then compound that by the logistical workings of Peru and an eight hour bus ride through the jungle and you end up with no internet for several weeks.

I really enjoyed my time at Villa Carmen, but was definitely ready to get away from the bugs.  I used to think mosquitoes were some of the worst insects but my opinion has changed recently and ants now hold the number one spot for most irritating insect.  They are everywhere in the jungle.  If you grab a branch they will swarm out of hiding spots and begin biting your hand.  If you are clearing brush with a machete and a plant falls on you, you could very well end up with angry ants around your neck and shoulders.  I've had to take my shirt off more than once to get rid of them.

While caring for some of our snakes outside the serpentarium, I once made the mistake of not looking at where my feet were.  I finished what I was doing and went over to the main room to have lunch only to jump up a second later as I realized ants had crawled up my shoes and socks and were inside my pants.  I had ants in my pants.  I had been standing on a tiny ant hill outside the serpentarium without realizing it and was paying the price as a result.  I ran to my room and whipped off my pants brushing frantically at my legs get rid of all the ants.  Most of them had their jaws in me already so I had to pick them off by hand.  There were maybe two dozen in total. I probably didn't have to crush them all, but I was feeling vengeful.

Jerk.

Waterfall

Researchers and tourists aren’t the only visitors to Villa Carmen; we also entertain students from local schools who are interested in learning about the jungle.  I’ve only helped with a few school programs so far, but  has been a quick tour of the property followed by a short hike to the Pini Pini river.  At the river we are met by a small boat which is often one of the more exciting parts for the kids, many of whom have never been on a boat before. 

The boat drops us off at the base of a steep, winding trail that eventually leads to a fifty foot waterfall, making the hot, buggy hike well worth it.  From that high the water lands with enough force to create a sustained wind, providing welcome relief from any insects.   There is a shallow pool at the base of the falls to relax in and you can get a high pressure shoulder massage if you slide under the falls themselves.  The water, coming down from the mountains, is clear and cold and actually chills you if you stay under long enough.  After spending enough time in the hot jungle, being a little cold is actually a welcome sensation.

After the waterfall we take the kids back to the station where we give them lunch and show them the macaws or the snakes if they haven't seen them already.  I wish my Spanish was a little better so I could actually do some teaching but it is still a lot of fun interacting with and learning about the kids.

Bamboo Christmas Tree

With Christmas approaching, Villa Carmen has been in a decidedly festive mood.  Decorations have gone up, we had a secret Santa before people left for the holidays and we even have a Christmas tree.  As you can imagine, there aren't any Christmas trees in the Amazon so we were forced to make our own out of Bamboo.

Cutting and splitting the bamboo

Nicole, Javier and Daniel

 To start, we cut a long piece of bamboo into sections two or three feet long.  We then split these sections into sixteen strips using a hammer and machete to form branches.  We used a narrower piece of bamboo for our trunk and fastened the ‘branches’ to it using wire, bending them outwards to mimic the slope of a Christmas tree.  Once we added lights and other decorations you could hardly tell the difference between our bamboo tree and a real one… well almost.   

Adding the branches

Now for some finishing touches

The pictures don't provide any sound effects but our light string manages to produce some garbled tones that sound vaguely like Christmas songs.  

All done!

Camera Traps

One of my responsibilities here is to check the Camera Traps that have been placed throughout the trail system.  The cameras are specially made to trigger when they sense movement and will take a picture every 30 seconds as long as something is moving in front of them.  Mostly we just get pictures of people walking past or leaves being stirred by the wind but we also get photos of what we are looking for – large mammals and birds.  We have pictures of jaguars, ocelots, tapirs, peccaries, and many more. 

Jaguar

There are two circuits of traps through our trail system and we check them once every two weeks.  The rotation is staggered so that we go out every Monday.  They are pretty simple to maintain, we just replace the memory cards, check to make sure the batteries aren’t low, and make sure no water has gotten inside.  It is sort of like opening presents every time you go out to collect the memory cards since you have no idea what kind of pictures the camera has taken until you load them up on a computer.

Tapir

Once we’ve loaded up all the pictures we sort through them to identify any animals and plug them into a database.  Footprints or sightings of animals also get put in the database so that we can add the info to our distribution maps and catalogue everything that’s living in the area.  Since the camera traps are in a fixed location, we can accurately record where the sightings occur.  The traps also put a time-stamp on the photos which lets us see when different species of animals are active.

Tigrillo

All of this information will hopefully lead to more grants, researchers and tourists coming to Villa Carmen and ACA’s other projects. 

Peccary

Curacao

Paca

Villa Carmen

I’ve been in the Peruvian Amazon for nearly two weeks now and still have another six weeks remaining.  I’m staying in a place called Villa Carmen, a one-time farm that is being converted into a biological research station.  Villa Carmen is just a couple kilometers away from the small town of Pillcopata, the proximity of which affords Villa Carmen various luxuries not easily had in the rainforest, luxuries such as running water, electricity and even internet. 

Pillcopata during a festival

It took me a while to get here, especially since I didn’t fly direct into Cusco.  I had originally planned on taking a 24 hour bus from Lima to Cusco but the miners had gone on strike and had created roadblocks.  I’ve run into this problem before in Bolivia, where the miners would actually use dynamite on the roads when they wanted to protest something.   I gave up waiting after a few days and ended up taking a flight to Cusco before my trip to the Jungle.  It is another eight to ten hours by bus to get from Cusco to Pillcopata, though my trip was extended by a few extra hours when our bus broke down halfway there.   The ride itself is a little hair-raising (as are most bus trips through the Andes) and there were several points when, upon looking out the window, I was faced with vertical drops of several hundred feet and could see no more than twelve inches of space between the muddy road’s edge and the bus’ tires.   You get used to it after a few hours.  Eventually I did arrive at Pillcopata where I then made my way the short distance to Villa Carmen and was welcomed with a hot plate of food and a nice clean bed.

The main building at Villa Carmen

Villa Carmen is owned by the Amazon Conservation Association, a non-profit based out of D.C. that runs projects in both Peru and Bolivia.  Villa Carmen is a fairly new project; it has been up and running for a little over a year and still needs to work some things out until it becomes a full-fledged research station.

The camping platform

I’m here helping with the biological monitoring project that is attempting to keep track and create distribution maps of the resident vertebrates.  We do this by recording sightings, identifying footprints and by using a network of camera traps.  I’ve also been helping to put markers on the trails so that the locations of animals sightings can be more accurately recorded. 

Most of the people here speak only Spanish which was a bit of a struggle at first as I hadn’t been to a Spanish speaking country in nearly a year before I came here.  Now I’m at least able to follow what people are saying but I still have trouble joining into conversations sometimes. 

The local swimming hole

So far, the jungle is a fascinating place.  Life is absolutely everywhere and the biodiversity is incredible.  Of course, the downside of this means that most of that life can bite, sting or poke you but it is incredible to see.   I'll be posting more frequently of the next couple of weeks and I'll be sure to include some pictures of the local wildlife. 

Denali

I have been back in D.C. for nearly a month now and as a result this blog hasn't seen much in the way of updates.  I do have one last update from Alaska though, my trip to Denali. My friend Jim, who I originally met in Ecuador,was up in Alaska working with Fish and Game this past summer.  He entered the Denali road lottery for a chance to drive into Denali national park and was fortunate enough to win a spot.  He invited me to go along and I jumped at the opportunity.
 

A view of Denali as we approached the park.
  (Denali is just visible on the right side of the frame.)

Normally, to see Denali during the summer, you must use the park's bus system to move along the 90 mile dirt road in the park.  However, during a brief 4 day period in September a limited number of private vehicles are allowed to enter the park. Out of 16,000 entrants maybe 1,600 will be given passes for one of the four days.

I flew up to Anchorage, from Homer, to meet Jim and his friends and we got the cars packed and ready to go.  The drive up to Denali from Anchorage takes several hours but the scenery is stunning and the weather was flawless. The clear day afforded us incredible views of the surrounding mountains and we were able to see Denali from nearly a hundred miles away. The leaves were just beginning to turn and the birches and cottonwoods that lined the road glowed golden in the sun.  It was strange driving North at that time of year, as the seasons change, because our six hour drive effected a change of six weeks in the surrounding country.  As we drew closer to the park and gained in latitude and elevation, the trees and shrubs correspondingly lost their leaves.  By the time we'd arrived in the park, most plants were bare.

There are coyotes on the foremost ridge line
if you enlarge the picture and look closely.

Our lottery ticket was good for the second day from six am until midnight.  To take full advantage of our time we booked a spot in a campground at the edge of the park.  It was a fairly cold night, getting down below 30 degrees, but fortunately we all had warm bags.  Like the day before, we had wonderful weather in the park and were able to see the mountain for most of the morning which is fairly unusual.  Many people go to Denali and never get to see the mountain itself due to the climate produced by its sheer size.

Lichen growing in the tundra

 The terrain in the park itself was not what I'd expected.  The entrance to the park brought us past stands of stunted spruce trees that struggled to grow to their normal size; none of these trees were much more than 30 feet tall.  Once we'd passed through the spruce trees the ground opened up into tundra with tiny lichens growing amongst stunted plants and trees.  A glacially active area, much of the terrain had been carved out during previous ice ages, leaving behind glacial washes and ragged mountains.  The color of this rocky terrain varied greatly with the type of rock and ranged from deep reds to sulfurous yellows and at times felt more like something out of the American South West than interior Alaska.

As we drove down the road it was fairly common to see other cars pulled to the side which was a great indicator that there was something interesting nearby and also made it easy to see wildlife you might otherwise have missed.   Park rangers were often be present at the mass pullovers to make sure people behaved themselves around the animals.  This was especially important when the animals decided to cross the road as it would bring the visitors and animals extremely close together.

That guy in red moved to safety after setting up his camera
directly in front of the moose.

In one instance a Bull Moose decided to cross the road exactly where we were all lined up and watching it.  People stayed close to their cars as the thousand pound animal passed through.  However, one man foolishly set up his camera directly in front of the moose and had to scramble out of the way to avoid being trampled.  Moose are often considered more dangerous than bears because of their lack of intelligence and inclination to panic.  If the moose had so chosen, he could have easily crushed the man instead of skittishly walking around him.

Sow with two cubs

Usually, such events were a little more controlled.  At one point on our way back we encountered a Sow and two cubs that were grazing and slowly moving towards the line of cars parked by the road.  They eventually turned away but the rangers did an excellent job of keeping everyone in their cars (especially the over-eager photographers) when the bears started to get close.

The bear approaching our car

Our closest encounter with wildlife occurred near sunset on our way out of the park.  As we had done several times before, we were pulled over and watching a bear grazing when it became apparent that he was headed directly towards us.  The bear passed within six feet of our open windows and unconcernedly passed behind our car and into the brush on the other side of the road.  Its immense size and powerful frame would have made short work of any car door.  Watching the bear's muscles ripple under its silvery fur was an excellent reminder to respect these animals and the environment in which they live.

The same bear passing behind the car

Bafflement

Due to some trouble with Lene's flight and mine, I've spent something like 12 hours just waiting in the Anchorage airport today.  Besides getting to spend a little more time together before we part ways, the only perk of spending time in an airport is the fantastic people watching.

I'm sitting across from a family as I write this and they are apparently on the same flight as I am which connects in Houston.  One of the middle aged women in the family mentioned that she hoped they had a wheel chair for her in Houston because she gets so out of breath walking around.  The rest of the family then showed up with bags of McDonalds for everyone.  People can be amazing sometimes.

Edit: I went to McDonalds right after that.