Tiputini: Monday

In the morning I freaked Z out a little because I asked for ice for my knee, and I asked for a snack because they recommended that we take one. She called a cab for me and I went on down to the airport, national departures. Z always insists that I arrive super early to places, but luckily Teagan was there before me so I didn’t freak out. Everyone slowly trickled in (14 of us; the other 12 belong to that Race, Gender and Ethnicity program and went to Riobamba)and Germán and Daniel showed up to take care of everything. Once we got our baggage checked we went into the security line. I got through without even a copy of my passport, a water bottle in my bag, and maybe some lighters too, although I don’t remember if those were in my checked or carry on. It was a little laughable compared to the intense US security for flights. Some of the kids expressed concern, but really, what terrorist in their right mind would waste time on Ecuador, especialmente with national departures? Everything was pretty chill, although one girl was really upset because she got really sick last night, PLUS she was switching families because her old one didn’t really feed her. We caught up with what-all the non-beachgoers did over the weekend, and got on the plane. I slept like a baby; I was still really tired. After about 30 minutes we landed in Coca, which is best described in this manner: you know those mining towns that popped up in the old west simply because there was a natural resource there that people could take advantage of? That is Coca, except for oil instead of coal. I mentioned that oil is Ecuador’s biggest export, and it’s true. The only problem is, they’ve depleted the resource on the coast, and now the companies was the oil that’s under the Amazon (the jungle in Ecuador is only 2% of the entire Amazon jungle, but it makes up 50% of the country). There is this big lawsuit with Texaco from some years back, but public companies are still game for the Amazon oil. Anyway, Coca looked like a real industrial town, low buildings and sprawl, but Daniel said that there is/was plenty of what men need (alcohol and prostitutes). Daniel is basically the boss of GAIAS, the Galápagos/jungle program in the university. He’s super intense. Plus, the part of the jungle I went to is named Tiputini biodiversity Station, because it’s located on the River Tiputini. Anyway, in Coca we took a bus to the River Napo, which was cool but Daniel pointed out that it’s kind of settled; people chopped down a lot of the forest in order to build houses and cornfields and such. One thing that was kind of cool was these things that looked like pillars of fire; when you tap oil, radioactive water and gas come up, and they just burn the gas. Bugs are attracted to the light at night and mountains of them die; they need a shovel and wheelbarrow to clean them up every morning. We went on motorboat for two hours in the Napo (getting on scared me a little; you just stepped on the prow and got on the boat. Pretty elementary); a lot of people fell asleep but I couldn’t. They gave us bagged lunches with cheese sandwiches, juice, water, mini bananas, an apple, cookies, and gum. Next we got off at Pompeya. I’m not exactly sure what it was but it reminded me of a military base; we had to show our passport copies before entering. We were NOT allowed to take ANY pictures or video because of something to do with the Colombian drug kidnappings or something. I really didn’t understand it, so I just kept my camera in my bag. We got on this cool truck like thing that was completely open and drove along this road; mostly forest on either side but every now and then you could see a school or house. A couple of school kids hitched a ride with the truck and whistled really loud when we approached their house. I spent the whole ride looking again, there were a lot of really gorgeous butterflies. After a while it began to rain, then it poured. Welcome to the rainforest. It had settled to a sprinkle by the time we got to the Tiputini River two hours later, and we had a rather precipitous climb down to the boat; my knee still making me extra cautious. We got on this boat and started down Tiputini. This river was markedly different because the forest on either side was obviously virgin, untouched. It rained some more, but it was just kind of cool. I made really good use of my rain jacket, because we got wet even though we were under a roof. We finally arrived and climbed some stairs to a landing, then to the dining hall which had a roof but not walls. We ate snacks; apples, clementines, granadinas (the alien fruit), cookies, and coffee/tea/hot chocolate were always out. In order to get around, you had to follow a path of wooden blocks. It was really slow going at first, but once you got used to them you could hop around like a mountain goat or something. The path from the dining hall went to the library, which had two floors (walls and roof) and was air conditioned AND I’m pretty sure it had electricity all the time, in order to keep the books from getting moldy in the humidity. There were dryboxes in there where we kept our cameras and electronics during the night so they wouldn’t short circuit. From the library, you could take a path to our cabins. Four beds each, windows that were only screens, and biodegradable soap provided because they had to clean and return their own water themselves, from the river. Cold water only (which was actually fantastic because of the humidity/heat) and sometimes the water dried up. Electricity from 10 am to 1 pm and from 6 – 9:30 pm, and that’s why I needed a headlamp and lighters (candles in the rooms). Also from the library you could get to this little hammock area (I spent a lot of time there. I think I’ve developed a thing for hammocks) and the researchers’ cabins. Yeah, there are people there who stay for anywhere from a few months to a year or more following monkeys and listing beetles; a lot less romantic than it sounds. After giving us an orientation we ate dinner: tacos! (although the tortillas were kind of eggy-like) The chefs tended to prepare meals that were a little more American, because a lot of the researchers and students are American. After dinner we had a presentation on the motion-detector cameras they use to take pictures of the animals, which was pretty cool. The lights went out at 9:30 and I went to bed at 9:30, because breakfast is at 6:30…