Big Talks and Big Machetes

Buenas noches! The last few days have been a whirlwind of work and adventures, but I’m glad to finally stop and write a little about all everything that’s been going on.

Mondays and Fridays are busy days down here at Tiputini. That’s because those are the only days that you can leave the station or come to the station. As such, those days are marked by pseudo-French toast for breakfast (I guess it’s the easiest thing to make), hearing the loud humm from the canoe as it leaves the station around 7:30am and comes back around 4:00pm, sometimes saying goodbye to people, and often welcoming a whole bunch of new people. They’re sometimes tough days… but they make things down here a little more interesting.

This past Monday, the group of 8 students from Kalamazoo College left Even though we’d only hung out with them for about a week, I’m really going to miss them. The majority of student groups only stay for 2-3 days; they either come down on a Friday and leave the next Monday, or they come down on a Monday and leave the next Friday. They’re often huge groups of students, and usually those of us that stay here long term don’t make too much effort to hang out with them, since they’ll be leaving shortly.

However, the K-College students were different; they were here for a little over 2 weeks and they had to do their own research projects, and as such they were forced to organize their time and dictate most of what happened during their days. Additionally, when you’re here for more than a week, you usually have time to branch out and talk to people outside of your group. So I got to spend a lot of time talking to some of them about life, relationships, and all that juicy stuff. After dinner one evening, I spent an hour sitting on the beach for what was dubbed the “Meat and Bananas Club”… one of the students would set out one plate with rotting meat and another plate with rotting bananas, and record the number and kind of insects that came to the plates every 5 minutes. Sounds uneventful, but it was a great forum to just sit there and chat it up about whatever was on your mind. On Sunday night, the night before they left, a whole bunch of us played the card game Presidents for some 2 or 3 hours… it was rather amusing. Anyway, I’m going to miss them, they made the trip far more interesting.

However, as is common with Mondays and Fridays down here, Monday also marked the arrival of lots of new people. I met and greeted Tim, the National Geographic photographer that Kim has hired to take some awesome videos of our loveable and slightly insane study group of Manakins. Jostled among the overwhelming group of some 25 or 30 USFQ students, he made it in after braving tons of rain and carrying down and incredible amount of equipment. He’s been here for three days now, and his presence has certainly made our visit more fun and interesting. The first night he was here he showed us an AMAZING video of clips of Birds of Paradise from the various trips that he and Ed Scholes (Kim’s husband) took down in Papua New Guinea. I was incredibly excited to see what kind of awesome footage he would get of the Manakins!

Tuesday was marked by two things: first, I got some INCREDIBLE video of the Wire-Tailed Manakin, and second, TONS of insects. The video was great; a second male visited our study male, so I got lots of video of dances, fly-ins, kloks, and all sorts of the other crazy things they do. Additionally, Tuesday was the first day in my memory where there was GREAT light… so good that I could actually reach our goal shutter speed of 500 frames/second! Awesome!

The insects were… less awesome. During an especially exciting bout  of activity by the Wire-Tailed, I failed to notice that a colony of fire ants had decided to colonize a small area on my tripod. By the time I noticed them, there were some 30-50 of them! However, I quickly saw the stem-and-leaf route they were using to get up to that part of my tripod, cut the leaf and all nearby leaves, and then – very carefully – used a big leaf to swat all of them off. And I didn’t get a single bite The next thing I had to confront was slightly more frightening. As I was idling away the minutes, waiting for the Wire-Tailed to do something, I heard a rather loud and awkward buzzing suddenly erupt from the tangle just to my right. I remember thinking “that’s definitely not a hummingbird… that’s definitely a really big insect.” The next thing I knew, the BIGGEST insect that I have EVER seen chose to land on the leg of the tripod closest to me and pause. It was RIDICULOUSLY HUGE. About as long as my hand and half as wide, with big beady eyes, and great glassy wings, this thing was out of this world. I wasn’t really scared of it, so much as I was near-to-death frightened of the concept that such a thing might chose to land on ME. If it’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that insects have an obnoxiously large curiosity in human-made objects (like tripods)… and also in humans. Can’t tell you why, maybe they just don’t recognize the things and come over to check them out, but regardless, they like to harass people. Anyway, I froze stiff as a rod when I saw that thing, and I stayed frozen until – after about 3 minutes – it decided to leave, at which point I ran about 10 meters in the other direction, bluthering like an idiot and frantically waving my arms. Haha… I’ve weathered much worse than that insect in this forest, but I think that was the most ridiculous I’ve acted since I’ve been down here! Anyway… to top that little guy off, the sweat bees were abnormally bad on Tuesday; I killed probably at least 20 of them as they idiotically crawled INTO my eyes, after which I had to rescue them. Man, I HATE sweat bees.

The day was saved, however, when Kim, Don, Tim and I went to the huge canopy tower that evening. We were joined by some 8 or 10 students that were part of the USFQ group, but we still managed to see some AWESOME stuff: two Many Banded Aracaris (http://antpitta.com/images/photos/toucans/Many-banded-Aracari.jpg) feeding each other, a fruit crow, some Common Piping-Guams, and a beautiful, bright blue honey creeper. So awesome!

Tuesday was also marked by an extremely interesting talk given by Eduardo, one of the people that is leading the group of USFQ students. More on that later.

However, if I thought Tuesday was fun, I was in for a real treat on Wednesday! The morning was relatively uninteresting; I sat on the log near one of the Striped Manakin territories and listened to the male call a bit, but nothing happened until I was finally rained out around 11:30. After some soup, a rather odd Ecuadorian version of pizza, and some amusing talk of tigers and sharks with Brandt and Dan, Kim told Don and I that we were going to build a hide for Tim to watch some unbanded Wire-Tailed Manakins 3K or so out on the Harpia trail. Doesn’t sound that interesting, but it was. We hiked for about half an hour to get there, Kim showed us the perch, then she and Tim gathered some saplings to use as poles and started wrapping moss-cloth around them to create the basic structure of the hide. Don and I were assigned to collect big leafy material to cover the hide and make it look less unnatural. And so, Don and I struck off in opposite directions, searching for great palm fronds and leafy material to cover the hide with. It was SO FUN to collect hide material! I loved hiking into the forest and out of earshot, then scouring the land for the best leafy materials! My first trip did a number on my hands… many of the larger palm leaves growing out of the small bushes were aggressively content with their places… and many of the fern-like ones had rather painful spikes However, I returned from my first trip, and Don asked, “Would you like to borrow the machete?” OF COURSE I DID! I happily hiked back out with the machete, and did a number on the first tall, frond-y tree I found. I gathered tons of huge fronds; Kim and Tim were able to build a whole wall out of them! And worry not, dear reader; it sounds like I am cruel to the rainforest, but I took leaves from but a few plants, and as the rainforest is constantly turning over on itself, all is not lost. Everything I plucked will grow back shortly

Today (Wednesday) was a bit less interesting… I was stationed at the hide that Kim built near the display perch of one of our Striped Manakins. The male called a bit, then was quiet for about 3 unbearable hours, then started calling again… and right when he was starting to sound excited, the light dropped suddenly and a HUGE gust of wind swept over the canopy. About as suddenly as the wind came, the Striped Manakin stopped calling… and I instinctively started packing. It doesn’t take much to know when there’s a storm-a-brewin’! Despite the dark clouds and wind, though, not much came through. Sitting in the hide was kind of entertaining though… at one point, the manakin’s calls were overwhelmed by the sounds of White-Breasted Toucans chirping in the canopy, Golden-Mantled Tamarins chattering and eating away around the hide, jungle squirrels scolding me from trees, and at one point the grunting of peccaries as they shuffled past. Unfortunately, the excellent cover of the hide prevented me from seeing most of these things… but it was still pretty exciting to hear them!

Anyway, I wanted to say a little bit about that fascinating talk… Eduardo was doing research on some of the influences that the oil company has the rainforest and on the cultures of the local indigenous people. As you might or might not remember, our trip down to Tiputini takes us on a plane from Quito, over the Andes, and into Coca, a city on the Napo river and in the Napo Province of Ecuador. We take the Napo downstream for 2 hours or so, where we arrive at the dock of an oil company. We then drive down an oil road for another hour or so into the rainforest, where we pick up a canoe and go down the Tiputini River. Eduardo studied the influence of that oil company on the local rainforest.

What was interesting about the talk was that Eduardo spoke very little about the direct impacts of oil drilling on the environment; that is, the impacts of oil spills, the removal of excesses, etc. When oil companies first came to Ecuador, there were very few regulations on how they were allowed to drill, and so many companies used cheap but seriously damaging practices, such as dumping crude excesses into pits and lakes instead of re-injecting them underground (as is law in the US). However, recent pressure from the government and activist groups has caused the oil companies to ascertain that their drilling and other activities are as minimally damaging to the environment as they possible, and so many of those previous problems are no longer major issues.

What Eduardo DID spend a lot of time talking about was how the oil companies influence the indigenous peoples that live within their concessions, and how those people influence the ecology of the rainforest. Studies show that if oil roads are open-access – meaning that people can colonize and do basically whatever they want along the roads – damage and removal of tree cover in the rainforest is sever. However, if oil roads are closed-access, as is the case here, people are not allowed to do basically nothing along the road edges, and so the rainforests are more or less undamaged outside some 300 meters or so away from the roads. However, these rules don’t apply to the native indigenous peoples (here, the Huaorani) of the area. Since the oil company is on the Huorani land, the oil companies have to give the Huaorani basically whatever they want – and the oil companies keep a huge budget to be able to do just that. Among other things – like candies, school houses, health clinics, plane rides, high school tuitions – the Huaorani can get free rides on any oil truck or other vehicle that passes down the road. Because of these, many Huaorani people have moved closer to the road.

Now, there is a very big rainforest meat market in a village directly across the Napo from the place where the oil company is stationed, and Huaorani often go there to sell peccaries, monkeys, large birds, and other rainforest meat for people in villages and cities located far away to eat the “delicacies” of the rainforest. I know, it sounds awful, but that isn’t the bad part. Since the Huaorani can get free truck rides basically from their front steps to the meat market, there is basically no cost (other than time) for them to collect meat and sell it in the market. So, whereas a Huaorani might have taken 1 peccary to feed the family for a week, now they might take 10, and then go sell them at the market. Think of what this does to the ecology of the rainfores in those areas; basically all of the large mammals and birds have been more or less hunted away. Think about how that influences the ecology of the rainforest. Pretty crazy, right? And that says nothing about what all this is doing to the culture of the Huaorani and other local indigenous cultures… but that’s a talk for another day. At any rate, if you ever feel like discussing the many unprecedented and unintentional ways that oil companies influence the rainforest, let me know.

With that, I should get going. I’ve got to really memorize the display calls of the Striped Manakin so I can try to find one of his elusive display arenas tomorrow… and I also need to take a break from the computer Sometimes it’s so hard to sit at the computer and get stuff done when there’s a whole world of adventure waiting outside… but it’ll still be here tomorrow. Miss all of you and hope all is well!

Toucans and Toiling

Hola! We’ve been in the Amazon rainforest for a few days now, and I’m starting to get comfortable and I’m… well, sort of getting used to the heat and all the insects.

Over the last few days, we’ve started really getting down to business on our research. The work focuses on Manakins (Pipridae), a group of small birds that live in South America. The reason these birds are interesting is that many of them produce sonations, or non-vocal sounds, sounds that are produced by means other than their vocal chords. For example, manakins might clap their wings together above their backs, rub their wings against their tails, smack their wings against their sides, or use all sorts of methods to produce sound. All of these birds also produce vocal sounds; the non-vocal sounds are typically used as part of their courtship displays. We’re using conventional speed and high-speed video (many of these displays are crazy fast!) to determine how the birds produce these sounds.

Our main four study species are (drumroll please!):

• The haughty and friendly Golden-Capped Manakin (http://farm1.static.flickr.com/177/388365459_c1712dc03a.jpg)
• The cute and humble White-Crowned Manakin (http://www.birdfinders.co.uk/images/white-crowned-manakin-costa-2007.jpg)
• The careful and crazed Wire-Tailed Manakin (http://i.pbase.com/g6/07/776307/2/82782376.bGn5sXMK.jpg)
• The frightened and fascinating Striped Manakin (http://antpitta.com/images/photos/manakins/WesternStripedManakin.jpg)

You may note, correctly, that manakins look like they have gone insane. Their big black pupils and white irises give them that crazed look… and when they get energetic, their pupils dialate and they breathe heavily, making them appear even more insane. However, we forgive them for it… after all, they do some pretty fascinating displays!

The last few days I have been doing reconnaissance on a Wire-Tailed Manakin near the 150-foot observation tower some 10 or 15 minutes away from camp. Recon basically means that you sit in the lek, listen to the bird, figure out where it spends most of its time, gage how active it is, and try to determine on what specific perches it does its displays. This particular Wire-Tailed spends moves around a lot, but he displays on two specific perches, and you can get incredibly close to them without the bird becoming very bothered. Today was the first day that Kim said I should take a conventional speed camera into the field to try and get some video of his displays. He does all sorts of crazy things…  he makes sideways jumps along the perch, makes a “klok” sound as he flies up to a branch, and even twists his body back and forth to smack the tail feathers into the faces of females! Crazy.

Unfortunately, activity of the Wire-Tailed Manakins, and activities of birds almost everywhere in the rainforest, has been unbearably low. It hasn’t rained a decent amount in almost 2 weeks, so it’s ridiculously dry, and the sun often burns off the clouds, leaving all of us with hot, dry days that simply feel unnatural for what it is called a rainforest. Therefore, today, as for the last few days, the Wire-Tailed Manakins have done virtually nothing.

This lack of activity is unbearable enough, but unfortunately, with hot and sunny days also comes swarms of insects. Probably the most common insect down here is what’s called a “sweat bee”. They’re called sweat bees because, well, they like you’re sweat, probably because they like the salt. The plus side of these insects is that the almost never bite or sting you. The negative side is that the places that the bees seem to most enjoy are your eyes and  your ears. So you’ll be trying to look at a bird, and you’ll hear one try to crawl into your ear, then hear its buzzing stop and hear struggling as it tries to escape your ear canal. Or, you’ll be trying to watch a bird, and they’ll hover obnoxiously right in front of your eyes, or sometimes they’ll crawl on your face and attempt to crawl into your eyes. So much fun.

In other words, we really need rain down here. Not only would it increase the bird activity, but it would also decrease the unbearable number of insects we cope with each day.

On the plus side, the lack of manakin activity has allowed me to see a vast number of wooley monkeys, who chose to crawl directly over the place that I sit and watch mankins, dropping leaves and sometimes rather heavy nuts precariously close to my head as they go. Some of the lazy ones rock back and forth in vines high in the canopy and stare at me, wondering what on earth I’m doing sitting under all that undergrowth like that. It’s rather comical. I’ve also seen a White-Fronted Toucan almost every day I’ve been here! I think they’re seeking me out; the other day, one actually flew oddly low into the understory and picked fruit about 20 feet from where I was sitting. It saw me, stared at me for about 10 seconds, and then flew off in a huff. SO COOL!

While the hot weather has made work and bird watching a bit less than exciting, it hasn’t hindered social activity down here in Tiputini. A group of about 15 students from Kalamazoo College has been here since January 4^th, and they’ve been fun to have conversations and crazy adventures with. Yesterday, I went on a 2-hour hike with one of the students, Beth, and afterwards, I went swimming in the Tiputini River with two other students, Christina and Annie. The K-College students are all finishing up a study abroad program; they spent last semester at the University of San Franciso at Quito, were in Ecuador for Christmas break, now they’re spending 2 weeks in the Amazon at Tiputini, and then they’ll spend 2 weeks in the Galapagos before they return home for the spring semester. Sounds like a pretty awesome program to me! Being together for so long has also made them pretty comfortable with each other but also comfortable with finding new friends, so they were all very easy and interesting to talk to. Since coming down here has been something of a social shock, I really appreciated the chance to meet and talk with some cool new people

Tomorrow, Kim decided that she wants to stake out the Wire-Tailed Manakin I’ve been scouting, so I’m gonna wake up early (~5:30am) to do some recon on one of the Striped Manakins, and around noon I’m going to head out to the hide down the trail, where I’ll try to get some video of the Striped Manakin doing his crazy display. Wish me luck!

Miss all of you, and  hope everyone is well! Enjoy the cold and the snow for me!

Adventures in Quito and Beyond

Greetings from the hot, humid, and unusually sunny depths of the Amazon rainforest! It’s been quite a ride getting back out here, but I am glad to finally be back at Tiputini Biodiversity Station and getting down to business.

In case you were wondering, I’ve decided to stop trying to back-log my old entries of what happened on the first trip for the time being… Hopefully I will eventually have time to post everything that happened, but I want you all to know what’s happening right now, rather than what happened 3 weeks ago.

My journey began this past Thursday, January 7^th, at Newark International Airport. I woke up at the unbearable hour of 2:30AM, drove with my dad for about an hour, then he dropped me off at the airport on his way to work. The international gate for American Airlines was surprisingly busy, but I quickly got by bag checked, got through security, and made the flight to Miami.

In Miami, I landed around 9:30AM had some 6 hours before my flight for Quito left at around 3:30PM. Gah! So much time! I spent a majority of the time huddled in a corner under a fake tree in one of the terminals, watching the planes get loaded and take off.

However, I was eventually broken from my sleepy spell of plane-watching when my professor and employer, Kim Bostwick, called me around noon. She was flying from Rochester to Chicago and then to Miami, but apparently one of her flights was late and she wasn’t going to make our flight to Quito. Instead, they had transferred her to the later flight, which arrived around 10 instead of around 7. Hurr… that posed some logistical problems… so I found Don (who, I had not realized, had been some 500 ft from me in the terminal since 8:30AM!), and we decided to see if we could switch to the later flight to all arrive in Quito together. However the later flight was booked, so we went ahead on the early flight as planned.

After the 4 (or so) hour flight, Don and I arrived in Quito. We went through customs together, and Don introduced me to a nice guy who’d been sitting next to me on the plane. He spoke very highly of Don and I… but he also wouldn’t stop shaking my hand, even when I tried to jerk it away. Kind of awkward, but I think he was just being funny. Haha.

We got through customs and everything, and met our driver, who was supposed to take us to Pululaua, the hotel we were staying at. But apparently, the hotel was 1 ½ hrs away (rather than ½ hour away, as we had thought)… because it was INSIDE a volcano. Haha. At any rate, since Kim’s flight wouldn’t get in until 10, and we had to wake up at 6 or 7 or so, staying 1 ½ away seemed ridiculous… so after a lot of confusion and with a TON of help from our would-be driver, we decided to get a room at hostel some 3 blocks away from the airport. The place was a little dirty and sketchy, but the area was said to be safe, it was only $10/person and it was within walking distance of the airport, so we went for it.

After figuring out a bunch of logistics, Don and I returned to the airport to wait for Kim to arrive. Her flight was supposed to get in around 10, but it got delayed to 10:40. Which, by the way, was immediately after 3 incoming flights from other places. Now, what you need to realize is that customs in Ecuador is not very well staffed… maybe 5 or 6 people. So when you come in on your flight, if you’re at the back of plane, you usually end up waiting on line at customs for 20 minutes or so. But Kim was in the last of FOUR flights… all of which got backed up at customs, of course… at any rate, we didn’t see her come out of the gates until 12:15 or 12:30AM. Not a big deal, but staring at every passenger leaving the airport for almost 2 hours gets boring pretty quickly, haha.

Exhausted, we all passed out pretty quickly at the hostel.

11/30/09: Into the Amazon, Part 2

Alright! I’m refreshed and ready to recount the rest of my trip into the Amazon!

Andre led us to our boat: a great, covered, metal canoe with a huge motor attached to the back. We piled in, and the next thing I knew, we were speeding down the Napa River! The Napa is one of the big rivers that feeds the Amazon River, and as such the Napa is one of the biggest rivers in the world! It is hard to describe the pure joy I felt simply being on that canoe. I spent most of the 2 hours on the river simply sitting in my chair, feeling the wind whip by, and watching the edges of the river as it gradually changed. From Coca, it started as secondary forest, bounded by the farms of (I believe) the Quechua, a local indigenous group. Handmade wooden canoes poked out of the trees, and young boys watched our canoe as it roared past. As we chugged on, the forest became denser, and we began to see birds: swallows, sandpipers, and even a big kingfisher. After some time, I sat at the font of the canoe and simply absorbed what I was experiencing: a canoe ride through the Amazon down an Amazonian River. Unbelievable; it was like a daydream from my childhood.

Time passed. I watched huge trees and great palm fronds wave as we went by. I enjoyed talking to Andre, hearing about his life, how he got into birds, how much he loved Ecuador, and all the interesting things he had experienced. It was fascinating.

Suddenly, we saw great cranes along the shores, dirt roads carved into the forest, and a huge barbed wire fence surrounding great buildings on our right. We pulled up to the dock; we had reached the oil development.

Entering the development was somewhat odd after two hours of chugging down a river lined with forest; the paths were all lined with tall barbed wire fences, and suddenly there were people everywhere. It was comforting, though, to meet one of the two people that run the research station, and to see a whole bunch of students as they were leaving; probably on the canoe we had just taken. I smiled as I watched a line of leaf cutter ants march past along the bottom of the fence. I felt strange and out of place, but we didn’t stay long. We went through a mini version of airport security, wandered through a large warehouse, passed some workers taking a break, and hopped on an open-air bus.

The bus went off, and we were rackting down a newly graveled oil road. The drive was very long and very noisy, but we now we were right on top of the forest. I watched densely packed trees and bushes zip by. Even more interesting were the people: native children wandered the road edges, some wearing school uniforms, others almost entirely naked. They shuffled off the road and stood to watch as our bus rattled past, throwing up huge clouds of dust in its wake. We could see old shacks and dwellings behind the trees near our road; covered benches near the road seemed to mark bus stations. We even saw a school further down the road.

The ride was long and contemplative, but it felt like a small taste of the lowland culture. Although on the oil road, Andre told me that the people we saw were native to the land. I wonder how the oil has impacted their lives.

Eventually we stopped at a bridge, and a path led us to the edge of the narrow Tiputini River. We lugged our stuff down a great hill while the local guides laughed and joked and while an indigenous girl, who was swimming in the river, peered at us from behind a bridge pole. With each step, I could feel us delving deep into the Amazon.

The boat ride up the Tiputini was another long one. But I spoke with Andre and Diego; we talked about Cornell, research, what it was like to work at the station… it was interesting. They seem to really enjoy their work. But, as they said, you’ve got to… otherwise how could you stand the conditions, the lonliness… I enjoyed learning about their lives, but I soon felt the need to appreciate the Tiputini River, so I joined Kim at the front of the boat. The Tipuitini was much smaller than the Napa, but we saw many things on its shores: turtles, monkeys, parrots, toucans, kingfishers, herons and far more… all surrounded closely by huge trees. I soaked in the sun. Andre spoke of piranha fishing and swimming by the docks. Hope we get a chance to do cool stuff like that!

Finally, we came to a wooden staircase that led up into the rainforest: we had arrived at the Tiputini Biodiversity Station! Glenn and Mike met us, and we tromped up the stairs.

The station is unbelievable! The main area is a polished wood floor dining area, with carved wood chairs and nice tables; there are 8 tables with 6 or so chairs at each. At the front of the room is a bar, and behind that is a kitchen. The cooks sere our food over the bar. Tight paths lined with big wooden blocks and boardwalks lead some 50 meters into the woods to a great, 2 story lab building. We have an office in the northeast corner; there’s desk space, cubbies, a dry box, and even air conditioning! Crazy! The office, or even the library, seem like nice places to relax if you need to get away from the heat of the forest.

Another 25 meters down the path to the northeast are our cabins. They’re beautiful; lean with red wood. Don and I share the first one; there’s a bed and a bunk bed, with a night table, and some shelves, and we have our own bathroom with a shower. The area is gorgeous; monkeys, parrots, toucans and others are said to frequent the area. And there’s a patio outside to hang out at. We unpacked. Then we had some time before dinner, and I chose to explore J I went to the overlook just up from the bathrooms by the eating area, and found Mike and Glenn were there, birding as the sun went down. I also checked out the student cabins; mostly like ours, though a bit more crowded.

For dinner, Mike, Glenn, Don, Kim and I sat with Amy, a grad student from UC Davis studying primates. She seems really cool; very traveled. Dinner was delicious! It seems like the cooks here are very well practiced, and put a lot of effort into their work.

I fell asleep that night to the random sounds of insects and birds chattering just outside our cabin. An unbelievable end to an unbelievable day

11/30/09: Into the Amazon, Part 1

Whew! A most long and exciting day is coming to a close. I am slightly but pleasantly overwhelmed by my experiences… Not sure if anyone else knows, but I’ve always dreamed of visiting the Amazonian jungle, and floating down that rivers that feed the Amazon… and I was able to do many of those things today. Unbelievable!

We woke bright and early this morning at La Casa Sol at 5:30am. I took my last hot (ish) shower for a few weeks, and got organized. Kim and I grabbed our stuff and headed down to desayuno, which was rolls with jelly and butter… a good way to start off the day. Then we piled our stuff into the back of a pickup truck, and we were off to the airport!

The streets were buzzing in Quito, as swarms of girls in blue and white uniforms headed to schools and cars cut us off in Monday morning rush hour traffic. City buildings and billboards in Spanish darted past me, but I was focused on the man driving our truck. He was very nice, and I practiced my Spanish a bit by listening as Kim spoke with him. They spoke of all sorts of things… we talked about where we were going and why we were visiting, and he told us about his life and about Quito. He even offered to drive us back from the airport to the hotel, so I suppose we’ll see him again!

At the airport, a gentleman helped load our huge number of bags (we had the 6 that Kim, Don and I had check plus 2 bags that Glenn and Mike had not been able to take with them) onto a rickety cart and brought them in. We shuffled up to the noisy checkin counter, where we gladly deposited our huge amount of luggage. Kim rushed off to the boarding area nearby to get wireless and use Skype to say goodbye to Nolan, while Don and I stood standing in the waiting area, hoping to run into someone from Tiputini who was supposed to give us our flight tickets.

Eventually, our guy showed up and gave us our tickets, and we headed through security (which took an unbelievably short time) and plopped by our gate to wait. On the way, we met two guys from a small college in Sweden who would be joining us on the journey, as they were visiting to set up a collaboration between their college and the station at Tiputini. The were very polite and interesting, and told us all about their experiences at the Universidad de San Francisco at Quito. They’d had a long flight (~30 hours) with a 6 hour time difference, so I felt awful for them, but they were quite interesting to speak with.

Boarding the flight alone was unique; they checked our tickets and luggage, the shuttled us outside, where we boarded a bus that took us to the plane… and we walked up one of those big covered staircases to enter the plane, old-fashioned style! The flight was also pretty intense. I sat by the window, and watched as the sprawling city of Quito, and then the surrounding mountains strapped with oil developments, fled behind rainforest that climbed and twisted over the tight peaks. Then, the landscape became a great cloudscape cut by just one, huge, squared off mountain that poked through the clouds. It was beautiful. The flight was nice and short (30 minutes), but wonderful. Before we knew it, we landed in the small city of Coca. From above, the city was a sprawl of cheaply made houses; drywall covered with aluminum. And so, we landed.

Coca immediately struck me as EXTREMELY hot and humid. The airport was tiny, with only some 8 or 10 meters of space for some 50-70 people to try and get their bags. But eventually we found Kim’s 8 bags in the great human sprawl.

A truck awaited us outside, and a local tossed our bags in. We drove through Coca… it reminded me of a much larger version of Los Bancos, the city  near which we stayed last time… the streets were lined with dirty stores that showed the signs of extreme humidity, stray dogs ran about in packs, school girls trotted by in uniform, kids far to young to be alone raced down sidewalks, Latin music blasted out of store fronts, stores sold food that was swarming with insects, and people hung out everywhere in the streets, meandering, talking, and staring.

After a 10-20 minute drive, we arrived at a humid dock. We met our other riders; 3 local guys from Tiputini. They seemed very nice and friendly. Andre, our guide, helped us out a lot by translating when we were confused and telling us where things were. As Kim and went off to find a bathroom, we ran across a local official who was carrying something in his hands: a white-fronted / channel-billed toucan!!!! He dropped it on a nearby palm plant, where, among other visitors, I watched and gawked at it. I found the whole experience rather amusing; toucans are my favorite type of bird, and there are only two types of toucans (the white-fronted and the channel-billed) in this area of the Amazon. The toucans look exactly the same; the only way you can tell them apart is by their call. I just found it ridiculous that the one bird I was so dying to see happened to, not only be the first one I saw, but it was certainly the only one I got to see right up close! I marveled at its antics: how he tilted his head sideways to see us, how his beak added gravity to his motions… it was wonderful. I was simply overwhelmed with joy

I was gonna make this trip one post… but I’ve become tired of writing, so I’ll post the rest later.

11/30/09 – The Streets of Quito

Buenas noches! My first full day in Ecuador finds me rather tired, but content. I awoke early and admired the view of the street from our balcony only so long as to not become exhausted by the heat. Then I joined Kim in the eating area downstairs to a delicious breakfast of some pineapple / fruit granola with warm bread and jam. Nothing starts the day like a good breakfast! Kim wrote a few e-mails while I perused the Lonely Planet’s guide to Ecuador to decide what might be interesting for us to do during the day. We discovered that our options were somewhat limited; most of Quito doesn’t actually wake up on Sunday until sometime after noon. However, the Marcado Artesano de Mariscal was open, and Kim and I wanted to get some Christmas shopping done, so we decided to head to the market.

Me, standing in the outer area at our hotel, La Casa de Sol.

The streets of Quito were oddly quiet on this Sunday morning, but I didn’t let that distract me from Quito’s unique architecture, spotted randomly by gorgeously sculpted buildings, run down houses, and random views down certain streets of the great mountains that border Quito, lined at their bases by the numerous houses marking urban sprawl. After our slow walk down 6 de Deciembre, we arrived at el Marcado, and wandered into the marked. I was nervous and agitated with uncertainty and had little desire to haggle, but that feeling disappeared slowly with time as I learned to simply buy what I wished. We wandered the stalls slowly, only managing to get through some 3 of the 10 or so aisles, and Kim and I bought numerous gifts for our friends and family, while Don followed, absorbing the experience. I enjoyed the various crafts of the market; you can very quickly learn a great deal about an area simply by observing their wares! The crowdedness and my general nervousness and indecision were somewhat stressful, but I was successful with my purchases, and we headed out.

A couple of the mountains that surround Quito.

Hungry, we dropped our things off at our hotel, then decided to go to La Cuenca, a restaurant for typical Ecuadorian food that was based out of Guayaquil. The atmosphere of the restaurant was wonderful; it was pretty and colorful. Kim and I got a fruit juice based off some spikey Ecuadorian fruit that I have never heard of… the taste was new but quite delicious! We had yummy, greasy empanadas (flat, fried pancakes filled with cheese, beef, or chicken) for appetizers, and then our lunch arrived.

So, here I have to explain a little. Last time Kim and I visited Ecuador, we stayed with a family who cooked all our meals for us. Probably my favorite of the meals we had was caldo de bolsas de verde (literally plantain ball soup). Basically, you make a dough out of plantains, and then wrap up cheese or meat in a ball of plantain dough, and then you cook the plantain balls in a soup… and put cilantro and lots of other stuff on.

When we went to lunch, I wanted to have a reproduction of that, and on the menu they did, indeed, have plantain ball soup. However, whenever I’m in a new place, I also feel as though I really should try something. So I thought I’d try something that… also had plantain in it, and was different. I tried caldo de merguana, a traditional soup of Ecuador (and one that some 2 or 3 of the 10 or so people around us ate).

Caldo de merguana is basically chunks of plantain wrapped in cow stomach. And if that doesn’t gross you out enough, add blood sausage to it (blood sausage is, literally, a sausage full of cooked blood), then break open one of the blood sausages and let it sit around in the soup to make your broth.

Now that I’ve sufficiently grossed you out… it actually wasn’t as terrible as it sounds. Cow stomach really doesn’t taste bad… it just doesn’t taste like anything. It has a rubbery texture and is basically impossible to cut. There were, however, 2 reasons the soup was so disappointing: first, the cow stomach (and blood sausage broth) had overpowered the plantain taste that I saw longed to have. Second, I had no idea that there was blood sausage in the soup at all (I knew there was cow stomach, and was hoping the stomach would suck up the taste of the plantain… or something), and it was disgusting.

All in all an… okay dish, but hey, it’s traditional, and now I can say I’ve done it, haha! And I got the taste out of my mouth by trying some helado chocolate… chocolate ice cream, which was a bit icy, but still delicious!

Tired, we returned to the hotel for a break (the sheer heat of Quito can be pretty exhausting), and later we walked down the street to a local pharmacy, to get me some dioxycyclin (anti-malarial medication). We wandered down the street and found a good looking pharmacy, and had an odd and confusing experience trying to determine how we were supposed to get the medicine, haha.

View of a street in Quito from the balcony of the hotel room.

We returned the hotel again, and I was exhausted, so I decided to take a nap. An excellent idea; afterward, Kim told me she’d figured out all the questions we had about bags, flights, and other logistics for the following day, so we were all set. Additionally, I was fully refreshed, so Kim and I decided to head back out to the market, where we spent an hour doing some intense, predetermined shopping. A highly successful afternoon, indeed!

We relaxed back at the room for a while. Around dinner time, Kim, Don and I agreed that we weren’t very hungry, so we wandered to the Coffee and Toffee shop that was right next to our hotel. The atmosphere was great; low, warm lighting, and I simply loved the music, as it sounded both local and traditional, yet current at the same time. The experience reminded me somewhat of hanging out on the coffee side of Stella’s in Collegetown; warm lighting, yummy coffee, and some unique yet somewhat current indie music. At any rate, I got a chocolada, which was basically hot cocoa made with coconut milk instead of regular milk… so delicious! I shared some cheese empanadas with Don, and then, just because I was in the mood, I got a HUGE plate of fruit! Watermelon, apples, cantalope, strawberries, mango, bananas, and a couple fruits that I didn’t know what they were… it was insanely good. It was also a lot of fruit, but I somehow managed to eat most of it!

Returning to the hotel found us writing e-mails, studying the Birds of Ecuador book, and relaxing a bit, before we passed out early, looking forward  to the long trip to Tiputini the following day. I’m really happy that we were able to spend a little quality time in Quito, but I’m SO excited to get into the lowlands and become one with the Amazon!

11/29/09 – The Journey Begins

Hola & bienvenidos to the journal of my adventures in Ecuador and the Amazon! Today marked the first leg of our journey: the long sequence of flights to Quito! We are fortunate in that our journey is not as long as it could be; Quito, in fact, is almost due south of New York City! It’s even in the same time zone! Regardless, travel is always quite exhausting, and I write this entry rapidly, already thinking of the sleep ahead of me.

I left my home at 4 am to begin my journey. Mom and Dad drove me to the Croton Harmon train station some 30 minutes away from home, and there I boarded a train set to arrive in NYC around 6:30 AM. So far no different from a visit to the city, right? I was surprised to find the train somewhat crowded for such an early morning on a holiday weekend, but I managed to find a seat. Then I waved goodbye to my parents for the next 3 weeks; Mom looking tearful as she stood next to the track, and Dad waving from the parking lot. I was off.

I arrived in Grand Central, and took the S train to Times Square, then boarded the 1 subway down to Penn Station. There, I hopped onto the LIRR a couple stops to Jamaica, where a convenient AirTran shuttled me to the American Airlines International flight hub. I shook hands with Don’s parents, then joined Kim on the long backage check line. Kim and I chatted jovially about our respective Thanksgivings, as the line chugged forward. Eventually we reached the check. Kim had brought 4 bags to check and I’d brought one; she was hopping that we could just pay for the extra bag. Unfortunately, the woman at the check told us that there was some kind of embargo on extra baggage for the flight, and we simply could not take an extra bag. After a couple moments of confusion, I volunteered to move the things from my checked bag into one of Kim’s; I didn’t have that much, and I immediately knew where everything was. Beside the bag check area, I ripped open my bag and started tossing things to Kim, who stuffed them hapdhazardly where she could find room. In retrospect, it was rather amusing J But with that one, I was glad to leave, get through security, and get a bite to eat.

We passed the hour or so before our flight being silly and amusing one another, then we boarded. The flight was only 3 hours or so, and I amused myself by reading and listening to my ipod, and attempting to half sleep while not letting my head loll onto Don or Kim, haha

After an hour and a half wait in Miami (increased by an hour from some sort of baggage problem with the plane) we finally took off, leaving the states for our port of call: Quito. Kim and I studied Kim’s copy of Birds of Ecuador for a couple hours on the plane; staring at the amusing images of Jacamars, Barbets, Puffbirds, Kingfishers, Motmots, Toucans, Aracaris, and giant Woodpeckers, all of whom we were bound to see during our visit, only got me more excited as I thought of our destination. I stared out the window of the plane at the vast expanse, watching the clouds drift by slowly and the sun as it set beneath them. Soon we would arrive.

A few more hours met our landing in Quito, and the immediate shock of attempting to remember how to speak Spanish! We waited on the long line for customs, and eventually made it through. We found ourselves a bit flustered as we gathered our 6 huge bags of luggage and attempted to drag them though the great mess of other Quito arrivals, and past the huge crowd of Ecuadorians who were awaiting the arrival of their family and friends. Finally, we found relief as our van met us and loaded our things, and we shoved our way out of the Quito airport. Our driver was very nice… and he explained the sheer mass of people that seemed to gather at the airport: “for every person that returns, some 10 or 20 friends and family come to meet them.” It certainly seemed that way!

Skirting through the dark streets of Quito, the city seemed not much unlike a city in the USA… except for the fact that everything was written in Spanish, the buildings seemed slightly more dilapidated, and the drivers were far less cautious. We zipped through the streets for some 20 minutes, before we arrived at our destination: La Casa Sol, a quaint little hotel at the heart of La Mariscal, one of Quito’s more touristy regions. We managed to lug all our stuff inside and check in. The hotel is adorable and very pleasant; the walls are lined with traditional photos and art and there is a dining area attached to a kitchen near the entrance. The rooms are all off of a small, central outdoor area, lined with smooth stones, and there are a few great tropical trees and bushes growing about. Kim and I are sharing a room on the second floor, up a narrow staircase. The room has a small but clean bathroom on your immediate right, two twin bends, and great windows on the far end, which lead to a balcony that overlooks the street on which the hotel is stationed. I peered off of the balcony and down the street, where numerous bars and clubs were blasting music and Ecuadorians stood in clusters on the sidewalk and the street itself.

Kim was interested in getting an idea of what the area was like, so she, Don and I set off to do a brief bout of exploring. We learned that the upcoming week, the first week of December, was the Celebration of the Founding of Quito; a week full of festivals, bull fights, and of course, raucous partying late into the night. We walked some 3 blocks down the street from our hotel, through the Ecuadorians laughing and chattering in groups as the stood in front of the numerous clubs and restaurants, each with an entirely different flavor. We were even invited to a couple parties; and you could tell that we were in the touristy district, as a couple men flagged us down with quarter cards and told us that people at their parties spoke English. Amused, but most assuredly too tired to much other than wander briefly, we headed back to our hotel and passed out. And we were luck to head back when did. Moments after we stepped into our hotel, the streets of Quito were blasted with a raucous, pounding rain that drove all the partiers inside. The rain, however, allowed us to sleep in relative peace.