"What is the law of the jungle? Strike first and then give tongue." - Rudyard Kipling
This weekend our group of almost-fourty students traveled to a biological diversity station Tiputini in the middle of the Amazon jungles. We left Quito at 10 a.m. after a short delay and arrived in a small Ecuadorian town of Coca after a thirty-minute flight. Stepping out of the airplane in Coca felt like coming home to Mississippi - the temperature and the humidity were outrageous in comparison to the moderate climate of the mountain region of Latin America.
After getting out of the airport, I got my first taste of the jungle seeing a little boy play with a bug that was almost his size. The film Supersize Me came to mind, and the phrase became the slogan for my journey into the deep Amazon. A bus took us to the boat terminal, and we got on a small canoe in order to travel for two hours on the Napo River. Almost everybody was super exited for the trip - we took many pictures of the banks of the river and fantasized about wild adventures in the jungle. Finally, we arrived to the station of the oil company in order to embaque on the next stage on our journey - the chiva bus (an open bus). We had to go through the security of the oil company, and we were not allowed to take any pictures on the territory of the oil company for the purposes of security of this lucrative drilling business. We squeezed onto the chiva bus (barely) and began the drive further into the jungle. Trees and bushes with giant leaves passed by in a whirl as the bus speeded along the gravel road. After two hours on the bumpy road, we arrived at a bridge of the Tiputini River. Sitting on the side of the road, two indigenous women stared at our group of gringos with interest. We got on another canoe to complete our long journey to the remote station of Tiputini. As we neared the final destination of our voyage, the jungle warmly welcomed us with a torrential downpour. Floating down a river in a canoe with rain coming from everywhere is not the greatest adventure in the world. All my things were soaked; and, they did not dry for four day because of the high humidity in the jungle. I think that some of my clothes grew mold.
We finally arrived at the Tiputini station in the late afternoon. The manager of the station gave us a short orientation about the rules of the jungle and lead us to our cabins. Because the station has its own generator, the electricity only works for about six hours a day so that the researchers can do their investigations. The cabins had no hot water and smelled a little moldy. The manager also recommended that we put our technology (ipods, phones, and cameras) in a dry box in the library to avoid humidity damage. Later that night we had a presentation about the exiting creatures that we may or may not see in the forest. We went to sleep early because there is little to do in Tiputini after dark.
The next morning we woke up at 6:00 a.m. because breakfast was exactly at 6:30. After breakfast we put on our rubber boots and went off into the depths of the jungle with our guide. The first place we explored was the Tower - a 46-meter-high construction which allows to observe the animals from above the canopy. Because I am not exactly comfortable with heights, I was slightly nervous about climbing the stairs to the top of the tower; however, the view from above proved to be worth the fear. The jungle reminds me of the ocean - the green tops of the trees spreads as far as the eye can see and merge with the bluish line of the horizon. The woods are full of unsolved mysteries and new discoveries. Far below the canopy, the forest is swarming with life that is unseen and sometimes unimaginable to human eyes. We stayed on top of the tower for more than an hour observing monkeys frolicking in the canopy and birds flying through the clear blue sky. When we descended from the tower, we followed our guide through the forest (making a pit stop to snack on lemon ants) and arrived back at the station for lunch.
After lunch we had a two-hour break to nap in our cabins or, in my case, walk around exploring and taking pictures. At 2:30 p.m. we went to a lagoon far away from the station. Our guide took us around the lagoon in a small canoe in order to try to show us more of the diverse wildlife. Unfortunately, the wildlife was not cooperating (hey, we were in a biological reserve not a zoo), and the most exotic animal we saw was a vulture. The rain started again while we were in the lagoon and we had to hike back to the station through the mud and the rain on sometimes almost vertical hills. When we got back to the station (suprisingly safe and sound), we were done with the excursions for the day.
The next morning we had a fish-feeding exercise. The guides took us out into the Tiputini River on a boat and threw us into the piranha-infested waters in case the piranhas were hungry. Luckily, the piranhas, the crocodiles, and the anacondas were busy with other prey; we survived the river float intact. However, I can't say the same for the stairs to the boat ramp - a guy in our group slipped and the entire platform of the staircase went down. Not surprising considering that the humudity in Tiputini is always over a hundred percent, and the staircase is made of wood.
After the surviving the morning excursion, we had lunch and once again went out into the depth of the Amazonian jungles. This afternoon we visited the bridges - a shaky walk over the canopy. Today we had harnesses for safety reasons, but I did not feel any safer. Nevertheless, the views of the jungle were very nice. That night after dinner we went on the night walk (with our guide of course). Walking through a dark jungle at night is a completely different kind of experience - the place seems almost unreal and otherworldly in the dim light of the moon. Our guide shined the flashlight the trees and the bushes, and a new world opened up before our eyes - a world of grasshoppers larger than my palm, of giant ants the size of my finger, and of butterflies that resembled dried leaves.
The jungles are a precious and an amazing natural environment that are nevertheless very fragile. From the ancient trees which roots drape the forest floor to the walking palms to the multitude of creatures that inhabit this environment, the jungles deserve to be protected for future generations from the threatening advance of civilization with the greed for natural resources. After three days in the jungle, I feel like it would never be possible to learn all the secrets that hide in the depth of the Amazon; I left in awe of this biological environment and the incredible diversity of flora and fauna.
