Lots to say

(Forgive the excessively long entry; it represents 10 days of pure adventure. I'll try to keep it short)

Mijo (9/24/09)

Today we had two important developments: First my sister referred to me as her brother and second, my father called me 'mijo' which is short for 'mi hijo' (my son). The profs say that when you are called mijo or mijo, you're in with the family. My sister and I also scored free tickets to watch La Liga take on La Luz. La Liga won, 4-0. Tomorrow is the last day of classes before the Amazon.

Hoy habia dos desarrollos importantes: Primero, mi hermana me referio como su hermano y segundo, my padre me llamo, 'mijo' que es corto por 'mi hijo' (my son). Mis profes dicen que cuando alguien se llama mijo o mijo, estas un parte de la familia. Tambien, mi hermana y yo ganamos billetes libres para mirar el partido La Liga contra La Luz. La Liga gano cuarto, cero. Manana es el dia ultima de los clases antes de bajamos por el Oriente.


A leap of faith (9/24/09)

This weekend, Dylan, Samantha, Miriam and I all took the 5 hour bus ride to Los Banos, a beautifully preserved town and surrounding primary forest. Los Banos is also Ecuador's extreme sports capital. I didn't really know what I was getting into when I said I would go, but from start to finish, it was an adventure. After we got off the bus, the first thing we did was find a place to sleep. Before we had taken 3 steps, a crazy lady told us that she had an empty hostel that only cost 5 dollars a night. For some reason this seemed like a good idea to us and we followed her back to her hostel. This 'hostel' had about 80 percent of its roof left and we were literally the only people in the entire building. But it was late, we were tired and we couldn't beat the price. Turns out the lady wasn't crazy, just overzealous and the holes in the roof weren't all that bad. Anyway, our first night we payed 3 bucks to hop in the back of a pickup truck and be driven up to the top of the town's volcano, Tungurhua, to watch a show and capture a view of the town from above. The ride alone was worth the money, and the view from the top sealed the deal. At the top we watched an impressive fire juggling/acrobatic show. Sam had flaming clubs juggled around her face and Dylan had to hold a cigarette in his mouth while the performers tried to light it by throwing flaming clubs back and forth. Turns out the performers were brothers and also fairly famous in Banos. As we were leaving, Sam asked if they wanted to drive down with us, only one of the brothers could, but we talked with him for the majority of the descent in the back of a pickup. Once back in the city, he took us to his favorite club and we were treated like VIPs because of him. We were given free food and drinks and allowed into any club we wanted without cover. But after along day of traveling, we called it an early night. It was a rough night, we didn't really have blankets or pillows- 10 years ago what we had would have been called pillows and blankets- needless to say it was a cold night.

In the morning we woke up to find out that the lady who had coaxed us into her hostel with the promise of a complementary breakfast, had no intention of making us any food. We just kept telling ourselves that we were paying half of what every other hostel charged and notched our belts a little tighter. After what should have been breakfast we did want Banos is best known for: whitewater rafting. We drove 45 minutes upstream and rafted Class III and Class III+ rapids for about 3 hours. Before we could start rafting we had to jump off a 15 meter(45 feet) high bridge into the river. At first I though the guide were joking, but when the both jumped, Dylan and I were flying through the air not long after. The fall took longer than I thought and the landing hurt a lot more than I expected. In fact all of my butt and hamstrings are sore and slightly bruised 2 days after. The actual rafting was exciting, but the real adrenaline didn't come until later that afternoon.

As we were all leaving to hike the surrounding forest, we had to cross the only bridge out of town. As we were walking we saw that a group of people we knew were congregated the the middle of the bridge. When we saw them, we knew exactly what they were doing: Bungee Jumping. We had read about bridge jumping the night before and had laughed at the idea, but as the day had progressed, the jokes became more serious and by the time we had returned from rafting, Dylan and I were ready to do it the following morning. But as we were walking across the bridge and saw a few jumps, we decided to just do it then and there. There were two companies that offering jumps, one cost 10 dollars and the other 12, we figured the extra two dollars couldn't hurt. We were all still a little concerned that we only had to pay 12 dollars to jump, but the equipment was new, the workers were professional and the city has a perfect record of jumpers without problems. Here's how it works: its not exactly bungee jumping, its called puenting, or in English, bridging. You are strapped into a full body climbing harness which supports your legs and arms and are clipped in above the belly button. Once suited up, you must climb over the bridge's guard rail and stand on a metal diving board. This board is made of recycled metal from an old giant shipping crate (the ones you always see on giant barges in the ocean). So it was ribbed and uneven. From the diving board you get a tres, dos, uno, salta! And you jump. The goal is to jump as far from the bridge as possible, this is is what makes bridging a subset within the overall theme of bungee jumping. The goal is not to jump straight down, it is to jump out so that your body is parallel with the bridge, from here there is only one place to go: down. And down you go. For no more than a few seconds you free fall, unassisted, slowly becoming more vertical, with your head below your feet. The the primary bungee cord with the help of a secondary cord do their work. As you are falling, you flip over so that you swing under the bridge, first falling vertical(head below feet) then becoming horizontal so that you are looking up at the underside of the bridge, and finally your inertia carries you so that you are once again vertical (head over feet) on the opposite side of the bridge, looking at the people you just jumped away from. From there you swing and bounce until they lower you down to the bottom of the gorge.

Here's what happened for me:

Dylan and I flipped a coin to see who would go first. The sacagewaya (no sure on the spelling) came up heads meaning Dylan would jump first. There was also an offer to anyone who jumped naked would not have to pay. Dylan got pretty close, he took of his sweatshirt, shirt, shoes and socks so that he was only in athletic shorts and got suited up. I was afraid of harness burns so I opted to stay dressed. As Dylan and I were suiting up, several things happened at once: 1. a light tropical rain started. 2. the sun peaked out from the cloud, just above the horizon and 3 a car full of gringos pulled up and provided music. The result: one of the most surreal experiences of my life. The sun and the rain produced one of the clearest rainbows I have ever seen, which spanned either side of the gorge, only because we were on a 500 foot high bridge, our field of vision was doubled in the sense that we could see down, as well as into the sky, and because the rain was falling throughout the gorge, a perfect circle rainbow was formed, making a bull's eye in the sky for us to aim at as we jumped. That beautifully coincidence, along with the mellow, lighter-waving classic rock coming from the car made an extremely surreal surrounding. As I said, Dylan jumped first. The last thing we said before he left was, “jump to the rainbow” and he did, another successful jump in Banos. As I waited for the line to be pulled back up, I was getting nervous; before I knew I was strapped in and had climbed over the guard rail on the the one square foot, diving board. From the board there is usually a 5 second preptalk from the jump master and a 3 second countdown. For me however, I had to wait almost a minute starring down into the river, hundreds of feet below. Finally they gave me the countdown and I heard “Salta.” The one piece of advice the other gringos had told me was to keep my eyes open and I did. I saw the world open up underneath me for a fraction of a second before I fell. Then, before long, I was falling head first, the on my back, then looking eye to eye with my friends on the bridge. Then as I swung back for the first time, my stomach fell into my feet and after a few swings, I was lowered the rest of the way to the ground. Dylan had waited for me and was shaking with adrenaline, me knees wouldn't hold me when I landed (I landed in a cactus, by the way), so I sat down beside him and waited to see if Sam was going to jump. The second she started screaming, Dylan and I jumped up and screamed back. I have never heard anyone swear louder or more creatively that Sam Kessler as she fell from the San Fransico bridge in Los Banos. I couldn't believe she had done it. When she landed, she couldn't walk or stop smiling and neither could we. We waited while our legs regained their strength, and started the long walk back up the gorge. It was the greatest adrenaline rush I have ever experienced and a high that I did not come down from for hours.

When I was a kid, my mom would ask me, “If so-and-so were to jump of a bridge, who you do it too?”

Now I have an answer.


Into the Wild (10/5/09)

For the last 8 days I lived at the Tiputini Biodiversity Research Station, located in the heart of the Ecuadorian Amazon. We had to ship in all of our food, electricity and supplies for the duration. The station is managed by the University of Quito and only allows researchers and students to visit. Bueno, from the second my father dropped me off at the airport until I haled a taxi for the ride home it was an adventure. Just getting there is an adventure in itself. It took us around 10 hours to travel no more than 400 kilometers. To start we flew out of Quito in a small commercial jet to Coca, a 25 minute flight. As we flew, we passed UNDER the peaks of Cotopaxi, Antisana y Cayambe. Once in Coca, we travelled down the Napo river (a major tributary to the Amazon) by motorized canoe for 2 hours to a Repsol check point. (Repsol is the Exxon Mobil of Spain and is raping the Amazon in Ecuador. We had to jump through several hoops for the oilmen, who have absolute jurisdiction over there territory, even more so than the Ecuadorian government). Once through the check point we traveled by chivo (a cross over between a bus and a landrover) for another 30 kilometers through Repsol territory until we came to the Tiputini river, where we disembarked and boarded a smaller canoe, which carried us down until our research station. Just as the station came into sight, the driver landed the canoe along the bank of the river and told us to watch the water. Not 30 seconds later, a 3 meter Cayman (a relative of the crocodile and alligator) crawled from the bank into the river no more than 100 meters from our dock. Once we landed, the first thing the guides told us is that the rivers are excellent for swimming and assured us that it was 100% safe.

After we unloaded, we took the guides advice and jumped into the Amazon for a swim. Besides cayman, the Amazon river also is home to electric eels, sting rays, piranhas, 5 meter anacondas and of course the imfamous canduris (small, spined fish that have been known to swim up your urethra if you pee in the river). Also, the Tipuniti River is a whitewater river, which means that it is high in sediment and has a coffee mixed with milk look, making water visibility less than 10 centimeters. But nearly all 22 of us swam for 15 minutes without a problem. Then Dylan told everyone to get out and fast. As we all scrambled onto the boat, we looked to where he had seen something moving. We watched and before long, we all saw it, but it wasn't something that wanted to eat us, quite the opposite, it was a freshwater, amazon river dolphin and her calf, playing in the river, wanting to play near us. For those who have never seen or heard of Amazonian dolphins, what makes them special is first, they are endangered and rare in Ecuador and second, they have pink skin. So there we were, swimming with the pink, endangered river dolphin and her calf as the sun set over the Amazon. I will never forget it. Needless to say, we swam in the Amazon everyday, often more than once and usually to bathe with bio-friendly soaps.

Swimming was a necessary daily event due to the 90+ percent (no exaggeration) humidity everyday. Nothing would dry, ever. Our towels from our first swim were still wet 7 days later when we packed them up to leave. Your hair never dries. When you sweat, you shirt, pants and socks stay wet, forever. Hanging clothes to dry is useless and a waist of time. Needless to say, we were a smelly group, I felt bad for the people we flew home with us. The only thing that made the humidity worse, were the tropical rainstorms. And let me tell you; you have never experienced a true rainstorm until you get dumped on in the amazon. Despite the 90% canopy cover, you are drenched in a matter or minutes. Rain jackets help,but there is no avoiding the rain. However, the rain in the Amazon is usually warm and it is absolutely beautiful. Everything in the Amazon is beautiful, but it is something special when it rains.

Ok, before I go any further, there are some Rainforest essential facts and concepts that need to be explained. First: black, rubber, knee high rain boots are essential and must be worn at all times. This is because the floor of the amazon is nothing but mud. You also should where them in case you come across a fur-de-lance, so that if you are bitten, you chance of survival goes from about 20% to 70%. Second, when you are bushwacking, or romping through the forest, you never touch any trunk or vine than you don't need to. This is for two reasons, first, almost all plants have both physical and chemical defenses and second: Bullet ants. The bite of a bullet ant was described to us as the single most painful experience one can endure. (this came from someone who had given birth twice). Sylvia said it is like a knife twisting in your nerves and it hurts so bad that you will often throw up.

For the first 4 days we would wake up with the forest around 530 and leave in groups of 5 with a different guide. Each guide would take us to a different part of the forest. In total, there were 4 guides, so we had four morning adventures. Day 1 we were lead on a morning hike through the jungle without trails to learn about medicinal plants of the indigenous people. We also ate lemon ants for a pre-breakfast snack. The ants taste exactly like lemonade and bite your tongue as you chew. The next day we climbed 40 meters (130 feet) into the canopy to the bridge network between several giant ceiba tree (the mothers of the rainforest). We watched the sunrise over a misty rainforest and saw five or six species of toucans, scarlet macaws and literally hundreds of other birds of paradise. The following morning we took the canoe upstream and saw the endangered tapirs (kind of an ugly cross between a hippo and an anteater). Once we turned around, the guides killed the motors and we all floated back downstream to the station. On the fourth morning we climbed almost 50 meters into the canopy to an observation tower to further observe birds and monkeys from the peak of the canopy. During these days we usually had half of our time in the lab, learning ecology methods or background ecology and half of the time in the field testing our new methods. We would return for lunch at noon, have an hour of free time to swim, field work at 2 until 6, dinner at 7, a night activity or lecture until 10. Then we would crash. I don't know if it was the high oxygen concentration, over exhaustion or my malaria pills, but I have never slept better than in the Oriente. After the first four days of early morning adventures, we were allowed to sleep in until 6am. On the fourth day, during lecture, we had a monkey chasing crash course so that on the next day we could break up into pairs and collect data on some of the various species that fill the reserve. They also wanted these pairs to go to specific trails and at specific times, so that the data could be cross referenced with other groups. We were placed in groups according to how “rough” we wanted our trail to be. My partner and I were given the farthest and most isolated trail in the network. This trail, Harpia, is the least traveled and maintained, por eso, we had several hours of bushwhacking, map/compass reading and absolutely zero monkey sitings. But not all was lost, we walked, slide, crawled and climbed through some of the most beautiful forest I have ever walked in. This land has almost never been touch my man and reminded me of what it would have been like to be alive during the time of the dinosaurs. It was strange that Kara and I didn't see a single monkey because generally it is hard to go 100 meters without hearing a howler, spider, wooly, titi or saki monkey. Day 6 and 7 were filled primarily with Small group projects and exploration. But the best day was day 7, a full day hike in groups of 4 with one of the guides or monkey researchers. I choose to follow a guide around because monkeys aren't my thing and I did not regret it. My group was lucky, our guide was Don Mayor, a local man with Quicha roots, who had lived in the rainforest for nearly 60 years. He looks very similar to the Dali lama and has the heart to make it. He took us downstream where we jumped off the boat and climbed up the banks of the amazon to our trailhead. Sylvia had warned us not to outpace Don Mayor because he was getting older and she was concerned we would be overzealous with out pace. Turns out, Don Mayor spent most of his time waiting for us. We left at 6 am with breakfast and lunch in our backpacks and did not return until after 330 in the afternoon. The majority of our day was spend following the don around as he made monkey calls, bird calls and cut a trail (along he is only 5' 2”, so I had to still duck to fit through the trail he had made) for us to follow. All while pointing out things that we all would have missed. A rare mushroom here, a beautiful orchid there. He then stopped to make us all bracelets out of the fiber of low growing palm. I mentioned that the ceiba trees are said to be the mothers of the rainforest because the can live to be 1000 years old and are simply massive. They can easily rise 60 meters off of the ground and use buttress roots that spread for dozens of meters. Anyways, according to the Quicha indians, the spirits of the forest live in these trees. During our lunch break, Don Major, told us some of the local and surprisingly recent beliefs about these spirits. Except, these stories weren't stories to the don, they were histories of people and places he knew. He made it very clear that he believed in these spirits and that they have directly interacted with his father, a family friend and his dog. I won't go into the details of all three stories here to save you readers some time, but the next time you have a free hour and see me, I'll do them justice. In case I forget there is one about 2 spirits kidnapping a boy, one about his father's friend and boy who cures his mother of disease and one about the don's dog, a spirit circle and the resulting death of the dog. They all are extremely captivating and worth your time. Remind me.

We listened to other stories too. Like how the don cut an anaconda in half with a machete and a living frog hopped out of the severed snake. Other stories like this. As we were making our way back to the stations (still about 2 kilometers out) The don stops walking and turns on his heel and darts into the jungle. We follow and three incredible animal sighting all occurred in less that 20 minutes. First, nocturnal monkeys were clearly visible in a hollowed out truck (the don was more excited about this than we were). But then as we moved on, the don here the buho de anteojos (spectacled owl) singing. According to the don, they never sing; according to him, he had never heard it before. As we were looking at the owl it's mate perched right next to it and started hooing too. We were so concentrated on what was in the branches we forgot to look down, but when we did, not 2 meters from us was the pair's baby. That's right a baby spectacled owl had fallen out of it's nest and was calling for it's parents. The parents were afraid to descend due to the Saki monkey harassing the owlet. In steps Don Major to save the day. He scared the monkey away and gently lifted the owl into some nearby branches. With the monkey out of sight, the only thing on the owls' minds were the humans messing with their baby, so we backed off and let the family be reunited. It was an incredible display of nature and literally as we were walking away Don Major nearly stepped on a non-venomous snake. Instead of running away from the snake, the don charges it and grabs it by the tail. This is no gardener snake, this fatboy is 2 and half meters long and as think as a grapefruit. The don dodged two strikes by the snake an as he went to grab it, it slipped his finger and slithered away. The rest of our trek ended without the previous level of excitement, but when we walked into camp, we were exhausted. But did we rest? No! We refilled our water bottles and set off at a good click for the famous ox-bow lake 2 and half kilometers away. We arrived 45 minutes later at the lake and found the reserve's small canoe. Thankfully there were only five of us, leaving about two inches of freeboard in the dugout. The actual lake was unlike any other body of water I have ever seen. The lake is no longer in the shape of an oxbow but is surrounded with and filled with this one species of tree, except this tree grows no where else in the surrounding amazon. It looks like a classic palm, but all of its branches and truck are filled with spines. The lake is filled with odd fish, cayman, turtles and bats (yes bats). As we were in the middle of the lake, a light, warm, tropical rain started to fall, but because it was late in the day, the sun was low so its rays passed under the rain cloud creating a sky that you would see on a Jehovah's Witness post card. Also, because there was no with or waves on the lake, you could see each individual raindrop bouncing on the water. It was incredible! We returned soaked, dirty, sweaty and hungry to camp were were collapsed.

One last cool fact, although Tiputini is only 700 hectares, at least 12 ocelots, 7 jaguars and 1 cougar all have been caught via camera traps throughout the park. It is said that each large cat need at least 1000 hectares to hunt successfully. These cats are fleeing the surrounding oil projects.

And finally, as with our cloud forest excursion, the 22 of us are now even closer: At night we would all gather by candle light (the power cuts out ever night at 930) and just talk. One of my closest friends here shared this piece of advice on how to live you life, I like it so much that I am now going to share it with you: If someone where to come up to you and offer you the opportunity to relive your life, from start to finish, exactly as it happened before, all the while, never being aware that you were reliving what had already happened, you should never have to think twice about doing it.

The ride home was relatively uneventful until our chivo was stopped by a local man in the road. He was demanding money and gasoline, neither of which we had. He was trying to get to Coca, rather than give him something for nothing, Sylvia purchased some of his wife's artisan crafts, so that they could pay the ferry. We rode with him for 30 minutes by bus, and 2 hours by canoe. After he literally jumped off of the canoe, and struggled ashore, Sylvia told us that he is the local crazy man and that he is also a convicted murderer. Once, according to Sylvia, he threatened a local Catholic charity foundation with a chainsaw, demanding mattresses and watermelon. So now everyone gives him what he wants and tries to stay out of his way.

Although, I will never forget the Amazon and hope to return again, it is nice to be in clean,dry clothes and have electricity. Also there are no jaguars, ocelots, pumas, bullet ants, anacondas, fur-de-lance, sting rays, cayman, electric eels, piranhas, malaria, yellow fever, bot flies, or caburis in Quito, which is nice. I have been battling a stomach virus for the last few days, but other than that, all is well