Tiputini, Ecuador (Rainforest) 2006 TR, Part 2

**backpack** · 02-25-2007, 08:34 PM

Part 1

March 25: We had lunch at noon in the kitchen since the dining hall roof had been demolished after breakfast, which was interesting and kind of nice, if a bit of a surprise.

Later on everyone came back from dinner and wanted to do a night walk, so I went with them since they aren't technically supposed to be out walking on the trails at night without a guide. We went down matapalo for a while and saw some cool spiders, a snake, a salamander, lizard, and a few frogs. Not bad for a 20 minute walk, really.

March 26: Shawn and Noah woke me up with cookies. I've been talking about how much I hoped they'd make cookies for us this time since so many researchers had raved about them and I'd never had a chance to try one, so I guess they figured they should bring me some, which was nice. I munched on them half asleep and then passed out again.

March 28: Kelly asked me to back up a memory card for him, and also asked if I would clean off his sensor since he had a few large chunks that were pretty visible in most photos.

I turned on my computer and transferred his first card, then a second one that he brought in, and now it's 9 and I'm waiting for him to drop off his camera. I think he's still trying to figure out how to put it in sensor cleaning mode. Now it's 9:40 and still no camera to clean, so I think I'm going to go take a crap and go for a hike or something. I don't feel like wasting any more time.

I went for a walk around camp and down Matapalo, Chorongo, and Guacamayo/Lago with Nir to get some photos using my wide-angle lens since I haven't used it yet and I figure I should try to get some decent photos of the forest in general. We saw a few cool bugs and the fungus covered moth on Lago, and the same snail I saw a few days ago at the intersection of Chorongo and Matapalo.

Lunch was carrot soup with popcorn followed by vegetable fried rice with various random vegetables, walnuts and raisins. I didn't care too much for the rice, but I did drink a lot of Tang because I hadn't had anything to drink since lunch yesterday. I also brought along my camera with the 10-22 so I could get some shots of the open space where the dining hall used to be.

Part of Numa getting to Chichico was flooded, but we found ways around the water and did the whole loop. The weather was really beautiful, with blue sky and no hint of rain. We saw some cool bugs and flowers, and at the end we scared what I think were caimans off the trail. They moved really fast and were clearly large, but we didn't get a close enough look to know what they were for sure.

March 29: The last bridge between Chichico and Numa was almost underwater at the far end, so it has come up at least six inches or so over the past day. At the old dining hall one of the workers showed us a stingless bee nest in a tree they had just cut down, full of honey pots and lots of pissed off bees.

We decided that a swim was in order after the hike since it was only 10:20 when we got back and we had plenty of time to kill before lunch. Nir, Noah, Rachel, and Annabelle went to the "service dock" to get in and swim downriver to the main dock, and I took their crap and walked to the main dock to get in. Nir, Noah, and Rachel all managed to get in to the main dock from the main current, but Annabelle wasn't strong enough and didn't start early enough to make it. She was swept downriver, and Nir jumped in to go help her. They ended up 100 meters or so downriver holding on to some overhanging vegetation, and eventually climbed up the bank to Numa and back down to the main dock on the trail. We all sat around on the dock until 11:30, then went back to camp. The cold water in the river was really nice, and when I went to take a shower it actually seemed warm because my torso was so cold from being in the river. At first I thought the water had been heated in the pipes by the sun or something it felt so warm.

While eating our potato soup, a boa climbed up above the old door to the now demolished dining hall and then up onto the roof, all clearly visible through the screen wall.

**backpack** · 02-25-2007, 08:35 PM

March 30: Woke up at 5:55 to check rodent traps with Beth, which apparently was a mistake. First off, Alex woke up thinking it was his alarm and was dressed before I even got out of bed, then I sat at the lab until 6:20 waiting for Beth, who had neglected to tell me that they are getting up later to check traps now since it doesn't take very long to do.

I spent the better part of the morning breaking apart the twig nest that Nir found yesterday, and though I suspected they might be solenopsis, I didn't really know and had to use a microscope and the genera key in the E.O. Wilson ant book to make sure. Of course, that took a while and a lot of looking up crazy ant physiology terms, but at least I am fairly confident in my identification now. Once that was finished, I knocked out some of the huge pheidole from Shawn's twig to show them how different the workers and soldiers are in that genus, then put all the crap away.

Of course, everyone else left a few minutes ago and XXXXXX made sure to remind me to turn out the lights. Yea, like I need to be reminded, bitch. Plus, the generator's on, so it's not as if leaving the lights on during lunch is a major issue.

They were burning the old dining hall steps, and the trees above were tossing around in the rising hot air.

The first part of Puma up to someone's plot was well maintained, but after we passed the side trail they made the main trail deteriorated immediately. It wasn't hard to follow or anything, but there were some areas that were pretty overgrown and tree or branch falls that we had to go around. Harpia was better but not great, and I was kind of glad to get onto Chorongo at the end and have a nice easy to follow path for the last twenty minutes.

I went to dinner hoping that we would have a burrito bar again, but alas we had vegetable fettuccini alfredo. It was pretty good, especially with the garlic bread, but the emphasis was on lots of steamed vegetables which isn't my idea of a good time.

I went to the cabin and as I walked over to my bed I stepped on what felt like a hot nail, but that didn't make sense. I looked down and realized I'd stepped on a Conga ant, and promptly squished it with a candle holder. The sting was pretty painful, though not nearly as bad as everyone says they are. There was a nice purple spot surrounded by a white circle where I'd been stung, and the point where it had entered throbbed with shooting pain. Basically like a wasp sting but somewhat more powerful.

The benadryl didn't really help me fall asleep nor dull the pain, so I lay there feeling like someone was holding a blowtorch to my foot until about three in the morning when I finally fell asleep.

(NOTE: Conga ant == Bullet Ant == Paraponera clavata)

<--- not my photo... google images.

March 31: Woke up this morning when everyone went to breakfast to a much less painful foot, though I had a weird dream about superheroes robbing a bank and me having to call my dad to warn him that the bank was going to shoot them with a tranquilizer dart from a few blocks away. Very odd. When I woke up the second time my left foot didn't hurt at all, but I'd had another weird dream about how I'd had everyone over to my house for dinner and I hadn't told my parents to have a vegetarian entrée so all the vegetarians were really pissed off.

It was 9:30 and I thought I heard monkeys crashing through the trees near our cabin, so I ran out to look but didn't see anything. I did, however, realize that walking around on my foot made it hurt again, and walking to the lab a few minutes later was a little bit painful.

I asked if anyone wanted to go for a walk, but no one was forthcoming with a positive answer, so at 1:30 I went to take a poop in our bathroom. Later, in mid-BM, Alex came by and asked if I wanted to do Matapalo. I said yes as long as they'd wait for me to finish my dump, so I met them in the lab to grab my camera and off we went. Heather had to collect leaves for her herbivory project so Alex, Beth and I continued on and said we might meet up again further along. When we reached the turn off for Murcialago and the canopy walkways, we decided to head down and see how the construction was progressing. It isn't too far down to the tower, and soon we were watching the welder fastening the scaffolding together midway up.

We sat around there for a few minutes and then headed back to Matapalo. A bit further along there was another obvious trail off to the right, and we decided to take it and see what was over there. We came to a clearing around a huge tree, with lots of old boards lying around and a bunch of scaffolding and stairs stacked up to one side. This was obviously where Tower 1 had been and would soon be again, but it was also clear that it wouldn't be finished until after we've left Tiputini.

Towards the end it became a long push to get back; Alex was really tired and I was pretty dehydrated. We made it to our cabin in short order, and I took a shower while Alex decided to wait until he went to bed since he didn't have any clean clothes to change into. Apparently they decided to push our laundry day back to Saturday and didn't tell us until today, so a lot of people are having issues with their outfit planning.

After showering, I headed out to the lab, taking some insect photos along the way. I managed to find the small super-camouflaged mantis on a tree near the Hilton, and spent several minutes and mosquito bites shooting it.

Also: I know most of these aren't good enough to justify the watermark, and they're pretty small anyway, but it's easier to just do them all the same in photoshop.

Part 3 coming soonish... finished going through all my photos a few days ago.