Holy moly its nearly christmas

wow its been 3 months in the jungle.

Am currently in Cusco for a little break away from the sweaty jungle and wow is it a little chilly here, its been fun but am missing the jungle already. its the first time I have been on the internet for over a month and literaly cant remember any thing that has happened in the last month but Im sure it was a good one.

the lodge is going through abit of a management changer over so things have been abit different and have been helping out with the running of the lodge inbetween continuing with my resident naturalist duties and research.. so,  had a leaving party in Puerto for the manager and assistant manager who have both left. maybe drank a little to much. the new manager is nice she has two little girls with her so recently a lot of engery is being used in entertaining them which is not what i signed up for, alot of maintenance of bridges is needed so have helped carry bloody heavy wood on my shoulders for a couple kms, just generally being doing the same old jungle stuff, an awsome couple of califorinian tourists stayed at the lodge for just over 2 weeks and were so inthusiastic and deadicated about wildlife they were out in the forests early and would return late at night battering against the mosquitoes, horse flies, humidity heat, rain and the jungle bathroom but amazingly for them it paid off as they were lucky to see close to 30 mammaals in there short stay one of which spotting a Puma with two cubs at dawn one morning!!! absolutly amazing!!!!! since then puma tracks are regularly being spotted up and down two of the trails which run parallel to each other.

Unfortunatly my camera was stolen (sorry dad Ill get you a new one)  so i havnt got any new photos two upload . there was one point for about a week where i was managing to contract one tick daily its so gross i still have to get poor jo to get them off me.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all my friends and family i love you and miss you all so much and I realy do appriciate all the support you give me while I am out here in the jungle . Get stupid drunk and crazy over the holidays as i will be doing here. Will be spending christmas at a guides house with his family who have so kindly invited us RNs round for a traditional pervian christmas which im am looking foward to and with a possiblity of returning to cusco for new year boom! Also thank you to my dad who has been keeping me updated with everything thats going on at home with his own day by day blog its realy nice to read when i do get the opportunity.

Not looking foward to a 10 hour peruvian coach journey back to Puerto Maldonardo but am looking foward to the heat.Goodbye untill 2013...

October

sunset at Cocococha lake

Saddleback Tammarin

Red Howler monkeys

October has been an awsome month. I have realy settled into the peruvian way of life in the amazon. Most days are spent in the jungle untill it gets unbearably hot or the attack of the mosquitoes gets too bad before they send you absolutely crazy. I mentioned in my earlier blog that the rainy season was here o how i was wrong it was just a little rainy, most of this month has been crazy hot and humid with the odd day of rain to cool things down but only for a few hours. Some days you see lots of animals others you dont its so unpredictable but one of my favorite days so far was when i went for a short walk to the tower in the morning hoping to watch a few birds fly by before the heat of the day sets in and the wasps find you. so in my walk little 1.5km walk to the tower I spot a few nice looking birds a Nun bird and a Tinamou and a Pale winged trumpeter the forest felt still and quiet on this day so I reach the tower and start the 42m ascend or the 130 steps approx to the top of the tower which rises slightly above the canopy. not even making it to the top I notice close by a family of 7 Red Hower monkeys chilling in one of the larger trees in the area a couple of the watching me watching them and there i stay contently observing there behaviour for it must have been around half an hour while i hear parakeets and blue and yellow macaws fly over head then suddenly i hear near by on the ground loud rustling, grunting and movement of vegetation, it moves closer, its big, i come to one conclusion a massive herd of pecceries! brilliant! i would guess at around 50 individuals maybe even more, hearing the group making there way closer to the tower, transfix on this moving vegetation hoping for a glimpse of this group then suddenly i see a part of the group as they forage for food on the forest floor before they disappear again in the undergrowth wanting a better look at these creatures i take off my welly boots and run down the tower in my socks so i don't make a sound down the metal tower as to not alarm the peccaries. for such a big noisy group they sure can disappear quickly in the forest i followed a trail close to wear the peccary's disappeared but unfortunately i lost them but i saw so much more than i expected to see in such a short amount of time the forest came alive above me two scarlet macaws were shouting and fighting over fruit in a tree which they insisted on breaking open the seed cases then dropping them to the floor i dont know what kind of seed case it was but it was big and weighty and if it landed in your head it would most definalty knock you out so retreating from under this tree i catch a glimps of 2 beautiful woodpeckers on a nearby tree but then fly off, however running down a neigbouring tree a red tree squirrel with a big fluffy tail, then something else catches my eye tammarins i count only 3 but with the dense forest they are difficult to seen inbetween the vines and lianas this group was shy and retreated into the saftey of the forest quickly then lastly i catch a glimpse of a tree creeper circle a tree on the trunk before flying off then the forest went still again with only the noise of the cicadasand mosquitoes filling the air,  this all happened so quickly it was thrilling yet exhausting i didnt know where to look or stand it was amazing. you can walk for hours some days and see nothing but today was a good day. This was just one of the amazing days this month. Also one of my favorite things todo at explorers Inn is to camp at Cocococha lake as part of our RN duties we have to camp at the lake twice a month to monitor the black caiman which can only be done at night which i think iv mentioned before but one day me and Tris (fellow RN and class mate) camped at the lake just because we could. we set off on the 5Km walk in afternoon with our hammocks, mosquito nets, food and water on our backs it was a humid and hot day and the walk was not at pleasurable but it was all made worth it by seeing Tammarins and Capuchin monkeys, a green vine snake and a collard peccary so close if i had stuck out my hand i would have been able to touch it. we were only able to get this close because we we still and quiet  distracted by this vine snake effortlessly making its way up this treelet. peccaries have poor sight and will usually run away from human noise and footsteps but hearing a crunch behind us we turn around and BAM a collard peccary totaly unaware of our presence it bumbles around foraging on the floor it heads straight for us then all its hair on its back stands on end and it looks right at us it must have recognized a foreign smell as it turns 45 degrees and bumbles back into the forest completly unalarmmed. Tris managed to capture amazing footage of the whole experience. seeing wild animals in there natural habitat doing animal things its such an incredible feeling its the best thing in the world. this wasnt the end of our animal sightings for the day as we were luckley enough to see the giant otters feeding in the evening and they came very close to the little canoe there such beautiful animals its a shame there are so rare and I feel very privileged to be able to see them when i come to the lake after watching the otters till they finished catching dinner they head on to land and into their burrows, a group of Red howlers made there way to the biggest tree at the lake where they settle down for the night. yet another great sighting. with the moon low in the sky and the sun setting we enjoy dinner on the lake and wait for it to get dark enough to search for some nocturnal species we found mainly black caimen. with lightening and thunder getting louder and closer we decide to head to the hide where our hammocks are and call it a night but but there was one more surprise in store. due to the weather we decide a night walk is off the cards getting stuck in a possible storm is not wise but watching the lightening fork across the sky is probably one of the best natural shows iv seen it was truly beautiful lucky the storm missed us and on my way back from a visit to the jungle bathroom i hear a rustle in a tree and with my torch i see only 15 meters away up a tree an elusive night monkey! perfect way to end the day! so that's just  2 of my favorite days this month among a bunch of brilliant days i thought id share.

Giant river otter

Facts and figures total:
times iv fallen in the jungle: averaging 2 times a weeks*
wasp stings: 1
ant stings: 1 (painful luckley not a bullet ant)
ticks: 6
mosquitoes bites: uncountable
volleyballs to the face : 1
times iv been lost in the jungle: 3
bottles of repellent used so far: 5
times held a bullet ant: 1

  

* excluding near misses

As part of our RN duty we produce a monthly newsletter Iv added the link below if you would like a quick read, this month includes rare sightings of the month, resident naturalist monitoring programme's, Ants of the rainforest article, the canopy article and personal research going on by the RNs in our free time.


https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=28079d4c608f1701#!/view.aspx?cid=28079D4C608F1701&resid=28079D4C608F1701%21129&app=Word
  hope this link works
   

What a Month

Me next to a massive strangler fig 

I’ve been in Peru now for a month and what a month it’s been. The rainy season has officially arrived and wow does it come down still getting high temperatures of around 34⁰C with Humidity anything between 48-87% so very different to England temperatures. Jumpers are coming out when the temperatures drops to the 20s which is odd usually the t-shirts and shorts are out in true Brit style but not here. Everything is odd here even the moon is at odd angles, I use the word odd in a positive way.

Giant otters at Cocococha 

Days here vary some day’s full and busy helping researchers with collecting data for their Master’s degree. So far have helped in data collection for two different research projects going on in the reserve near Explorers Inn one involving a massive 10 year project on the productivity of the rainforest looking at the carbon cycle, root establishment, tree growth and the composition of carbon within leaf falls just to name a few of the components in the research investigation within this complex project. Another project is to do with the importance of termites within the rainforest ecosystem and how different food sources effects termite efficiency dependent on various factors one including the isotopes found within C3 and C4 plants for example.  Otherwise mornings can be spent trekking in the forest on the lookout for mammals, reptiles, birds ect include a bit of tree climbing or monitoring of the otters at the lake or birds at the claylick and you’ve got a good morning well spent then in after lunch when the temperature has cooled I like going back out into the jungle or the other week a few of us went to a nearby river beach for a cool down tip in the river. It was fun once you got over the conversion between sand under your feet to weird sludge feeling mud and what were swimming in the lake with you … caiman, piranha, giant catfish, parasites that can get up inside of you (so no peeing in the river) and sand flies on the sand that carry a flesh eating bacteria that if they carry the harmful protozoa and if bitten, can infect you with this disease…so once you block out that it’s a joyful experience with a gorgeous backdrop of the jungle and setting sun its real a stunning place to be.  

Cocococha lake 

Hannah and I also spent a night at Cocococha Lake a 5km hike from the lodge, it was awesome sleeping in hammocks under the stars then monitoring black caiman at night in a little tin boat. Although caiman aren’t aggressive like crocodiles these black caiman have been known to grow to lengths of 6meters! I haven’t seen any that big yet but they are incredibly primal looking and being up close to a 2.5meter caiman gets your pulse racing. Cocococha lake is also home to the largest family of the endangered giant river otters in the Tampobata area and on occasion have had the pleasure in sighting these amazing mammals. The group consists of 11 individuals who can be seen early in the mornings or in the late afternoon catching fish and socialising with one another around the lake. These are curious creatures who will cautiously approach the boat while bobing their heads up and down in the water combined with caution growls to warn you not to get to close in their territory but seen otherwise unfazed by human presence and will cruise on to the next patch of lake and continue catching fish.

Red howler monkey

After being out here for a month I have finally started on a couple of monitoring projects for my own fascination and experience. Firstly I am collecting data on different species of snakes in the area. Because I don’t a have research permit I means I can’t go out with intentions to capture mark and release this animals I have to just record statistics on the ones that I or the other RNs or the guides come across while out on the trails. Although there are great variety and numbers of snakes out there they are incredibly hard to come across because or there incredible stealth and camouflage and generally flee with any disturbance near them so this is going to be a 9 month project where I can interpret the data nearer the end of my time here. Meanwhile I have also decided to monitor the primate groups around Explorers inn.  Studies in the location of primate groups have taken place periodically over the last 21 years in the immediate area by four different Resident Naturalists. The last study to have taken place was in 2004 so I am going to collect my own data during the wet season then collect some more data during the dry season then using the old data going back to 1990 I will hopefully discover some patterns in group numbers, sizes and territories over the years.      

On top of learning as much about this incredible jungle as I can while staying in Peru you need a break or to do something different so I am also learning how to play chess and speak Spanish. I have also learnt to play a new game call Rumikub which apparently is massive in Europe apart from in England and the card game S**t head which is a great game to pass the time in the evenings.                

Beautiful humming bird found with two eggs in a nest on a trail close to the lodge

Left:toad infected by a fungus,Right poison dart frog found on a night walk. Right below: Amazon grass hopper and Below red and green macaws in the wild amazing!

  

Jungle Jungle Everywhere

11 days in the South American amazon has gone by so fast. This place is incredible and a complete contrast to anywhere I’ve ever been. Ants the size of frogs, fungus that inhibits then grotesquely kills its host and incredibly powerful thunderstorms.

Im staying at explorers Inn on which is on Tampobata river where it meets La Torre stream. I’m working as a Resident Naturalist (RN) which entails: working with the researchers on their projects, being knowledgeable of the jungle and its flora and fauna, socialising and answering tourists questions  making them feel comfortable during their stay, surveys and monitoring of various animals in the Tambopata nation reserve including caiman and giant otters, setting up individual research projects and general work that needs doing around the lodge and on the trails (that means machete time J)

The days are pretty long here but you get fed pretty well, breakfast is at 6.30 which includes juice toast egg and fruit,  lunch at 1.30 starter salad/veg, main meat and rice dessert some sort of fruit and dinner is at 8 starter soup, main rice/pasta with meat and dessert something sweet. With the heat, humidity and the amount of walking during the day it’s amazing how hungry you get.

Owl moth 

In this short amount of time that I’ve been at Explorers Inn I have managed to see some incredible animals. On the boat ride from Puerto Maldonardo airport to the lodge there were capybara chilling out on a sandy part along Tampobata  river, which is a realy good sign, then in the evening I joined some tourist on a caiman search where we managed to spotted a handful of white caiman along the river.

     

cat prints 

There is a local pink toed tarantula that lives in the RN’s bungalow behind some books on the bookshelf there’s also another pink toed tarantula that can be seen every evening on one of the tourist bungalows which is quite cute for an arachnid. Also on a morning walk on Jo Hannah and myself during one of the first couple of days being at the lodge we spotted a pure blond Tamandua which is like a small anteater it was so adorable just happily bumbling away on the forest floor blissfully unaware of human presents, we’ve also spotted red broket deer, red tree squirrels a snake lots of odd looking spiders and insect including a very poisonous golden orb spider.   During many walks along the trails iv spotted squirrel monkeys and capuchin monkeys together jumping around in the trees. Capuchin monkeys are just as curious of you as you are of them, their appearance is oddly human.  Went on a night walk with some tourist and a jhordy one of the guides and he spotted a bicolourd porcupine chilling in a tree above our heads amazing find as it’s a rare mammal sighting.

curious Capuchin monkey

Unfortunaly for me the mosquitoes seem to be taking a liking to my face so far iv had 8 bites just on my face alone and woke up one morning with a swollen eye it was only about for a couple days thankfully. and iv already managed to catch two large ticks lucky a guide christian knows how to deal with them and just whipped it out. egh gross little blood suckers.

hard day at work

Taken a trip to Puerto Maldonado for a couple of days to get to know the area and to get some supplies, it’s a chilled town but really comes to life at night, it’s a Sunday evening and the main square has just come to life. Also you don’t particularly get cars here every one drives motorbikes. If you want a taxi you jump on the back of a motorbike or if theres a few of you jump on a tuktuk type things which is essentially just a three wheeled motorbike. Really  awesome.          

Made it to Lima

Turns out nobody will correct you on how long your fight from Madrid to Lima will take until you bring it up with the girls your traveling with when yourve already completed the first leg from Gatwick to Madrid. There was me telling everyone that its a quick 5 hour flight, typically forgetting about the time difference. Amateur mistake. So along 5 hours later (nearly 11 hours) we arrive in Lima. 

After napping in the hotel for 5 hours we decided to take a trip into the city. In Peru we have already succeeded in eating Italian for Dinner(local delicacies plenty of time for that) with free beer, having a Starbucks (think i confused the poor barrista so much I got 3 drinks for $10 something went wrong...) and getting lost, maps who needs them when you have a gut feeling that it might just be around the corner. 

This blog is all because I have taken a placement year as part of my course at uni and have been able to score a 10month placement at Explorers Inn which combines ecotourism, science and conservation. Luckily there are 3 others from my course out here with me Hannah, Jo and Tris. 

Jetting off to Puerto Maldonado in the morning then getting a boat down the river to the lodge. Hoping to improve my spanish soon because not understanding the language can get frustrating.