Today I left the research station and returned to Puerto Maldonado. By the time I had left the research station, life had evolved into a fairly regular routine. We awoke each morning at 6 for breakfast before the researchers headed out to the field. After breakfast I would shower, sweep my cabin and head out for the morning’s activity. I would either try to paint or get a hike in before lunch depending on the weather and my mood. I would be back at the dining hall for lunch at noon and then continue to work, read or rest until dinner at 6:30 when the researchers would be back from the field. Meals usually ended with some negotiating to find someone to finish your plate as we felt too guilty to return to the kitchen with uneaten food given how hard the cooks work and how difficult it is to bring food up to the station. After dinner, if I wasn’t painting or taking photos for my night series I would sit with the researchers in the laboratory writing out tags for their plants or we would play cards or watch a movie in the library. Towards the end of my stay, I was doing more hiking and socializing than working. I had done a bit of satisfying work and no longer wanted to battle the downpours and mosquitos.
Two of my last hikes were really memorable. One was a hike out to Cocho Lobo, a lake at the end of a swampy trail. Meredith, the assistant to the science director, and I were in search of the “lobos”, a type of giant river otter that is probably as large as we are. After an hour’s hike, we got to the lake and climbed into the paddle boats. We paddled to the middle of the river and saw them almost immediately, the tops of their heads cutting through the water. The made a loud racket that I can’t even describe, it was unlike any other sound that I had heard before. Although we were afraid of scaring off the lobos , it turns out that they were pretty curious about us. They came closer, raising themselves up a bit to get a good look at us and making their crazy sounds. For a second, I was afraid they were going to come too close and envisioned us having to play “whack-a-lobo” with our paddles, but they kept a respectable distance and then swam on. On the way back to the station, we stopped to chat with the researchers working off-trail near by. We briefly got turned around trying to find the trail back to the station and had to call out to one of the researchers to come help us. Although we were only a few feet from the trail, it reminded me how easily you can get completely disoriented in the forest.
The second hike was up to an observation tower to watch the sunset. The tower is near an old, unused airstrip. It is 60 meters high which I think is about 18 stories. We needed to use a harness and clip into a rope before climbing up the ladder. The climb was pretty tough, mostly because its so long that you get bored and tired halfway up. But the view was worth the effort. At the top, we were high above the canopy and we could see the Andies in the distance. I’m not sure how far away the Andies are but its an impressive sight. The jungle seems to go on forever and then faintly in the distance in front of the setting sun you can see the snow capped mountains. While we were up there, we were able to see the macaws flying. They are brightly colored blue and red birds that are hard to see at other times of the day. We also saw a tree fall which was impressive. We first heard a cracking sound and then saw the tree collapse taking with it a good chunk of the canopy. While we can hear these in the forest, seeing one is quite rare.
My last day was a mix of all the typical elements of this trip. I started the day by getting horribly stung by an ant that was trapped in my pants. The phrase “ants in your pants” will never be funny to me again. This ant had a sting like a bee or wasp sting. By lunchtime, a ferocious downpour had turned most of the area around the camp into a lake. All of the trails turned into rivers and the inside of our cabins were soaked. By late afternoon, the rain had stopped and the rivers became trails again. After dinner we had one last party with music and dancing in one of the cabins before trying to catch a few hours sleep for the next day.
For the majority of my three weeks at CICRA, the same 20 staff and researchers were in attendance, although we did have a brief visit from two journalists. (They happened to be from Brooklyn and live less than two miles from my apartment.) For the last three days we had 30 additional people from a university course visiting CICRA. They were leaving on the same day as me and some of the researchers so we were making the trip down the river together. We had to rise at 4am to get the boats loaded by 5:30am. The remaining researchers woke up early to help carry the luggage down the 250 stairs to the boat launch and see us off. Once we were gone, there would only be four lonely researchers left at the station and a couple of staff. We headed down river in a mist so strong that it was hard to see the banks of the river. As there weren’t enough seats, I was sleeping on the wet floor of the boat when our boat got snagged on something in the river and lost its motor into the water. Luckily we were travelling with the other two boats and were not stranded. We were towed to the banks of the river and waited as the crew installed a spare motor. Within a half hour we were travelling again. When we arrived in Laborinto, we took taxis to Puerto Maldonado. Here I have been able to drop off my laundry, buy plane tickets to Cusco for tomorrow, take a hot shower, have my own bathroom and even relax in the swimming pool. I already miss the people from the station but not the bugs or the permanent humidity dampening all of my belongings.
I am happy to finally be bug-free!
