TBS 3

2-25-09
Today we did a morning float to a salt lick by the water where hundreds of parrots hang out. It was pretty incredible and I got some nice pictures. After some more bird watching we went in the water and inevitably started our chain game. We finally got everyone attached (about 15 people.) We went back for lunch and then Nicole and I heading into the field for our last day of data collection. We had gone to all of the closest stream already so we knew we were in for a bit of a hike. Nicole though there was a good stream a little bit down that Mata Mata trail, so we started walking. We crossed the stream that she thought would be good, but the water had gone down too much and it was no long a continuous stream. So we kept walking, in hopes of finding a better stream. As we were walking I saw something move in the woods. It was fairly large and my first thought (for some unknown reason) was that it was a human. I told Nicole and then she saw it, we are pretty sure it was a deer. There are a lot of deer in the forest, but they are very hard to see so we were pretty lucky. Finally we found a stream that we could work on. We did your first site and caught a crawdad! We had seen them the night before on our night hike, but didn’t think they were in the small stream. We continued to collect data, and our last part of the stream was covered in a vine tangle and Nicole made the joke that she would have to “ungulate through the water” instead of the running/kick thing that we do. By the time we were done with our transect it we had 15 minutes until lecture and we were at almost 2 km from camp. So we packed up all of our gear and realized we were missing a ruler, but because of us disturbing the stream so much we couldn’t see the bottom and quickly gave up and decided to come back tomorrow. We booked it back to camp and we still 30 minutes late, whoops. We came into lecture smelly, dirty, wet, and still sweating from the hike back. After dinner we watched a pirated version of Slumdog Millionaire.

2-26-09
I worked on data analysis all day today with Nicole… inside the library.. not how I would chose to spend a day in the rainforest. However, before dinner I went down to the river to watch the sunset. The river has gone down about 10 meters since we came to Tiputini so the banks are finally exposed and you can see more wildlife. We did see a pink river dolphin today which was awesome, especially since I thought I was the subject of some large prank (like snipe hunting,) but it turns out that river dolphins really exist. After dinner Carl, Nicole, Jane, Eric and I went on a fairly uneventful night hike.

2-27-09
Today was a study day for our final tomorrow. I was in the library all day, again, not cool. We had a review before dinner and got a short presentation from a jaguar researcher before bed.

2-28-09
Day of the final. We had an hour field exam and a 3 hour written exam. After the exam Nicole, Sam, and I relaxed by the river and ate peanut butter and Oreos (a common and delicious snack at TBS.) after dinner we went on a night float. We saw a large caiman, a deer, and some night birds.

3-1-09
Today was a completely free day. Nicole and I have been wanting to take out the small canoe since we got here and finally had the opportunity to do so. So, we woke up at 5:20 am to get a ride to tower 2 so we could paddle back downstream (it is not possible to paddle upstream.) We went to the lagoon next to tower 2 to see the Houatsins for a final time. The water had gone down in the lagoon as well, and apparently no one had used the canoe since then because it was on a hill now. It had some water in the bottom so we tipped it out and pushed it down the hill. However, the hill ended in a small drop and the canoe did a small nose dive. Once the canoe was in the water there was no way we could get it back out to get the water out (note: dugout canoes are deceivingly heavy) so we had a nice ride around with about 2 inches of water in the canoe. After we had gotten our fill of bird watching we headed back to the river to canoe back, but went we got to the bank we couldn’t find our canoe. A lot of people in our group have been playing pranks so we assumed someone that had gone up into the tower knew something we didn’t. We hike back to the tower, anger building the whole way. We had been looking forward to this canoe ride back for so long, and now it had been taken away and it was our last day. We got to the tower and yelled up asking where our canoe was, they said they didn’t know but it took some convincing before we walked back and realized we had made a wrong turn the first time. The ride back was very pleasant despite to light rain. We got home and wanted to take a nap until 10am before going on the Mata Mata trail to find our lost ruler. At 11:50 we woke up very surprised at our 4 hour nap, we didn’t realize we were so tired. The afternoon float/fishing trip left at 2pm so after lunch we had to go on a speed hike to find our ruler. Surprisingly we found the ruler and made it back in time. After the float we went down the Lago trail to try to find pigmy marmoset. Pigmies are adorable little monkeys (the smallest primate in the world) that eat sap from trees, and there is a tree on Lago that they are known to like. We got there and after waiting for about 15 minute one came out. He was ridiculously cute. On the walk back I heard a woodpecker; I have heard a lot of woodpeckers but have not been able to find them. This time it sounded very close and I was determined to find him. After walking about 10 m off the trail I finally found the tree he was on and got a decent view. I love woodpeckers. We leave tomorrow after breakfast and although I was skeptical if I would like it here, I am not ready to leave. But, all good things must come to an end and I guess I am ready to go back to civilization.
P.S.
Shout out to my dad! It is his birthday today! Also notable: my mom comes in 2 days and I turn 21 in 5 days. Whoop whoop.

3-2-09
Today we got on the boat after dinner and left Tiputini.  We did the trip again Boat up the Tipuntini river, Chiva bus through the oil camp, boat up the Napo river, then fly back to Quito. The water on the Tipuntini has gone down so much it looks like a different river and I like to think I came out of TBS a little different as well.