Lady Camp!

Loaded up with firewood, plenty of water, and of course- marshmallows- Bianca, Laura, Rachel and Jas arrived at Sat Camp, extremely sweaty and grimy but no less excited about our upcoming exploits. We dropped our bags, grabbed our dinners, and plopped ourselves down at the lookout; a clearing in the trees providing an excellent view of the canopy and its winged occupants. Immediately upon arrival we were treated to the sight of a beautiful White-throated Toucan (Ramphastos tucanus).

But enough with the birds, we had more serious business to attend to. We returned to camp and (after only a few tries) built our campfire, roasted marshmallows and potatoes and tried our best to do justice to the name ‘Lady Camp.’ Feeling a bit left out since he was the only male, Andy begged us to call him ‘Andrea*.’ We soon tired of the usual slumber party activities (talking about boys, braiding each other’s hair*, painting Andy’s toenails* etc), so we headed down to the laguna for a night walk. We saw loads of stunning amphibians, including some Bromeliad Tree Frogs, Monkey Frogs, Rana palmipes, and a Cane Toad. We even saw the menacing red eye-shine of a caiman.

Andy took us out to walk around the perimeter of the laguna in the hopes of getting closer to a caiman...but the walk ended up being a search for a yellow trail marker once we lost the trail. We did eventually find it again, but not before slipping down towards the bank on our backsides at least four times per person.

Clambering around the rainforest, sliding on mud and debris, snapping photos of frogs, scanning the murky laguna for lurking caiman and just generally getting muddier than I have ever been was a complete blast. I feel so lucky; not only to be in such a vibrant, pulsing place but also to be here with such interesting and funny people from all over the world. LADY CAMP 4EVA!!!

*Some of the occurrences in this blog entry may be kind of fictitious...

Rachel Adler, GVI Amazon volunteer February to March 2010

Lady Camp!