Mud and Surveys....

This past Sunday included our long awaited game of football across the Rio Napo at the Yachana Lodge and the local village of Mondaña. After an informative tour of Yachana’s sustainable initiatives and technical high school, we put our game faces on and summoned the locals for a fierce match. However, as the away team in unknown territory, we had quite a disadvantage on the muddy pitch. Hugh’s incredible dominating performance in goal held us together, but in the end, we suffered a heartbreaking loss. Nonetheless, we thoroughly enjoyed the mud.

Following a week of gathering our jungle stamina and mastering the essentials, we were ready for Manic Monday— day one of many field surveys to come. Mistnetters embarked at a lovely 4:45am, and soon afterwards the point counters followed. Birdman Simon took the helm of my team’s twelve-point survey. As we traversed the ridge, the standard avian rainforest staples made their morning calls, as well as a few unfamiliar ones. Also along our path, we stumbled upon a King Ratsnake (Elaphe carinata), deadly Brazilian Wandering Spider (Phoneutria spp.) and a family pack of Coatis, the Amazon relation to the racoon. Finally, at the end of a long day’s work, a few of us were lucky enough to sample Olly’s famous plantain pie. Delicious.

Adam Goldberg, GVI Amazon Environmental Intern, April-June 2010

Mud and Surveys....