Ten Weeks On and Gone....

My favourite moment of the my first ten weeks with GVI Amazon on the six month internship had to be the slow canoe ride from Yasuní Interpretive centre. Drifting along the broad milky river passing the green expanse of vegetation gave me time to think. had to be the slow canoe ride from Yasun

When I first arrived in the Amazon rainforest, being on the canoe with a back drop of intimidating unknown, a thousand unfamiliar sounds, staring with strangers at a blanket of empty water and listening to the canoe driver speak a language I barely understood.

Ten weeks on at Yasuní stepping gingerly once again into a low canoe with all my new friends ,on water brimming with fish, I’ve seen beautifully carved by locals, served on rice in smoky port towns like Coca and Tena , or jumping right into our boots on stream walks in the dark. I can hear in the blissful calm and identify birds and frogs as if they were croaking and squawking out their Latin names. Better yet, I can grasp the value of the trees bordering the lagoon, which species they feed and shelter on, how their fruit tastes and what exactly can be made from the bark of each bole. I can understand the proud kichwa guide rowing silently and share his delight and wonder, hoping for a chance glimpse at a surfacing anaconda or streak of jaguar between the vines. I see lilies and think manatees - why are they not around and how much else is missing or dying out due to greed, overhunting, oil exploration, pollution and habitat destruction?

At the end of ten weeks I know how important and diverse the rainforest is and it’s GVI Amazon and their partners that gave me this education and experience I won’t forget.

Helen Stout - GVI Amazon 6 month Conservation Internship, Oct 2010 - Apr 2011

Ten Weeks On and Gone....