The End of an Era

After over 6 years of intensive research and community development work in and around the Yachana Reserve, GVI Amazon is coming to a close. We have finished our final research project (look forward to our Road Effects paper, coming soon!) and are handing over the project to our partner, The Yachana Foundation. They will continue to maintain and monitor the reserve, using it as an hands-on science education center for students -- we're very excited to see what fabulous things this next generation of scientists find! For more detail on GVI Amazon's closure, and our accomplishments over the years, please read on...
GVI Amazon Closure Statement

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

A Visit to the Yachana Lodge

On Easter Sunday, a trip to the Yachana Lodge) had been arranged (the Yachana Foundation is GVI Amazon’s in-country partner). We all put on our orange lifejackets and met up at port. The canoe was on time for once, and the ride was a pretty strange sensation, with the sun and the nice weather in the back, and the big gray rain clouds in ahead of us. To the sound of thunder, we walked up the trail to the lodge, and once we got the “Drunken parrot” bar, we were all very excited about the milkshakes in different exotic flavors. While I had mine with passion fruit, I admired the tarantulas in the ceiling, the fabulous view and the parrot that had given the bar it’s name.

Hugh, an American working at the lodge, gave us a talk about the Yachana Foundation, and explained to us the importance of the work that GVI and the volunteers, we, do. It was slightly amusing to look around at the individuals of our group, that originally chose to do this for fun or for the experience, and see them suddenly realizing the part that each and every one of us play in the conservation of this area. After this interesting talk we got to meet the founder, Douglas from Kentucky, and we visited the butterfly house with all the owl-butterflies and other beautifully colored butterflies. It was a different, but nice, way to spend Easter Sunday.

Berglind Karlsdottir, GVI Amazon volunteer, April - May 2011


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