The Results

I took the results of the laboratory tests, blood and the other, back to the emergency room doctor for consultation. He asked many questions, some of which I understood, and a lesser number of which I could respond to in Spanish. Sending me on my way with two bottles of strawberry flavored electrolyte (imagine cherry go-litely without the pronounced after effect) and a five day prescription of Metronidazole for any possible amoeba or giardia that could be hiding out in my gut. The electrolyte is going down pretty smoothly, but I am going to hold onto the tablets just in case I am convinced that I actually have a parasite (they say giardia makes its presence known in ¨waves.¨

Feeling much better, and fortified with three evenings of pizza dinners, I will head up the river to TRC tomorrow morning, Christmas eve, at 6AM.

Volunteer Duties

I realized as I was enjoying reviewing photos of macaws that I haven´t really described the types of monitoring that I am (trying to) help the Macaw Project do. Here they are:

1. Clay Lick
Each day from 5AM until 5PM, someone records all birds present on the clay lick every 5 minutes. When guessing...er, identifying...the species, we have 6 macaw, 5 parrot, 6 parakeet and 3 parrotlet species from which to choose. The calls are supposed to help me distinguish among all the birds, but see below. The monitoring spot is in a sunny, swampy place, so it can be uncomfortable (hot, sticky, insect-ridden).

2. Transects
Two different transects, or monitoring lines, of up to 5 kilometers in length, are defined in the jungle around the TRC. The transect must be walked over specified period of time, and all parrots identified by call or by sight must be noted down with an estimate of direction from observer and distance, and whether the bird was flying or perched. I´m having difficulty with this as many of the calls are very similar, we hardly ever see the birds for the trees, and my left ear that Bob Sansone destroyed with a shotgun blast is of little help in determining direction.

3. Foraging Walks
We walk different trails through the jungle, again, identifying parrots heard or seen, and again a problem for me. In addition, if we actually hear fruit that may have been dropped by a foraging macaw, we search for and collect it for analysis.

4. Point Counts
From defined, marked spots in the forest we count all parrots heard or seen within a ten minute period. Again, I need a lot more practice at this, and maybe a hearing aid.

5. Nest Monitoring
Risking life and limb, with a spotter, we ascend large trees by ropes and ascenders to check contents of nests, both natural and artificial, of macaws. If eggs are present, no further check is made until predicted hatch 28 days later. If chicks are present, they are lowered to the ground in a bucket, kept warm with a water bottle, and weighed, measured (tarsus and wing), examined for ectoparasites, and photographed, then returned to the nest. All of this would be easy enough if the parents weren´t quite so worried about their gene pool, which is why ¨the hand¨ is an essential part of the gear, allowing us to keep them occupied while we are messing with them.

Between all this, there is just enough time for 3 meals, 3 showers (at least), and maybe some clothes washing.

Getting Into the Swing...Installment 2

So after two cups of coffee, some raisins and peanuts, and a pizza, I still had nothing to show for my effort in the way of a sample for the diagnostic laboratory at the hospital. They, however, had the results of the blood work for me yesterday afternoon: unfortunately there was no doctor available to interpret them, and, since my other sample was not ¨produced¨ for analysis, the staff suggested I return a second day.

I passed a quiet night back at the Rainforest office. Actually, with two guard dogs barking at every imagined sound, the office telephone ringing unpredictably and the night watchman watching not the perimeter of the property but some stupid soap opera on TV, I wished I had rememered to bring my earplugs.

The Kitten at the Office


Feeling constipational anduninspired the next morning after a breakfast of eggs, bread and papaya juice, I picked up my novel feeling as if a second day would pass without something to satisfy the hospital laboratory. Nary a nudge was detected by lunchtime as a busload of tourists and guides from upriver passed through the office on their way to the airport, including an American woman with whom I had shared complaints of illness with through the thin, reed wall separating our quarters at TRC. Christine remarked that I looked much better, as in fact I did. Maybe the trip downriver would turn out to have been unnecessary.

Before I would head into town for the afternoon (phone call to Mom, email, web log, camera stuff, hospital lab?), the cool shower beckoned. You know what they say...when you least expect it... Fortunately I had brought with me not only my soap and shampoo, but my entire toiletry kit containing the little clear plastic specimen bottle thoughtfully pressed into my palm by the laboratory technician at the hospital. I would not show up empty handed, tail between my legs, at the hospital this afternoon. A short while later, after a ride in a minibus with about a hundred thousand schoolkids, a proudly presented my specimen to the attendant at the lab, who told me that the results would be available only an hour later.

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The Creche at the Hospital

Getting into the Swing of Things

Sloth Seen on Drive from Port to Office

It´s been nearly a week since my last writing, and for good reason: the internet connection has been unbearably slow, which to you high speed connection users means ¨stopped¨. So how is it that I am writing now? Has the internet staged a miraculous recovery? Hardly.


Alicia the Cook

It so happened that of necessity I had to make a trip downriver to Puerto Maldonado over the past two days. Not to scare anyone, but my, hmmm, digestive system, has not been working as designed under the stress of local foods and, presumably, microbes. My very maternal boss suggested that I board the downriver boat and make a quick visit to the doctor to see if I could find anything out. The other option, ¨stay the course¨, as we all know, doesn´t really work very well.

My five day prescription of Cipro doesn´t seem to have made a dent, that after finishing nearly an entire box of immodium. This morning, on arrival in Puerto Maldonado, Ketty the office manager gave me a lift on the back of her scooter to the local clinic (conveniently located next door is the Santa Rosa Funeral Chapel), where I was commanded to give two samples: blood and stool. I didn´t have any trouble with the blood, but responding to the command for the other has been a bit of a problem, hence I am sitting at the internet cafe waiting for two cups of coffee and some food to take hold. Making it particularly difficult to come through with the goods is a 7 o´clock PM deadline.


Ketty the Office Manager


Anyhow, I´m not worried. I feel much better already and hope to be on a boat headed upriver to TRC again tomorrow morning. Whether my innards will have gotten back into the swing of things will be the determining factor, however.

If I shouldn´t be able to write again before then, Feliz Navidad to all!!

Laundry

The Boot Rack at the Lodge


When I first met Jerome in Puerto Maldonado and had to share a room with him at the Rainforest Expeditions office, I detected a certain smell that was not pleasant. But it wasn’t the “you smell like you haven’t had a shower in a week” smell, it was something entirely different. Don’t get me wrong: that smell was a component, but there was something else in the air. I told him I thought he needed to do some laundry and he kind of chuckled and kept on doing whatever it was he was doing.



Fast forward about a week and a half, a couple of days aft. er I had arrived here at TRC, and MY clothes, and myself, presumably, smell exactly the same! I told one of the other researchers I was embarassed to be near other people, and she said not to worry about it. Everyone knows that guacamayeros smell this way.


The Jungle that Clothes Get Dirty In

I had a late morning this morning, having gotten up at 530am and nothing on the schedule till later, so I decided to do wash. Here they use this bar that looks like a bath bar but is a little bigger and really harsh. I took a cue from Dave and brought my rubber gloves, and am glad I did. It took an hour, and I hope it was worth it, but I won’t find out for a while as it rained today and it’s going to be a LONG time before these clothes are dry enough to wear, meaning the clothes I wore yesterday and today, and which are already smelling, are going to get more mileage on them before I get to feel civilized again…

Food

Karina Walking Down to the Boat to Go to the Clay Lick



Having let Karina know that I was not feeling well yesterday, I think she took mercy on me and reduced my work schedule for today. I didn’t feel good about it though, as it meant that she had to climb all four trees herself, while I just had to look after the climbing lines and the chick monitoring equipment, which, as it turned out, I didn’t do a very good job of. First somehow I allowed the climbing line to get tangled with a video cable that monitors the nest that Karina was climbing. Since the cable pulled out of the camera, it will have to be fixed sometime later. After she reached the nest, she sent the chicks down to me in a bucket, and I had the responsibility to weigh, measure and photograph them. Imagine handling a pound of squirming, warm flesh with no feathers. To take their pictures, I had to hold them with one hand and click with the other. Stabilizing their little wings to determine their length was a challenge too. Everything seemed to go well, but when I looked at the lengths of the culmens (upper beak) that I had noted, the larger chick seemingly had the smaller bill. I’ll do better next time.


Where We Sit to Monitor the Clay Lick


Food at TRC is good. As Karina and I were leaving late for tree climbing and would not return for breakfast at 730am, she directed me to ask the chef for some fruit and bread to take along for the climb. For lunch as well, since I would be monitoring the clay lick, there needed to be special arrangements, and the chef prepared a rice, plantain, vegetable and egg dish wrapped in a banana leaf for me – delicious!


A Macaw That Should Be at the Clay Lick, and Probably the One that Ate My Clif Bars

The chefs know that I am mostly vegetarian, and there are two other researchers who also are. The chefs create just enough of a special dish for us and place it on the table along with the food for the guests (if we are to be eating with the guests). The vegetarian dish is often the same as the meat dish, without the meat, or sometimes an egg dish. Last night a problem occurred when two guests took a portion of the food that Esperanza, Jerome and I were to eat, leaving only a very small amount. For the first time since I have been here I went to the manager, Monica, and complained. She saw to it that more food was prepared for the three of us.

Sick

My Feet in One of the Hammocks at TRC

I suppose it had to happen sometime, and it was no surprise that it was today. The weather was very hot, the humidity was 101%, and we had to do two long foraging walks. By noon I was feeling a bit weak and Karina let me stay at the lodge for the afternoon, as long as I would spend the time listening to my audio recording of the calls of all the different macaws, parrots and parakeets. It’s baffling how similar they all are, but they are beginning to sound a bit different from each other.

Anyway, I think the combination of new and different food and all the heat gave me a bit of heat exhaustion and an “uncomfortable” stomach. It was nice laying in the hammocks suspended from the rafters of the atrium where I could feel the slight breeze of the afternoon. Every time Karina walked by I made certain that I had the earphones on!

Don’t Let Go of That Rope!

3:55AM found me being awakened by my alarm, but after a very good night’s sleep. Having fallen off the coffee wagon after I arrived in Peru, I had not been avoiding coffee in the afternoons. Thinking that it was affecting my sleep, I passed on it yesterday.

Monitoring the clay lick was superb from the “normal” location on the island, and I found I wasn’t quite so baffled by the sightings and calls as I had been yesterday. And the CD of psittacine calls that Karina made for me is working well.
After returning to the TRC at 7AM for breakfast, Jerome and I prepared for another morning of climbing, but today it was to be only twice, with each of us climbing one nest. I would climb the first tree which contained an artificial nest box, and Jerome would do the second, named “Vaginito” for its suggestive shape!

My climb would be a little more involved than yesterday’s as I would have to carry a bucket up with me, transfer any chicks from the nest to the bucket, and lower the bucket down for Jerome to weigh and measure. Everything went nearly as planned during the climb, the measuring and the descent, save for the fact that I had twice to scare the parents away as they returned to defend their nest and its contents from the “predator.” For this purpose, when climbing we carry a stuffed glove on the end of a long stick.


¨The Hand¨


After the successful descent, and while I was removing the climbing gear, Jerome began the tedious process of returning the climbing rope to the backpack. The small nylon line which is used to tie haul the climbing rope up over the branch at the level of the nest had been removed as we had needed the nylon line to haul up the bucket. Unfortunately, we (okay, Jerome) had forgotten this fact, and the free end had been pulled beyond our reach, perhaps twelve feet up, before we realized it! Petrified at what Karina would say when she would find out that we would have to replace a new nylon line, we wracked our brains to figure out how to pull the free end back down. The first effort involved having Jerome sit on my shoulders – we were short by perhaps 2-3 feet. Next we tried having Jerome stand on my shoulders. Balance was difficult and he was still shy a bit. Noticing a slender, tall tree nearby, and using the photographic tripod first as a brace and then to step on with his left foot while his right foot was planted on my shoulder, Jerome was finally able to save the day! While we were congratulating ourselves at our save, we hadn’t noticed the gathering swarm of bees in the air and voracious, large ants on the ground, who soon proceeded to vent some of their confusion or anger on us. We hightailed it out of their as fast as we could, Jerome deciding that we would keep mum for the time being about our little mishap with the line.


Jerome With the ¨Tool¨ That Saved Us

Really Climbing

Hmmm…I guess it is going to be 3:55 every morning! And this morning there was no reprieve. A short boat trip, with Jerome, and one lone tourist with a guide, put us on a small island in the middle of the Tambopata river which gave us a good view of the entire cliff. A better view can be gotten from the preferred spot which was totally flooded due to the heavy rains over the past few days. I was incessantly tested by Jerome on calls and sightings, and was disappointed in the number of birds I could recognize, but after 3 hours I felt better as I could recognize a Mealy Parrot and of course the big macaws, the Scarlet, the Red and Green and the Blue and Yellow. We also saw: blue-headed macaws, chestnut-fronted macaws, red-bellied macaws, blue headed parrots, white-bellied parrots, white eyed parakeets, dusky headed parakeets, and others.


Climbing, Really

I knew it finally had to come later in the morning: using the ascenders to climb a real tree. Talk about scared. Up into the air 100 feet, at least, using equipment I had learned only the day before. And what happens if I do something wrong up there? Can Jerome help me back down? Is it a little like landing a plane for someone who has just keeled over at the controls? After watching Jerome go up three times, I was ready, he said, to try it myself. And of course, the feared actually did come to pass: I got myself into a situation where I had no play in one of the ascenders on the way down. Trying to explain this to Jerome, down on the ground, was not easy, but he talked me through it and I managed to get down on the ground again, shell-shocked but alive. And actually, ready to try it again in the near future.

Did I mention it is rainy season?

The alarm woke me up at 355am, which I fear is going to be the standard wake up time for us guacamayeros. Of course, when you go to bed at 8pm, it’s not so bad, but shouldn’t I get paid for doing this? In a confused slumber still, Jerome mumbled something about speaking French only when I entered his room to wake him. Finally becoming alert enough, he informed me that we would not be monitoring the colpa because of the rain. A work reprieve! On waking again around 630 or so I noticed that my zip-loc bag of Lara Bars and Clif Bars had been chewed upon a bit. Assuming rats or mice were the culprits, I double zip-locked them and set them up on a shelf.
The rain forced us to work indoors, and ascender training was apparently next on the agenda for me as Jerome fitted me with a harness and talked me through climbing a rope to the second story of the dormitory-cum- research office. Though a bit scary to put all my faith in a half inch rope and a crazy Frenchman I hardly knew, successful completion of the training gave me a bit of needed confidence.
Finally returning to my room before lunch, I was bewildered to find my stash of energy bars ripped apart. Cleaning up the mess left me with less than half my precious commodity, and on going to the lunch room I discovered who the likely perpetrator was: a “chico”, or one of the macaws that had been reintroduced in the early 1990’s! These birds visit the facility frequently, as it turns out, to the delight of the guests (save those who leave food around unguarded!).
The afternoon produced a dry spell, and Jerome and I started off on a foraging walk, recording all birds seen or heard along a predetermined path. As luck would have it, rain returned five minutes into the walk and rendered invalid the little data that we were able to collect under the conditions. We both paid the price for being in the rain with totally drenched clothing, including socks drowning in an inch of water inside our boots.
I can’t remember being so glad to be dry and in bed, in many years.

The Trip Upriver

Today is the day! I dragged my suitcase down to the "dock" and waited with several other people, some returning from the party, plus Jerome and others, for our ride. It's one thing to read about a 6-plus hour trip up a river in the Amazon, another thing to actually partake in one. The long distance on the boat passed by very quickly with amazing scenery along the way. Saw much jungle and many species of birds along the way. We took our lunch, wrapped in a leaf. Periods of heavy rain alternated with bright sunshine. The resources rangers of Peru required us all to disembark and show permits (yes, the one that I waited 11 days for) to proceed upriver.


View from the Boat


Arriving in heavy rain at TRC, we had to wait until the downpour subsided to walk (drag the suitcase) the 500 meters or so to the lodge. The light that should have greeted us was absent (the generators were down). Carina (the research manager) ended up assigning me to a guest room rather than the dormitory as there was no space. What an interesting place! A researcher from Mexico and a student from ASU are here for several months conducting capture and radio collaring of jaguars.
Luckily, during the night, no biting flies entered my mosquito net through the small holes I noticed in the morning and proceeded to repair with bandaids. I'd rather leave here without leishmaniasis, thank you!


The Control Station

It's Rainy Season

I woke up on Friday to a lot of rain: this is the rainy season, after all. It was good that I went to see the clay lick (la colpa) the day before, as there will certainly be none today with all the rain. With no macaw viewing and hiking only with difficulty today, I am confined to indoor activities. At least, though it is quiet.
I also received the news that I would go to TRC Saturday rather than today.
I asked Daphne if I can use the computer this morning, but she asked if I could wait till evening. Unfortunately, later, when evening rolled around, Malu had returned from Puerto Maldonado and needed the computer for work.
It turned out there was plenty of time to go the party and get back for the trip upriver.

To get out, even though it was raining, I decided on a run through the jungle the 1 kilometer or so to the tower. Watching very carefully for bushmasters I ran to the tower and then ran up and down the tower 5 times (about 140 feet high), followed by a run back to the Posada.
A mellow day.

Guacamayos!

Wow is it great to be free of hundreds of thousands of high school students! Chatting with some of the staff around here we realized we can finally hear the howler monkeys now at 430 in the morning. For those of you who don´t know, they are really loud. The fact that the students and nearly all the staff who are attending the annual Rainforest Expeditions company party left on boats early this morning meant that we could hear the birds, the crickets, the jaguars, but unfortunately we still had to keep eyes peeled while on the trail for those secretive ¨bush masters¨.


The Only Good Bushmaster Is a Dead Bushmaster


I was able to use most of the day to wait in the blind for guacamayos, or macaws. Patience rewarded me with many good looks at red-and-green macaws which resulted hopefully some good photos taken with Dave´s camera through my 10x50 binoculars. It´s really easy for me to see why macaws and other parrots are so popular as pets -- it´s absolutely fascinating watching them preen each other, jockey for position, hang by one claw from a branch, flush at the slightest disturbance, or carefully bite off bits of hardened clay from the clay lick, or ¨colpa¨, that is outside the blind. I don´t know though, I think gulls are pretty cool too. And what kind of smart bird eats dirt anyway?

Red and Green Macaws

Red and Green Macaw Gaining Courage to Drop to Claylick

It had to happen sometime -- the rain stopped! I had been promised that eventually I would see some macaws at the ¨clay lick¨, or ¨la colpa¨ as my Spanish teacher Edwin must have told me. Heading down to the colpa in only an inch of mud, I approached quietly as instructed and entered the blind, or hide. Erica, one of the researchers, had been watching the activity since 5AM. The macaws had apparently been very skittish and had not yet descended from the trees onto the clay. As luck would have it, very shortly after I arrived the avian activity increased dramatically and before I knew it there were nearly 20 Red and Green Macaws -- that´s ¨red and green¨ not ¨red¨ and ¨green¨ -- hanging all over the branches just above the colpa seemingly haggling over which choice bits of the cliff they were going to be able to claim. The bravest one I would guess moved onto the cliff itself and hanging onto it with its claws and propped by its stiff tail feathers proceeded to wolf down on the soil with much gusto. As other individuals descended they sometimes encroached on other birds´ dinner table and got a good scolding.


A Brave Macaw Eating Clay

As the feast proceeded several small boats motored past on the river creating wakes which lapped the shore and noise which attracted the attention of various macaws. At one point something spooked the birds enough that every last one of them flushed back up into the safety provided by the leafy trees above. Could have been a boat, or, as Erica said, a raptor or maybe sometime else (hmmm...on Alcatraz it would have been a rock-throwing visitor).

The Lake

Time spent yesterday trying to upload photos unsuccessfully means a belated entry in the blog. During the entire time I have been resting at Posada Amazonas, I have been sharing the lodge with many staff members and a group of at least 10000 8th grade students from a private school in Lima and their teaching staff of about 1000 Australians and New Zealanders. One of the activities that I was allowed to participate in yesterday was a visit to The Lake. After I and about 200...ok, 15...students along with a guide from the Posada jumped into a dugout motor boat, we made our way noisily upstream on the Tambopata to a muddy landing where we offloaded and hiked through a forest where my flash was only need half the time to a lake.
We were treated by the guides to a paddle trip around the lake where I saw many new birds, most of whose names I now forget, unfortunately. Maybe you´ll recognize them by the photos. But that´s another story. The highlight was fishing for parahnas. I´ll let the photo tell the story there too. Tricky little fish who know how to carefully nibble around the hook to get all the bait without getting caught!

Posada Amazonas

I´ve made it to deepest darkest. It´s so dark that the camera flash always goes off, and yes, I´ve checked the default settings. Both yesterday and today were spent primarily exploring the jungle. My first adventure was taking a walk through the jungle, knowing full well that there are poisonous snakes, deadly insects and jaguars roaming around the place. I had to see the ¨tower¨. a 140 foot high viewing platform above the canopy. I had to like it as I saw my first ever scarlet macaws and capuchin (sp) monkeys pulling fruit from the tree tops below me. I also saw a dead ¨bush master¨in a garbage pail that had been killed with a machete below the dorm where I am sleeping a couple of weeks ago. It´s all good though, and I hope to be able to post some photos soon, maybe even before my permit to go up the river further comes through...

Man´s Best Amigo

Luck! Today, a project manager at Rainforest Expeditions suggested a photo studio on Velarde Street that might be able to help me get the photos off my (Dave´s) camera. I couldn´t actually ask anyone there about the possibility at 3:30 pm when I went by as it was not opening (again for the afternoon) until 4:00 pm. But he and his parakeet were a big help. While he adroitly inserted the card from the camera into a drive that looked like it was made for 3.5" floppies, his bird nibbled annoyingly at a button on his shirt. Never mind the distraction -- I walked away 10 soles poorer and CD in hand. Check out the past two entries for new photos also.

Yesterday afternoon I was minding my own business when a parade came flooding down the divided main street, with contingents of drummers, banner-holders, VIPs in sedans, school children, and ... what´s coming down the street in (very) high heels, a miniskirt, and flowers adorning her breasts and crotch? It is probably not a frequent occurence that a brave drag queen struts her stuff right here in Puerto Maldonado! The observer standing next to me on the sidewalk seemed unbelieving when I mentioned that ¨she¨ might be a ¨he.¨


Jerome asked me this morning if, since I am ¨so big¨, I could help him with his camera while shooting a scene for his biodiversity documentary in the Puerto Maldonado airport parking lot. (So there, Mom, my legs are NOT skinnier than yours!) Apparently I was taking the place of a young woman who would not appear very threatening to would-be thiefs of camera equipment. Our first trip being a wash out (the 9:00 am flight was canceled on Dec. 1 due to seasonal slow tourism), we returned in the sweltering midday heat to shoot, and reshoot, and reshoot Jerome exiting the arrivals terminal on his way to the deepest darkest. He promised I would get a credit!

So, though my permit is not ready (the requisite bribes have not been handed over) to travel all the way upriver to the Tambopata Research Center (TRC), I will be able to tag along with a tourist group to Posada Amazonas tomorrow to begin my schooling in the native avifauna. Then if I ever do get to TRC, I will have had a head start.

It´s still a Backwater...

This is my third morning in Pto. Maldonado, and was supposed to have been the day that I started my trip upriver towards the macaws. It´s not like I hadn´t been warned that things like this could happen here. Jerome, the volunteer from France who just came down from Tambopata to renew his visa, imparted some sage advice, ¨Don´t believe them when they say yes¨ and ¨Don´t believe them when they say no either.¨ Turned out that though there was a boat leaving for Posada Amazonas today, I would still have to have waited till Sunday to get to Tambopata Research Center, where I need to be. Secondly, the permit for which I sent completed applications at least 3 months ago was not issued yet. And I can´t get up the river without the permit.

I guess it was also to have been the day that I uploaded photos from the external card reader Dave lent me. Hmmm...guess I forgot that such a thing might need some software! Not having brought it, this may turn out to be a bit of a problem unless I can find an appropriate cable for the camera.

I got confirmation that sometimes things in Peru don´t go exactly as planned when, last night, I was able to meet Don Brightsmith, the chief of this project, as he also came downriver yesterday. His comment: ¨sounds normal.¨ If the permit is issued by tomorrow, Saturday, I can go upriver on Sunday. Otherwise, I might not go up till Wednesday, or maybe later Anyhow, it´s becoming clear that six weeks of volunteering is quickly turning into five!

Oh, and at least I was able to watch a DVD of the Tambopata macaws narrated by David Attenborough.