En La Jungla

February 13th, 2010 by Robert Eby

I made it to the Jatun Sacha in one piece with all my luggage intact.  The Bus ride from Quito was incredibly long, and the bus ride from Tena to Jatun Sacha was incredibly crowded and hot.  The weather here is about like Houston in June.  I´v spent more time on a bus and in the city than I have in the jungle so far, but it is everywhere, and it is incredible.  The diversity is so huge – especially the insects!

On my first day of work (and only so far), I got to replant 6 tree saplings that were about 6 inches below ground.  I subsequently gave a tree planting demonstration in the best Spanglish I could muster.  I really felt like I had a part in the longterm sustainability of the station and its goals – all on my first day!  Ecuadorian food is good but the food at the station is to be desired.  My stomach hasn´t felt great and between that and the food, I haven´t been eating nearly what my usual intake is… 

I´ve already had one guided tour of the forest (in Spanish), and learned about medicianal plants, hallucinagenic plants, and landscaping plants.  For those that know my forestry professors, it would be interesting to see some of them in the Amazon rainforest: Dr. Fountain (expert in silviculture and tree ID) would be stumped, Dr. Kulhavy (expert in forest insects) would be in researcher Heaven, Dr. Farrish (expert in forest soils) would be really useful, Dr. Oswald (expert in fire management) would be bored, and Dr. Hung (expert in GIS applications) would have a LOT of work to do!  

Yesterday we celebrated the last day of the Festival of the Amazon River which was a national holiday and a big party in town.  We also took a motorized canoe down the Napo River to the Zoologico Amazonico – which is a animal rescue center where they rescue and try to release the animals into the wild.  In the meantime – you get to walk through a “zoo” to see the typical rainforest animals.  The Scarlet Macaws are so beautiful!  It is because of this that they are hunted for the exotic pet trade.  Tomorrow is Carnival.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, February 13th, 2010 at 8:22 am and is filed under Ecuador.

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