monkeys & oreos

I'm settled back in Quito after a long weekend in the middle of the Amazon rainforest! I went with a group of 18 other USFQ extranjeros to the university's biodiversity station in Tiputini from Friday to Monday, and it was an awesome weekend filled with canoe rides, monkey sightings, and floating down anaconda-filled rivers.

FRIDAY
We started our journey at 7:30am and took a 30-minute flight from Quito to Coca. That was followed by a 2-hour canoe ride down the Río Napo to Pomeya, where we got off at a scary-looking, security-guarded place. We then took a chiva (open-air bus) into the Yasuni National Park, where we were prohibited from taking pictures. We finished off our journey with a 2-hour canoe ride down the Río Tiputini, arriving at the station around 4:00pm. We settled into our cabanas, ate a delicious dinner, and got an orientation from Diego. The station only has electricity from 10am to 1pm and from 6pm to 9:30pm, so when the lights go out at 9:30pm, everyone pretty much goes to bed or hangs out in the library that has light 24/7.

Canoa ride with my friend Tyler

Our cabanas

-- huge aguacero (downpour) overnight --

SATURDAY (rained all day)
We started the day with 6:30am breakfast and then broke into groups to start our hikes. Our 7-person group was led by one of the older guides, Mayer, who has been working at the station since it opened in 1994 and made all the paths that take you through the jungle. He took us to the 150-foot canopy tower, which we climbed to have a perfect view of the canopy of the rainforest. We used binoculars and a telescope to scope out some cool birds flying around. Because of the rain, we didn't get to see any monkeys.

The 150-foot tower we climbed

The canopy

The canopy

Bird watching through the telescope

Group pic with our guide, Mayer

After lunch and naptime, we rode in a canoe a little ways down the river and then hiked to the laguna (lake), where we saw even more birds, but didn't get to see any snakes or alligators. After another nap, we ate another delicious dinner, stashed a few more packs of free Oreos, and hung out in the library.

The laguna

Riding in a tiny little canoa

SUNDAY
After another 6:30am breakfast, we headed with Mayer to another 150-foot canopy tower, but at this one, various hanging bridges connect different towers. We wore harnesses, just in case. At one tower, we, one-by-one, climbed up a ladder to a tiny platform (probably about 3 feet by 3 feet) to get an even better view of the canopy.

The hanging bridges we crossed

That's me...on a tiny platform 150+ feet up

Another one of the bridges we crossed

After lunch and yet another nap (and more Oreos), we all headed together down to the river and rode in the canoe about 20 minutes away, where we then jumped out (with lifejackets) and floated down the river for about half an hour. This is the same river that the guides told us was home to anacondas, alligators, and piranhas. Excellent. I unfortunately didn't bring my camera on this adventure, but my friend Rosa took pictures, and those are coming soon.

After yet another nap and another delicious dinner (and, of course, more Oreos), Alice Ann and I hung out in the library, reading, while some others went on a night hike. Lucky for me, Shannon took my camera with her and was kind enough to capture pictures of all sorts of bugs and spiders on it.

MONDAY
After our last crack-of-dawn breakfast, we packed up and headed out to begin our day-long journey back to Quito. We rode the canoa down the Río Tiputini, hopped on the chiva, and rode our second canoa to Coca. We had some downtime in Coca before our flight home, so we hung out by the river and took pictures with the monkeys, turtles, and birds that lived there. I even got to hold my first monkey!

Little monito!

A pareja of monitos

Holding a monkey!

We got back to Quito around 5:30pm -- sweaty, dirty, and smelly. We thought a natural stench would keep the mosquitoes away all weekend (which it did), so needless to say, we were not smelling too good. And if we smelled bad, our wet and dirty clothes smelled 1,000 times worse. Despite the jungle grunge, it was a great weekend!