Tales from the Amazon jungle (part 1)By Giles Knowles
I had no idea what to expect. I just wanted to see the rainforest and work in the rainforest. I scoured the web and found a charitable trust called Global Vision International (G.V.I.). Two young people from our village had used this organisation, Michael Senior (Sly Corner) and Christopher Lloyd. Michael had been to Yachana in Ecuador (where I was to go) and he came over, with his photographs, and explained to me what the trip entailed. It involved good science and he thought (and he was very nearly right!) that I would find it too demanding. I went ahead, got the correct clothing, had all the inoculations, tried to organise myself, and left for Quito at the end of October. I was off to study for a BTEC in Biological Survey Techniques and do some community work.
I arrived in Quito, which is a high altitude airport, and walked up to a height of 4,200 metres. The air was thin but pleasantly cool. There were 30 volunteers in all, together with seven members of staff. All the volunteers were aged between 20 and 25 years except for two of us. I was the ‘grand-daddy’ aged 63! All of us, except two, had strong Natural Science connections. Most were either degree students or taking a break before going on to do PhDs; we were all scientists at heart. That’s not to say that you have to have a scientific background to participate – just the enthusiasm and energy to learn and get involved.
Our journey down to base-camp involved a six-hour bus journey from Quito
to Tena, followed by three hours on another bus to Los Rios on the Rio Napo,
and then a long canoe trip to base. The temperature and the relative humidity
increased. The ‘bugs’ started to bite! We started to see Indian families
on the river in dug-out canoes. We climbed out of the canoes and climbed
up to the Camp. We had arrived!Grappling with the science
Yachana Reserve is set in both primary and secondary rainforest on the Rio Napo, which eventually meets up with other rivers to form the Amazon in Peru. Yachana, therefore, is in the Amazon Basin. The science included the trapping and logging of amphibians, both by pit-fall traps and by transects, the mist-netting of birds which were then measured, ringed and released, vegetation mapping (very complicated!), the trapping and the identification of butterflies and a study of dung beetles.
The dung beetle is a very important creature in the ‘jungle’. Firstly they are indicators of mammals; secondly, when they bury the dung they bury seeds and are therefore very important to rainforest rejuvenation; thirdly, they provide nutrients to the nutrient-deficient soil and aerate the soil, which is of benefit to the decomposers, the organisms that re-cycle the dead and decaying plant and vegetable matter. I found dung beetles ‘blew my brain’ and I carried out all my assessed practical work on them. We also did work for the local Indian communities by attempting to teach them English, helping them plant up smallholdings and getting them involved with what we were doing in the Reserve.
The first 10 days were involved in training, what you do in the jungle and
what you do not do, health and safety, hygiene, first aid (everything from
broken backs to snake bites), how the Camp was run and what you had to do
when you were on Camp Duty; we all took the Emergency First Responder Certificate.
No-one was ill in the 10 weeks except for the occasional mosquito bite going
nasty. This was due to the vegetarian diet and very strict hygiene rules.Meat off the menu
There was no electricity except for the occasional burst on the generator or from the replaced solar cells, used to charge the batteries for the computers, personal batteries etc., so no fridge to keep food in! God, how I craved meat! Food consisted of rice, pasta, lentils, chick peas, red beans and lovely porridge for breakfast. Eggs we had once a week. There was plenty of fruit and vegetables and all the food was liberally laced with spices, herbs and the dreaded chilli! If you got a round of applause after you had cooked a meal that was something to be proud of!
I was not expecting the ruggedness of the terrain. You would walk/scramble up a 60 degree hill, over the ridge and then down 60 degrees to a stream. I had a bad fall and landed on my coccyx on a rock. That was extremely painful but the staff were very good to me. After the first two weeks, I got used to the mosquitoes, the temperature and the high humidity. After the first five weeks, I became reasonably fit; I wished that I had been fitter! The sheer abundance of wildlife, the sounds of the forest at night, the sheer hard-work of the daily routine and the cohesiveness of the team made all things possible. I never heard one argument while I was there. There was plenty of ribbing and taking the ‘mickey’, but never a word of controversy.
The staff were exceptional.
Karina Berg, the boss, is a unique person. After my fall, she insisted that
I used her fully sprung mattress. When she went to Quito she bought me a
pair of telescopic walking poles. I broke one. She took it back to have it
repaired but had to return to the shop as the manager was not in; it was
repaired for no cost. G.V.I. certainly looks after you. The rest of the staff
were so supportive, encouraging and prepared to help you with any problem,
be it academic or emotional. They work very, very, hard.We went out in the forest at night for what sometimes consisted of stream walks. If it had been raining, you found yourself above waist high in water with your camera held high above your head. We saw numerous amphibians, water opossums, tarantulas and the occasional large mammal crashing away from you. We found the tracks of tapirs, we saw snakes, water scorpions, cane toads, we heard numerous frogs, owls... it would take a book to list what we saw and heard.
Read the second part of Giles’ adventures next month. He will be giving an illustrated talk about his trip at the Parish Hall on Friday 9th April at 7:00 p.m. Entrance is free but any donations for Global Vision International will be gratefully received: Ed.