Apr 21, 2005 - The Amazonas

Hi all, Finally got around to finishing the Amazon story. I headed into the Amazon basin to stay at the Tiputini Biodiversity Research Station. Tiputini is located on the Tiputini River which flows into the Amazon River. Tiputini is a remote field research station 6 hours east of the Amazonian oil town of Coca, thats accessed via a boat trip down the Rio Napo a truck trip through an oil concession lease followed by a long boat trip down the Rio Tiputini. Tiputini is sited in one of the most biodiverse regions in the world. Even the...

Oct 13, 2004 - Cururay 4

On our "last" morning we packed up camp and headed back to the main river. We stopped at la Victoria again and found the people there preparing for a get-together to finish the roof of a new house. They were also going to take advantage of the presence of the other families to have a party. So they offered us some aguardiente- firewater- with our lunch. Powerful stuff-you get a rough idea from the photos(!) and I think we did very well to get home in one piece. We arrived back at Lorocachi hours late, with the fortunately sober cook having...

Oct 11, 2004 - Curaray 3

The next couple of days were comparatively uneventful, chasing the forest wildlife. We were in the "nuclear zone" of the reserve, eher noone is allowed to live or grow crops, and there was loads of it about but most of it is elusive and all those danged trees get in the way. Not surprisingly we spotted more birds than anything else. The macaws were fabulous and one of the circling raptors turned out on consulting the book to be the spectacular and very rare harpy eagle. Leo the guide also spotted a pair of yellow-headed woodpeckers, no big...

Oct 10, 2004 - Curaray 2

As soon as we had packed up our tents and had breakfast we were on our way again. Aboiut an hour downstream we came to the community of La Victoria, the last one before we entered the "nuclear zone" of the ecological reserve where noone is allowed to live or cut trees or grow crops. The people there showed us how to use blowpipes and offered us some chicha, a local brew made of fermented yucca. If you´re lucky they have boiled it and pounded it before letting it ferment, if not they chewed it up and spat it out. Whatever, very sour. It can...