Happy 4th of July! No fireworks for me tonight; my celebrations will have to wait until the 28th, which is Peru’s indepedence day. This is my second night at Los Amigos! Travel to the station went well. It took two cars, three planes, and a boat to get here—I read several hundred pages of my book along the way. :) We flew first to Lima, spent the night, then flew to Puerto Maldonado, a regional capital and the largest city (relatively) close to the field station. If I need anything besides basic necessities while I’m at Los Amigos, Puerto Maldonado is where I’ll be headed. We spent the day there buying supplies. The market has lots of stalls packed together, stuffed with pretty much everything you can imagine except for the brand names you find everywhere in the US. It’s busy and colorful and alive. Almost everyone uses scooters and motorcycles for transportation; we took several motorcycle-powered carts to get around. We ate lunch in a open air restaurant which had a cinnamon tree and a fruiting starfruit tree growing in the courtyard.
We spent the night in Puerto Maldonado, then drove to Laberinto where we caught the boat to the station. The ride upriver took about five and a half hours; I spent the time reading, napping, and enjoying the views of the rainforest. Antonio (Megan’s husband) pointed out toucans and macaws flying overhead, as well as a few monkeys in the trees. People travel on the river using large, motorized canoes. A few boats heaped with plantains passed us on their way downriver.
We arrived at the station around 4:30, at which point we all got to carry our gear and the food for the station up 250 stairs. I made two trips with big loads and then watched in rather exhausted awe as the station’s staff carried the rest of the supplies up. When the boat arrives, everyone at the station is expected to help carry the week’s supplies up the steps. I plan to increase my number of trips next week! The staff thinks I’m funny. :)
We started preparations for our field and lab work today. We went to see how our tree sapplings are doing. Unfortunately many of them aren’t quite as mature as we hoped, but we’ll make do. We also hiked some of the station’s trails to check out a few reasearch sites. I got to meet my ant subjects for the first time. Antonio convinced me to test out their bites and stings—better an expected bite now than a surprise later! They weren't bad, although Allomerus ants pack a bit of a punch for such a tiny insect. We also started organizing the laboratory, and Patricia, a Peruvian reseacher who styudies endophytic fungi, advised us on how to culture endophytes.
The field station is awesome—or rather, “¡chévere!” It’s wet, green, and surrounded by rainforest. As I type I can hear insects, night birds, and the occasional monkey through the screen windows. The people here—researchers, volunteers, and staff alike—are all friendly and fascinating. They have great stories to tell about their research, mishaps and adventures (biologists and nature lovers always do.) I’ll have to tell you all some of them later, but this post is getting too long already! I’ve had lots of opportunities to practice my Spanish, and I’m doing better than I thought I would. Sometimes the Peruvians lose me with vocabulary I don’t know, but I can usually follow the conversation and respond.
Well, I’ve got to go! There’s a fiesta starting soon in one of the cabañas. ¡Buenas noches!
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