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After yesterdays marathon blog I am still not up to date with our travels. I left it as were just heading off to the Uacari Lodge in the Miramaua reserve of the flooded forest.
The lodge is a cluster of several floating buildings in the crook of a tributary to the River Amazon. Its a Lodge that is majorativley staffed and run by the local community for the benefit of themselves and the maintenance of the forest. It is ecotourism at its best and has won a number of awards for its activities and methods. Much of the Amazon are suffers from over-fishing, illegal logging and many other commercial drains on resources. On the reserve all activity that affects the forest and the river is very carefully considered before being carried out. Logging is done as it is necessary and not for commercial gain as is the fishing. The community can only pull out of the river that which it needs to survive. The result is a part of the worl where ther are creatures and critters and fish and birds absolutley everywhere you look. Just stepping on to our balcony at the lodge and looking into the water below I could see hundreds of fish. Angel fish, catfish, a type of pike and various others I couldn´t identify. The most interesting fish is the Piraracu. These beasts are the staple fish for eating in these parts and they can reach up to 2 metres long and wheigh as much as me (have a guess). But most interesting is that they have evolved an airbladder to breath with as well as gills and they need to use both to survive. This means that every now and then you will see or hear a big splash and catch a quick glimpse of a broad, flat, black tail splash down in the water after the fish has come up to fill its air bladder. It means that you can look out your window and litteraly see fish jumping out of the water. The reason its developed this is a common theme to much of the flora and fauna in the forrest. Because of the huge mass of organic matter that covers the ground in the forrest, when the floods come it the water does not retain as much oxygen from its surroundings as such a large fish needs to breath, hence it develoed its "lungs". Similarly, as well as regular roots some trees have developed long "roots" coming down from their branches going into the soil so as to ensure the roots can be fed oxygen when the floods come.
It is a magical place though. After the thrilling fast boat ride to our lodge and a quick lunch of rice, beans and fish we were taken on an observation tour of the nearest island. It was not jungle as we had expected. We had expected humidity and Macaws and Toucans and dense tropical jungle. The reality was that at first glance you may think you were in a forest in England, but once you started looking harder you saw a drastic difference. Huge trees with the trunks growing in an X shape so that they are more stable in the floods, air plants, bizarre red fungus that looks like a spikey red gobstopper on a stick, the strangling vines and the water vines and the huge insects. Our local guide (called Alan who looked so much like a pal back home I called him by the wrong name) would point things out and then our english speaking guide Jorge would translate. Alans eyes and ears are remarkable and we would find ourselves looking at dense greenery while Alan frantically tried to make us plebs see what he had spotted with no effort whatsoever. He was excellent though. We saw red faced squirrel monkeys, howling monkeys (who make a noise like a prolonged bark heard through a piece of drain pipe, which if you didn´t know what it was would make you crap yourself) and best of all the UAcari monkey which gave its name to the lodge we stayed in. Its another great looking animal that we were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of after Alan´s spidey senses picked it out the he arduousley made us see it. It has long white/grey hair all over its body except for it bright red bald head.
The wildlife was the high point for me. Quite often on our way to a particular activity out eagle eyed guides would signal the boat driver to stop or slow down and point out some wonder. Most memorable for me was a two toed sloth. I got some good pictures. A sloth has a remarkably tough life. Because of its diet of leaves it tends not to have a great deal of energy, hence it moves so very slow. While we watched it seemed that three paw movements to cover 12 inches warranted a 2 minute rest. The tragedy for the poor sloth is that it has not as yet evolved to the point where it can take a dump whilst in a tree and must go down to the ground to do so. So not only does the poor animal have to "hold it in" until it very slowly gets down from its high canopy spot, but once it does there is a good chance that a jaguar will be waiting for it to be busy doing its business before brazenly walking up and scoffing sloth, sloths not being too good at running away either.
The number and variety of birds held some surprises too. Not least of which was the presence of cormorants and a species of turn. Both of which I had seen very close cousins of in the Farne Islands of the coast of Berwick this July.
We also had the opportunity to visit the local community that helps run the lodge and the reserve. They all live in wooden houses built on long legs at the top of the riverbank so that they can still be habitable in the wet season where the waters can rise up to 12m. Even the chicken coop has extended stilts. The village has maybe 10 buildings and contains two families. The community also has its own radio station, whos DJing duties are shared with all the other local communities, generator, school, community hall, greenhouse and possibly the worst football pitch I have ever seen. However this same pitch does host the annual inter community final. They probably get through a lot of ball as every time you conced a throw in you probably have to swim after the ball or machete half an acre of forest to find it. And from on corner, it was at such a dip you could only see half the goal post you would be aiming for.
The people are very happy and though many got to the cities to finish their education and work most come back as they enjoy the lifestyle. The main problems for the communities are the poachers and other parasites who try to steal the reserve resources. The communities have set up their own surveillance system to help minimise the effects of these activities.
I was very impressed by the dedication and pride that the members of the community had in their village, though I was a little less impressed by their attitude to littering. A few waste paper bins throughout the Amazon basin wouldn´t go amiss.
I was ill on the final full day. I think I ingested something nasty the night before when we had a sunset snack in our boat on the lake. I had been running my hand in the water and then ate the fruit and biscuits with the same hand without washing it. Definatley a lesson learnt. I have never felt ill in that way before. Headache, wooziness, the worst dia-horror and a really disquieting ache in all my joints. I was a little concerned. Laura was excellent though and made sure I had all the liquids and lotions and potions that made the evil sickness go by the next day.
The morning after, after a walk through the forest to see some giant water lillies (not that giant at all, go back in wet season) on which the old people say anacondas sleep, we got the fast boat out to the main river but only after we visited a project that was researching the amazonian pink dolphins.
While I was at deaths door the day before, the rest of the group had gone out to this project to meet the team there and learn about thes lovely mammals. But When we dropped by there on our return journey the research team had just caught a pink dolphin and had it on the deck of their floating shack to take its measurements and tag it. It was a privelige to see. They are large animals with a superflexible neck (unlike their marine cousins) so that they can swim and hunt in the confines of the flooded forest. The one we saw was an adolescent male who was not yet sexually active but he was still more than 2 metres long and it took 5 people to keep him held down.
What a great few days that was.
Now time is almost out but tomorrow I will relate the adventure of getting to Peru.
Chris
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