1/12/09

Today is my last full day here in Durika with me leaving at 8am tomorrow. Its very quiet here (apart from the fact that somebody is using a pressure hose), because at 5 this morning the ‘Chicas’ left to go home, and Devon took the car down to renew his visa. So, I’m not quite used to there not being at least one of those 3 around.

So for the first time in 3 months, apart from waking up at 5 to say goodbye, I got to have a really good lie-in until 6.30!!! Hard to believe isn’t it? But its turning out to be a very good day. It was decided that I needed a whole day to pack and prepare to leave (I really only needed about an hour) but being able to just go for a walk and just enjoy my last day here is exactly what I needed.

And my walk has been very successful. I have learned, the hard way, that you need to have your camera with you every minute of the day, and sometimes even the night (we have had visits in the night of bats and other unidentified organisms). I was originally going to go to the Avondona to pass the time and see if I could take some pictures. Anyway, I was wearing a black t-shirt and soon decided that it would take a lot less effort and produce a lot less sweat to simply lie down on a rock in the sun than go for an up hill walk. So that’s what I did. 20 minutes in I decided to move to another rock that wasn’t in the sun quite as much. It was only about 15 meters from the other one but you definitely got a different view, because as soon as I sat down I noticed something that was not always there. All I could see was a fat, fluffy, black backside will a long tale protruding from behind some leaves not 15 meters away. The pizotte heard the Velcro on my camera bag as I pulled my camera out but he hung around long enough to allow me to get some pictures. Typically, the only photo that I got where the focus was precisely on him, he was half hidden as he ran away. Even so, I thought it was good because it gave people at home an idea of what a pizotte was. And then I spotted another one! They do tend to go in groups and I was keeping an eye out for any others but even so I felt very lucky to spot one let alone 2.

So I just sat there for a while looking out for more animals to see before deciding to start wondering back.
Now, something I’ve been wanting to do since my last visit here 2 years ago was to get a photo, in focus, of a toucan. I have seen them a number of times, one time it was only 2 meters from me and another time they were outside my cabin, and typically they were the two times I didn’t have my camera to hand. It came to a point that when I went to get the Durika photos and general photos of me off Eugo, I asked if I could take some of his photos of animals I had seen but not got pictures of. The toucan was one of those photos.

So when I heard their distinctive call, I thought I would try and see if I could creep up on them. I soon realized that they were actually quite close to the path and that I may just be able to get close enough to see them before they fly off. They are pretty big birds, with black, red, yellow, orange and sometimes green plumage so you would think that they are easy to spot. But I only saw them when I was maybe 8- 10 meters away. There were two of them and I couldn’t believe my luck, pizottes and toucans. I almost jumped when I heard their harsh call just a couple of meters away to my right. And sure enough there stood the impressive creature not 5 meters from me in the tree. I have probably half filled my memory card with pictures of these three birds and its going to be a pig to sort out, but I was so happy that I had finally got those pictures.

But that wasn’t the end of my animal encounters. Remember in one of my earlier accounts, I wrote about the army ants that had invaded Eugo’s cabin? Well he had said that they would come to visit our cabin before I left. I had no clue that Eugo was being so specific. I was just about to go into my cabin when I saw the highways of ants.


These little creatures are viscous little things and kill anything that moves. So who needs bug or pest spray, when all you really need are thousands of army ants. You could see all sorts of animals taking refuge, spiders, other ants, cockroaches and even scorpions. Its weird seeing an animal you normally associate with being at the top of the food chain, or at least near the top, running for its life across the floor. I was a little concerned to find out how many scorpions we actually had in our cabin, I must have seen at least 8 (but only 1 of which I saw escape). But it was very strange because I wanted to get a picture of all the ants all over my bed (I had all my stuff on the bed ready to be packed but because of their visit, packing was postponed), and I kept hearing a gentle patter on the ground. Looking up I saw the roof covered in ants and some were jumping off. I had a good look at them and realised that they were a different type of ant that were willing to risk jumping off the roof to get away. But they weren’t the only ones. I saw one scorpion jump off the drain pipe to the ground only to be met by more ants.
So yeah, it has been a very eventful morning when it comes to animals and photography.

Well I better go, Eugo invited me over at his house for lunch so I don’t want to be late. (I was going to shower and look a bit more presentable, but I wasn’t too keen on showering with army ants crawling over the door, so I just hope I don’t smell too bad).

1/11/09 Something interesting happened to me today.

Nata and I were working on the trail just before lunch and got a good stint in. But as we were working I noticed the big strangler fig that was just off the path.

Tree climbing has become an enjoyable pass time for me. I have spent some of my free time climbing the pines near our cabin which provides you with some great views over Buenos Aires and the valley it is situated in. However, I have also gone up the other strangler fig which sticks out above the canopy in front of the community.
The difference between climbing the fig trees and the other trees is that you climb up the centre of the fig where the original tree had once been.

Anyway, just before we went back I asked Nata if I could stay and climb it. He wanted to go back and fix the shovel he had broken, but he said I could stay a little longer and climb it if I wanted.

Climbing them isn’t particularly difficult it just takes time, but I made my way up steadily. The wonderful thing about the fig is that not only do you have loads of great hand holds, but you also have lots of ‘windows’ situated all the way up. These are simply large gaps in the wall of the tree so they give you some fantastic views. Also, the animals don’t seem to notice you spying on them from inside the tree so you can what them for much longer than usual.

¾ of the way up I was able to sit and watch what I think was a female ‘fiery tangit’, (which is actually yellow just to confuse you). It was wonderful because either she didn’t mind me being there or she hadn’t seen me because she went on minding her own business checking for bugs.

After she had gone I made my way all the way to the top. It was bizarre to find soil 20 meters above the forest floor in little crevices with plants growing in them. (oh, and just to clarify, the tree is much taller even than that, but you just can’t climb any higher up the inside).

At the top there was a great big gap, big enough for me to stand and lean out so that I was hanging outside the tree. I was deeply regretting not having a camera at that moment as the views were quite spectacular. It was at this point that I heard/ felt a heavy thud. At first I didn’t quite know what I thought it was. But when it was followed by slightly smaller thuds and I felt the tree sway a little I realized that I mustn’t be the only one enjoying the views from up here. I must have had company.

I couldn’t see anything from my side of the huge tree and it felt as though my neighbour was some where on the other side of the tree so I turned round to look out the opposite ‘window’. Looking through it, all I could see was a long brown bushy tail hanging in front of me. Leaning forward saw me staring straight into the eyes of a pizoté hanging upside down a meter and a half away.

There I was stuck, 20 meters above safety and literally face to face with a wild animal. Some of the community calling them racoons didn’t help my imagination much either. It was going wild as they always do in a nerve wracking situation. I had visions of this vicious racoon launching itself from its branch and savagely attacking the helpless me until I was scratched to death or fell down to a messy end.

The creature must have been stunned with surprise to find such a good looking guy (sorry I just had to slip that in, he he) so high in the canopy. So we just stood there looking at each other for a good 5 or 6 seconds before his wits caught up with him and he ran off down the vine he was on. I must say I’m glad my imagination had been a big exaggeration and in fact they are quite timid creatures, but try telling my imagination that.

During my time here I have seen a couple of them, one only a couple of meters away, but never this close and it was interesting to see it up close.

Well anyway, I’m quite relieved to find that the phrase ‘they are more scared of you than you are of them’ applied in this situation, he he, but my panic was quite unjustified.

Interesting huh?

6/10/09 The trip to the Continental Divide

Early on Saturday we prepared our rucksacks for a two night stay up in the hut half way up to the continental divide. The group consisted of Devon, Melissa, Ema and me led by Eugo.

Once we had packed the group equipment, like food, we set off on our little adventure. Now I can tell you, walking in a group of 5 is so much faster than walking in a group of 12 plus teachers and leaders. What took us 3 hrs last time was achieved in close to 1½ hrs! But the walk was beautiful. The forest is home to so many beautiful plants and animals, especially by the stream that I found myself very busy with the camera.

The walk was also a lot easier than I remembered it despite carrying all the vegetables, but it was nice surprise and allowed me to enjoy the views and sights much more.
When we were walking along the track before the last climb we began to hear the sound of blanches shaking and the calls of some creature. I soon discovered this to be the sound of white face capuchin monkeys feeding on the huge fig trees. It was wonderful to see the little creatures jump from branch to branch. One seemed very interested in its new audience and sat there staring at us for a while, which was the perfect opportunity to dig into our bags for our cameras. Unfortunately, my camera either loved the look of the leaves around it or was convinced that that was what I wanted to look at, so I found it hard to focus on the actual monkey. Also with it being a good 20m away, the pictures weren’t brilliant but hopefully this image should give you an idea.

The last ascent is very steep and would have been fairly challenging if I had been thinking about it. However, the ‘path’ was guarded by wild raspberries! So if anyone was to ask me about a certain section of the ascent I would only be able to tell them how good that section was for the fruit. Either way, they tasted great and as I said I so absorbed in devouring them that I didn’t even notice we had been climbing a very steep section for over half and hour.

We arrived pretty early so after lunch we set to work on some of the jobs we were there to do. Waxing the floor was interesting and my trousers now have some interesting red patterns on them where I wasn’t careful enough.
But the other job was clearing out the ‘thunder box’. For those of you who are not familiar with that term, it’s the ‘long drop’ or bog. I’m sure you currently have images of disgusting smelling, fly cover piles of … well you know… doo doo. Well, I certainly did and I am not going to lie and say I was very enthused about the sound of that job.
So when the sight of very good compost reached my eyes I was mightily relieved. The last group had been there 3 months ago and it had decomposed very nicely.

And then, we cooked, but more importantly made fudge. Eugenio’s mum had owned a restaurant and her fudge recipe had made it famous in the local area. So much so that old people still go to the shop (now owned by Eugo’s sister) go get the famous fudge that they used to eat in their youth. But seriously, when you taste it, you understand exactly why it became famous! It is the most delicious fudge I have ever tasted the recipe is so simple that I will be using it to pay for my university fees (as well as filling my belly on regular occasions he he).

After a good nights sleep I woke up to the most amazing view. You could actually see the Pacific Ocean from the window. The sight was both wonderful and humbling.
This view proved to be the best view of the ocean as it was very cloudy on top of the actual Divide but the walk up was great. We saw so many different organisms and I obviously had to take loads of pictures. But the most amazing animal we saw as the Resplendent Quetzal. Unfortunately I was carrying the rucksack at that time and I couldn’t get my camera out. I think Eugo got some good photos but I’m not sure. Either way, look it up on the internet, ‘Resplendent Quetzal’ it is sometimes considered the worlds most beautiful bird. But yes, very few people go up there so they are not used to ‘being afraid of humans’ so they hung around much longer than you would expect.

Anyway, when we were at the top of the Continental Divide we sat and lay around for about an hour. It was really interesting because if was so peaceful and calm and the cloud was really starting to come in then. I’m not sure if it was this, and it reminding me of hiking, but I started to think of Abbotsholme. I have never properly dealt with leaving Abbotsholme, emotionally. I had been so relieved that I could finally rest. Either way I have never felt that I have managed to properly deal with it. But up there, when I was thinking about everything I had done at Abbotsholme, I got quite emotional and even felt my eyes well up because although I don’t miss it in a way that I want to go back, I do miss the fact that it was my security and home for 7 yrs. It was a bizarre moment but I think that this experience is doing exactly what I intended it to do, allow me to process things I haven’t been able to do whilst at school and get myself both physically and mentally ready for the next stage of my life.

Oh yeah something else I must add. Every now and then Eugo will announce, ‘this may be a new species, because I have never seen this before’. I believe that Durika may have discovered 50 new species of organisms so some of the picture I have taken may be some of the first pictures of that species.
But anyway, we were just going to collect some water from the local spring when I spotted it. It was the most beautiful creature, a type of moth I think. It had red and black wings with a metallic blue shoulders and head. Underneath, it was striped with metallic blue and black stripes. And to my surprise as Eugo began snapping shots off with his camera, he announced his great phrase, ‘this may be a new species!!!’ If that’s the case I found a new species!!! And today when we were walking back towards Durika, I spotted another one! Either that or it was the same one, but this time I had my camera ready. So it is possible that these are some of the first photos of this species. If its not a new species I would appreciate it if nobody told me so that I can live on thinking that there was a possibility of finding a new species, he he. Thanks.

Well, the whole experience was amazing and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was very different from what we normally get up to and it was good to break up the routine a little. But I must say this was a particularly special way to break up the routine.