First full week in the Jungle!

Hola mi amigos!
well we have completed our first full week at the Taricaya Research Centre and what a full week it was: activities this week included donkey training which involves riding one of the donkey´s while the other pulls a cart. Lodge maintenance where Lee got to walk the ocelot this time, fixing up the interior of an interpretation centre at the lodge which involved going up very suspect and wobbly ladders to nail on mosquito netting and leaf roofing panels.

Thursday mornings activity was the worst for Rachael, while Lee went off on an herpetology walk looking for reptiles and amphibians, I went across the river to another farm to weed helicona flowers (yes after a summer of weeding and picking vegetables in Devon I fly all the way to the amazon jungle and end up weeding again!). This, however, was a little different to weeding with hoes back home, we were using 2 foot long macchettes! It was extremely hot, uncomfortable and I got a really sore blister =0( I was extremly pleased to get back to the lodge for a cold shower!

We also took part in observations, where we head off to one of three platforms and spend a couple of hours recording what bird and mammal life we see.This includes Canopy Walk Way, a platform 42m high up in the canopy. A little scary to get to via a swinging, steeply ascending steel-rope bridge, but the views are well worth it. As well as lots of birds Rachael managed to see Dusky Titi monkeys from one platform and Lee got a great view of some squirrel monkeys while out on a walk with one of the guides.

During the afteroon siesta Lee and I have been doing some brid watching around the lodge and enclosures with some success. Wednesday evening we also watched some large fruit bats flying around the lodge.

Monday evening we were treated to an impromtu Caimen hunt. Setting off in the boat with a flash light to search for the caimen, Alex (one of the guides) would then lean over and try to catch them. After quite a few unsuccessful attempts crashing into the river vegetation and once finding a caimen that was too BIG! Alex finally managed to grab a small Black Caimen, one of the more rarer caimen in the area. Took some photos and even managed to get a pic of Lee holding it! (Yep he still has all his fingers and toes!)

Friday we all went on a five and a half hour walk around all the perimeter trails of the reserve. We got absolutely soaked when it rained but still had a really good time with Alex telling us about some of the medicinal properties of trees. The walk did however take us through a swamp, the water only came up to mid thigh but the mud was quite deep and we kept getting stuck. Phil (one of the other volunteers) managed to get some great footage of Rachael wobbling but not quite falling over =0)

Lee has had quite a mixed week, he was unwell during the beginning of the week with an upset tummy and then got bitten by a fire ant during the walk on Friday, pretty painful! He is back to his chirpy self now though.

We are off to explore the market of Peruto now before returning to relax with the other volunteers back at the hostel.

We usually check our emails around the same time on a saturday, at about 4pm UK time so if any one feels like popping onto MSN we can have a chat!

The Amazon Jungle!

Hello from the Amazon, we arrived safe and sound on wednesday the 18th October and after some lunch in Peurto Maldonado headed down river to the Taricaya Research centre. It took about an hour, and then got given the tour. Wé´ve got our own room which is nice.
Our working day consists of getting up for breakfast at 7.30 and at 8 we go onto one of the projects running like planting flowers, siting on a platform and record the wildlife seen, feeding the animals (spider, night monkey, white and brown capuchin, tapir, pecary (wild pig), ocelote, Jaguar, and quite a few birds. They should be released at some point and are ongoing rehabilitation and that ends at about 11. Three days a week we get up to do early morning observations, these start at 5.30am and run till 7.30am. Yesterday Rachael even got to walk the Ocelote, an unusal experience shall we say.
Lunch is at 12 and work starts again at 3.15 - 5.15. We carry on with the projects then including maintainance, flower picking and doing surveys while walking the trails.
Dinner then is at 7 and inbetween these activities we just try and get to grips with the many different types of birds.
We have seen about 25 not including the cattle egrets, white throated toucan and 7 black vultures coming into town. Our boat ride into town took about 2 hours as we were going againt the current but got here in the end.
We don´t really work at the weekends but we come into town and stay the night here and go back tomorrow afternoon.
By the way it has rained all the days we were here but only short thunderstorms so we´ve managed to see lots of stuff.
We hope everyone is all well back at home, we miss you very much
Love Rachael and Lee

Lima Airport! Greetings from Peru! Yep we have almost completed the first part of our journey, we have flown ten and a half hours to Los Angeles, stayed the night in a nice hotel (where Lee even managed to spot a hawk from the bedroom window!) then flown eight hours to Lima and stayed the night (i.e. slept 4 hours!) in a really cool guesthouse in Lima. This morning we had, what was at times a little hairy, a half hour taxi ride through morning traffic back to the airport where we have checked in our bags and are waiting to board the plane to Peurto Maldonado! We are both all right although a little jet lagged =0) and looking forward to actually getting to the Amazon after almost three days of travelling! We love you all and will be in contact again soon Lee and Rachael

New Zealand Volunteering News

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Since our last Blog Lee has finished his work with the RSPB, we have paid for the trip in full, got our tickets, carried on learning spanish and managed to sort possibly a months conservation volunteering in New Zealand!

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The first lot of volunteering is in the Hauna Regional Park, south east of Auckland. Here we will be helping to survey for the Kokako, one of new Zealands endangered and endemic birds, the Park is the only native Kokako population in the Auckland area. We are also hoping to help with some surveys for Blue Penguins.
We hope to do about three weeks volunteering here from around the 15th of January 2007.

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Second is one week's volunteering on an island called Tiritiri Matangi, just off Auckland in the North Island. The island is one of New Zealands most important conservation projects, having been reforested by volunteers and rare, native birds successfully reintroduced including saddleback, takahe, parakeet, North Island robin, kokako, whitehead, little spotted kiwi, stitchbird and brown teal. We will be working with conservation officers on various tasks to maintain the sanctaury and are going to be there from the 11th February to the 17th February 2007.

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Go to http://www.tiritirimatangi.org.nz/ for more detailed information on Tiritiri Matangi.

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The plan is then to spend the rest of our time in New Zealand exploring South Island, including going whale watching in Kaikora, visiting Milford Sound and Fox Glaciar.