Sunrise over the canopy and other wonderful things

After a 5 minute taxi ride, a 20 minute plane ride, a two hour motorized canoe ride, an hour and a half bus ride, and another 3 hour boat ride, our group arrived at the Tiputini Biological Station, just on the perimeter of the Yasuní National Park in the Ecuadorian Amazon Rainforest.

The past week was spent climbing canopy towers, floating in the Río Tiputini (both in the canoe and out), learning the trails, taking candle-lit showers, sweating, running from ants and other scary insects, chasing monkeys, fishing, eating, sweating, catching bats in a mist net, finding frogs that look like leaves, sweating, learning new bird species, bug-catching, did I mention sweating?

5:00am came early every morning. The days were long and hot and packed with various activities to learn as much as possible about such a diverse ecosystem. My favorite morning was probably the 5:30am hike with Mayer, our amazing guide. This particular morning, we were able to see 5 species of monkeys (out of 10 found in this particular area of the forest) in a matter of 45 minutes! Mayer made it seem so simple to find the monkeys, but I was never as successful without a guide - they truly know the forest. In all honesty, it is impossible to choose an absolute favorite part of the excursion as the experience as a whole was incredible.

True heaven on earth (or at least heaven at TBS) was floating with a life jacket in a large, swirly, recirculating eddy every day after lunch in order to cool off. (I should also mention that thanks to the cooks at the station, I have found the Ecuadorian version of Ovaltine, and I plan on finding it in the supermarket ASAP).


(photos take FOREVER to upload, so they are trickling into the slideshow 2 at a time)