February 16, 2019
By Tatiana Espinosa
In January the seasonal rains made it impossible for us to complete the expedition we had planned. It had to be postponed for the end of the month due to the rising of the river making its navigation quite dangerous.
In January, however, we connected with a person who has experience in jungle EcoTourism, who knows how to drive a boat on Amazonian rivers, and who also has studied forest engineering. Please give a warm welcome to Ronaldinho, who joined the team of defenders of the Arbio Forest in February!
The expedition at the beginning of February, despite the rains (we left at 10am and arrived at 5pm-trekking and navigating for 7 hours!)
allowed us to make progress on several projects in the Biologic Station:
- We planted 2 shihuahuacos, 5 caobas, 5 pitangas, 3 bobinsana, 5 lime trees, and 1 lúcumo.
- We put finishing touches on the expansion of the kitchen cabin, we moved a wall, polished and set up the washroom.
- We did some maintenance on the bathrooms, adding laquer, changing the pipes and faucets.
- In the forest, we documented and put up signs on two Shihuahuacos in remembrance of a friend who has left the physical plane.
- We trained the team on how to record coordinates and use the GPS.
- We collected Quinilla and Shihuahuaco seeds.
- We installed three hidden cameras; two in Collpa and one on the train to record potential trespassers that may be in the area.
- Emérito, our forest custodian – guardian of the forest, finished building a beautiful rocking chair made with pashaco wood and vines!
When we arrived the river was very high. When we left the river had gone down so much that you could see the shores of sand where we found the footprints of a caiman! According to the experts, by the size of the footprints, the caiman is about 2 meters long.
We’ve begun a good year and we’re very happy. Thank you to everyone who makes it possible for us to be here and do what we do!