Day 6, Thursday, September 12th; Citizen Scientist

Our last full day in the wild jungle. We had breakfast with the three other couples before they return to Puerto Maldonado and their flights to Cusco and Lima. Got email addresses to keep in touch and share photos. We said our goodbyes but are hoping to meet up in Cusco as we should all be there at the same time at some point!

Given this is an eco lodge and for probably other reasons we are not allowed to put toilet paper into the toilet. It must go into a receptacle beside the toilet. I take some Imodium this morning because my system is not happy, but cannot talk Lana into that option. 

I had selected the Mountain Biking activity for an 08:30 start with our guide Dennys. I am still uptight about all the potential time I need to put in to redo all my draft blogs so that is still on my mind. The manager of the lodge, Arturo, indicated he had some ideas for spas and restaurants in Cusco as he used to live there. Lana has decided to stay in bed as the heat is really getting to her. 

No good choices for the seven or eight mountain bikes they have available. I am not thinking it is a popular choice among the guests? I find one that works and grab a helmet. Dennys needs to do some repairs on his choice. The bike is serviceable, but I quickly figure out it won't matter as the terrain is relatively flat and Dennys is no speed demon. Our average moving speed is 7.2 kms/hour which is pretty slow. Part of that though is a winding trail, trees in the middle  to avoid and we do stop at various places.

We follow various trails, but it is really a loop trail of 6.45 kms and 21 metres elevation gain. We are gone for about 55 minutes inclusive of stoppage time. 

Randy's choice of bike and helmet. It all works!

One place we stopped overlooked the Tambopata River below.

This is a cicada nest common to this part of the Amazon jungle. The cicadas go quite deep and the young cicadas gradually develop and emerge from this tube. The videos we posted of sounds at night and in the morning are the cicada's.

You don't need to leave your room to find many insects and this beautiful moth is one example. This one was huge and on its back trying to flip over on our floor. I gently slide it over to the edge of the open wall so it could escape.

Some of the trail is undulating with a chance for some speed going downhill although then there is the fact you immediately need to go uphill. Typical jungle trail being hardpacked dusty clay base. Even though early in the morning it is already hot and muggy. We did stop at a small creek which had a wooden bridge spanning it. I saw some small fish swimming around and they are Amazonian sardines. Downstream was a large pond which could hold an anaconda according to the guide as it would have mammals stopping for a drink and then the anaconda has its chance for the kill. I got to see a Balsa tree from a short distance so that was cool. Plus, another rubber tree up close. In regards to this activity anybody with moderate biking skills would have no problem. 

Return to the room and find Lana in real distress as she is really suffering from the heat and I won't go into detail except to say it's not a pleasant experience. She says her system is in complete retaliation and shutting down as she is unable to regulate her temperature. We have both learned that one of the best ways to get relief from the oppressive heat and humidity is a very cold shower. Let the cold water run over your head first, then come out and stand under the ceiling fan to force your skin to cool down. My arms from the elbows to my hands are full of bites from invisible small enemies. Even more itchy now. 

We discover at lunch buffet that the lodge actually has a menu for each day of the week that repeats itself weekly. The menu is at the beginning of the buffet line. To describe just how bad Lana is right now is that she won't even sign up for a massage. Way too hot! Lana's major hack for dealing with coming in from the heat is wetting a hand towel and then placing it in the refrigerator in our room. When you return from the outside you put that on your face and other parts of your body. 

The lunch today was excellent with roasted park and crispy skin. 

We have learned to pick a spot that gains maximum advantage of the fan. Don't go near our spot! ha ha

Prior to lunch we spent significant time with Arturo and were given many restaurants to try in Cusco and a couple in Puerto Maldonado. Plus, some excellent spas in the Inca Valley outside of Cusco. 

What I am now super happy about is Lana discovers what has happened with my draft blogs. There is a small menu on the left that has "HTML View" or "Compose View" and somehow it went to the HTML view which meant all inserts inclusive of photos, videos and links showed as HTML language. At this point, I only need to redo one draft blog. Phew! Lana is my hero again!

Our next activity is the Amazon Trail Camera Trap. This is my start as a Citizen Scientist and glory! Lana and I have our usual guide and a scientist with us. She is responsible for all the trail cameras on the property and undertaking various projects that utilize the traps for data collection. I presumed the whole trail camera thing was relatively simple, but guess again! 

You first need to determine the goal of your project, then find the suitable animal trails in the jungle where your animals may be travelling and at what height and direction to place your trail camera. We opened one trail camera to relocate it and it had six small batteries as its energy source. Motion sensors built into the camera and infra red for night time action. Install properly on the tree and set up the computer inside the camera to capture appropriate images/data. 

Our trail camera trap. 

This is a real test of patience for the scientist!

Are we going to be tested on this later?

Just let me do this!

This was a fun and interesting activity. She has my email and will share some footage some months down the road of our trail camera footage. Who knows, it might be something super interesting and rare we capture on film. 

              VIDEO  of baby monkey.

Second video of baby monkey.

It just happened that before we went out on the Trail Cam activity there was a family of Saddleback Tamarind monkeys!

Yup, I think I will just pose here for more pictures!

Momma hugging her baby monkey. 

More hugging!

Excellent close up photos using Dennys' telephoto lens.

Another great close up photo. 

We return to our room and Lana really has a bad reaction to the heat again after being out for just an hour, No description will be provided. It has to be heat stroke. No way she is capable of eating anything tonight and keeping cool/resting is the best treatment. She needs to be close to the washroom. Plus, maximize the cold showers. I head to the dinner buffet on my own. The staff are excellent as one girl asks if my wife is OK and wanted to bring some soup for her, but Lana wanted nothing.  

We discover later that if you are on blood pressure medication you are much more prone to heat stroke! Who knew?

Just an aside that for each meal I always wear the same outfit. White t-shirt, cargo shorts and short socks. I always ensure I am showered prior to heading to the buffet table. You can get away with shorts and nicer clothes as you are inside mostly. Otherwise being outside in the jungle requires long pants and long sleeve shirts and mostly a hat. Plus, ensure you have good footwear and are protected from having critters go up your leg to find a place to bite or live... 

The last activity is "Discover New Species" so more in the series of being a citizen scientist. Basically, we are going to a place off one of the trails where it is set up to attract moths. Again though on the way there we finally come across a decent sized Scorpion. Dennys uses his ultra-violet light and we get some great pictures and a video using my cellphone. 

Chek out this video we took of the Scorpion - very creepy!

Great closeup of the scorpion. 

After our discovery of the scorpion we continued our walk to the place where the scientists had strung out a white sheet and placed a huge and bright light to attract thousands of moths. One cool thing was despite Lana not being present there were three fellow Canadians. They all come from Ontario and had just arrived the day before. The one guest was a big Toronto Maple Leafs fan and I was wearing my Montreal Canadiens hat proudly. We had a good chat and talked about best activities. The goal of this night was for the guests and scientists to trap some moths to be studied later and have their DNA checked to see if a new species. If that occurred you had the right to name this new species of moth.

Primarily they were interested in Tiger Moths. They are shaped like hearts if you see them from an upside down perspective. Each guest given a jar with a number (#3 for me) and told which moths to try and trap.There was a large piece of paper inside the jar with some type of chemical which stunned the moth and then put it to sleep permanently. We learned a lot about moths and how they differ from butterflies and what the wasps look like compared to the moths. There were some nocturnal butterflies.

I do not like killing anything so I limited my take of moths. We all learned a ton of information and would be notified by email in the future. The group was great and we all enjoyed ourselves. The moths are beautiful and so diverse in terms of shape, colours, patterns etc. 

This is the sheet with the light bulb in front. Thousands of moths and the occasional butterfly and wasp. 

Example of one of the larger moths and its geometric patterns. 

On September 20th I received an email from the Scientist at the Refugio with a picture of the Tiger Moths I had captured for further analysis:

When I returned to the room pretty late Lana was deep asleep. I am tired, but needed to send some pics from my phone and figure out what to wear tomorrow to Puerto Maldonado. I put in 8,450 steps and a bike ride of around 6.45 kms.