July 11th-13th, 2016
We drove down to a town on a river where we switched our bus for a boat. We were traveling on a long and narrow wooden boat that somehow fit all of us, two crew members, our chef (Orlando!), our belongings, and our food for the next week and a half. While we were waiting to leave we got attacked by these small bugs, you couldn’t feel them when they bit but they’d pull blood and later the bites would itch LIKE CRAZY. They also left nasty little red marks so we were all polkadotted for the next few days.
The boat ride was also a dream. We could see the foothills of the Andes and a ton of birds on the river. In the middle of the ride, our chef, Orlando, suddenly yelled “Lunch!!” and all of a sudden I had a big bowl of fried rice with veggies and fresh avocado on top plus watermelon for dessert and it was absolutely perfect. I still have no idea how he managed to cook on the back of the boat. Three hours later and we made it to Pantiacolla to set up some mist nets before dinner.
It was raining our only full day in Pantiacolla so we woke up late with the rest of the rainforest. There were way more birds now and I got to hold and process my first bird! We did vegetation plots again in the afternoon. In my sleep, I had scratched the bug bites on my ankles and I kid you not, they swelled up to the size of grapefruit. They were so stiff and swollen I couldn’t even bend my ankles and it was so sore and uncomfortable.