Piranha's and Spiders

Deep in the rainforest, again under the protection of my mosquito net, Ecuador

Today has been a long, tiring but amazing day. This is undoubtedly going to be a long entry!

We began the day looking at Pigme monkeys in the trees, which we were lucky enough to see really close up with Neicer's telescope. On our usual trip down the river we saw Neotropic Cormorants, kingfishers and butterflies, and Stinky Turkeys everywhere - named because you can't eat them, the meat stinks. This is a strange bird because it has two stomaches like a cow and feeds on grasses and leaves. Scientists had to create a new family of bird for what they call a "prehistoric" animal.

Eco-tourism is now an important part of the local economy with over 300 external visitors a month visiting the National Park. An example is that the boat we use is hired from the local community and costs them about $5 a day to use but they charge the company $40. As he was explaining this, Neicer spotted a woodpecker and began telling us how they have a brain on springs in order to absorb the shock whilst pecking the wood. The ways in which animals evolve continues to amaze me... Dragonflys are all around the boat...

It was time to visit the indigenous people, to me one of the most interesting parts of the programme. We took a short boat ride along the river and then about an hours walk to the community. On the way, as always we were nature spotting, and the first thing our guide showed us was Cats Claw, named due to the huge thorns on the plant that resembled the claw of a cat. Apparently this has been used both in the jungle and in the Western world as a natural medicine. The properties of the plant develop a strong immune system in humans making Cats Claw a very effective relief, for patients sufforing from the Aids virus, and on occasion a cure for Prostate cancer.

Whilst continuing our walk there was a lot of activity in the trees through the jungle which were apparently a group of monkeys swinging from tree to tree. Although I could see the trees moving and hear the strange howls, I sadly didn't see any monkeys.

As we arrived at the community, the people almost didn't notice us walking in, but the children running around all smiled and waved, it suggested to me that they were now quite used to visitors. It had been pouring with rain and we were all wearing our huge green ponchos we'd been supplied with for such an occasion. Almost perfectly though, as we passed the first house and came out into an opening, the rain subsided and the sun shone strongly. There must have been a maximum of 6 constructions, but the one we headed for was brightly painted with the colours of the rainbow. As we walked coser it became obvious this was the school.

I'll never forget the kids faces as they came out to say hello, smiling and waving yet when we waved back, hiding behind their teacher, shy, but so happy. The teacher explained there were 16 students normally but that 5 hadn't turned in today. Venturing inside the school the kids were then all around us, with only a couple of them staying in their places, continuing their work trying to pretend we weren't there. The first thing that struck me was the smell, the kids were obviously not too worried about personal hygiene... But having not showered for 3 days, and given where we were, neither was I. The school was just one room, with children of all ages from 4 to 11 all being taught together. There was about 20 simple desks, a blackboard and a balser wood boat hanging from the ceiling... That was about it.

A suprising sight was in the far corner of the school, where a young girl who couldn't be older than 11, was cleaning a tiny baby. When we asked about this, the teacher explained that the baby was one of three kids that were there from one family who's mother had died and the father was out hunting, so the oldest of the family brought the baby with her so's not to miss school.

The classes in the school consisted of very similar subjects as those in most primary schools, but with language, it was a development from initially studying that of the community, then spanish as they got to 5 and 6 years old. English had been taught here before, but only by missionaries and volunteers who had come to help. The teacher there only spoke spanish so these kids wouldn't learn english unless they did it themselves or went to university in Quito, which for these kids was not a likely happening.

As we said goodbye to the community and took the boat ride back to the camp for lunch, we asked Neicer about marriage within these tribal communities. Although he said the marriages weren't arranged, I wasn't so sure... he explained that it was the male who decided his bride, and once chosen the female was expected to accept, provided of course they're not already "taken". Ok, so its not arranged by the parents but it still sounds to me like there is a distinct lack of choice for the women here!

The age of marriage is generally between 14 and 18 and it is expected the female will have children by the time they're 20. Apparently inter-breeding still exists which results in some mentally handicapped and deformaties, the most common of which is a 6th finger or toe. Our friend explained that, to the indians, this wasn't a bad thing as they didn't realise that it caused the deformaties and their concept of family is very different to ours. As many as 4 generations could be living together and all in small enclosed spaces, often with only one room.

After lunch we went piranha fishing. Paul seemed initially uninterested and when we heard and saw monkey movement he was quick to kick off his wellies and climb the nearest tree. Looking quite monkey-like himself he was speedily 20 meters up. Coming down of course, wasn't so easy and when he finally made it, he told me how he'd trodden on something soft, only to look down at a destroyed ants nest and hundreds of disgruntled ants crawlling over his bare foot. Given that many of the ants here carry poison or nasty bites he was lucky to return unscathed.

Meanwhile one of the Irish girls in our group had caught a piranha, a big, silver, mean looking piranha and Neicer held it, mouth open and teeth baring for photographs. I'd never imagined them to be so big, I was thinking James Bond where the thousands of tiny piranhas quickly consume bad guys... But these things were about 30cm in length and 20cm high, and teeth that looked like they could easily take a finger off.

Having seen a challenge, Paul was then back and ready to see if he could catch one for himself. Sure enough, 10 or so minutes later, he was getting a bite. I'm guessing by his reaction he was surprised because whipping the home made fishing rod out of the water I suddenly saw it flying through the air... Right towards my head! Its hard to describe what you feel with an angry, biting, razor-toothed fish flying through the air towards your face but of course my first instinct was to get out of the way. Jerking by body backwards I was relieved to see the fish pass by my nose only for it to hit the side of the boat next to me, dislodge itself from the hook and land at my feet.

In hindsight at this point I should have relaxed as despite the fish having a nasty bite, it was unlikely to get through the thick rubber boots I was wearing. Nevertheless I shit my pants as a pink piranha bounced around at my feet trying to get back to its aquatic home. After a minute or so, Neicer got a hold of it to once again get pictures, this time of Paul's prize catch. The first two piranhas were thrown back into the water, but the final one, and biggest of all, we kept for dinner.

Before dinner however, we had the most terrifying of times on our jungle experience... The night walk.

I'm not a fan of insects... In Newcastle spiders often freak me out, but here it was a different kind of spider, as big as my hand, sometimes poisonous, often hairy and always evil looking... And guess when they come out to play... When the sun goes down and all humans are left with is the light of their torches. And we were at a disadvantage from the start with only 3 torches between 6 of us... I was afraid... Very afraid.

On beginning our venture into the forest the first thing that hit me was the overwhelming noise of the nature. Crickets, tree frogs, cockroaches and all kind of other creatures screamed out as the people went home and the forest became theirs again. I began to wonder what I was doing here...

Into the thick jungle we continued and the noise got even louder... Every so often our train of terrified people were stopped when Niecer would spot a spider, huge cricket, lizard or bug and give us photo opportunities. Falling behind a bit and with no torch I was guided by the light from the guy behind me. I saw people stop up ahead but didn't hear why... As the people ahead carried on I almost caught up, constantly watching my feet so not to trip up or stand on something creeping it wasn't until I looked up that I realised what they'd stopped for.

A spider, almost the size of my hand, was about a centimetre away from my face, right in the centre of the thickest web I had ever seen.

At this point I freaked... Stopped for a minute to grab my breath, thank the guy behind me for shining the torch in the right place at just the right time, before walking around the web, and catching up with the others.

After an hour and a half we arrived at the waters edge where we were to be picked up. As we waited, Niecer spotted the shining eyes of a cymen... Or alligator. Only visible with Niecers strong torch and when looking right down its sight, the orange eyes looked like precious stones just above the waters surface. As Niecer tried to get closer the reptile quickly moved under water and out of site. He promised we'd see more tomorrow night, at which point we heard the noise of the boats engine and I was quite ready to get back to camp for dinner and sleep.