An Adventure with Creepy Crawlies up Turtle Mountain

The Iwokrama Field Station is surrounded by dense, untouched rain forest that extends for miles in every direction. Over the past week I have been working in the basement of the river lodge gazing at the forest edge with longing. A few days ago, two Canadian girls came to stay in Iwokrama and decided they wanted to go on an overnight trip to Turtle Mountain. I managed to convince my boss it would be beneficial to my role in the tourism department to join their trip and he said I could go! Within a couple hours, we were speeding down the Essequibo River dodging rocks and rapids towards the base of Turtle Mountain, about to begin our overnight adventure.

Speeding down river from the field station with no knowledge of what I was about to get myself into!

 

We set up our hammocks at the base camp and relaxed under the dimming night sky beside a fire.  For our dinner, our boatman roasted a tiger fish over the fire wrapped in banana leaves that he had just caught in the river.

A shot of the almost-full moon through a telescope

 After dark, Eggy took us night-spotting up the first 100 meters of the Turtle Mountain Summit hike. 

Here are some creepy-crawlies that I saw!!

Froggy. Not sure what species, but I will update!

 scorpion illuminated with an ultraviolet flashlight!

 The same scorpion without the ultraviolet

little red bug! (heath will appreciate this :) )

The next morning, we woke up at 5:00 am and headed up the trail (without breakfast!) at a fast pace to try an make it to the summit by dawn. We arrived a bit after, and the view was spectacular, despite my grumbling tummy!

An old growth on the way up the mountain

Me at the Turtle Mountain summit
I have never seen a sea of green that extends into the horizon before!

sea of green. aaahh

 Shot with three other awesome Iwokrama staff members who accompanied me on the trip

 On the way back down, a spider monkey followed us for about five minutes and was throwing branches down at us! We quickly continued down the trail to get out of his way!

 This old growth along the trail looks very similar to ones back at home in the Pacific West Coast Rainforest

On the boat ride back up the river, our engine decided to stop working. Our boat began to pick up speed as it started to drift back down the river towards Turtle Mountain. After attempting to start the engine numerous times, or driver realized that there was something seriously wrong with the engine. It then began to absolutely pour rain! I tried to call the River Lodge with our satellite phone, but no one picked up. We then decided to use the lid of a diesel canister to paddle to the river's edge where we gripped a branch from a fallen down tree. After around 60 minutes, we managed to fix the engine which was flooded, and sped up the river back to the field station. I was so hungry and so exhausted, but very very happy we were moving up the river! It was a relief to return back to the camp after the epic, memorable adventure up Turtle Mountain!