River Trips and Thunderstorms

 

   Hello my lovelies,

I hope you have had a good week! I have been busy in my jungle office trying to take advantage the times the internet is working--guitar playing on the off times :)

The rains have arrived at the Iwokrama forest. Although the rainy season brings less business and productivity, I don't seem to mind, somehow it reminds me of a place close to home ;). But the rains here are heavy, thick droplets that last in short bursts. I have enjoyed sipping tea in the upstairs dining hall listening to the loud thundering of the rains on the River Lodge's tin roof. In the evenings, the flash of lightning illuminates the skies above the canopy around the compound, its so eerie! The river has risen a lot over the last few weeks. Our daily swimming hole has now expanded into the nearby forest! A few nights ago, a frog researcher at Iwokrama saw two Anaconda's attacking a Spectacle Caiman in the flooded forest by the boat dock! I was bummed I missed it, but will definitely join her on other night excursions to try and see that again.

A few days ago, I joined the Iwokrama Monitoring team on their monthly River bird transect up the Essequibo River. We left at 7:00 am and returned at 6:00 pm, a full day on the river. Since the water level is so high, it was much easier to dodge the rapids and rocks that frequent the river. That being said, I was very impressed with our boat driver and his ability to navigate his way through the river islands and rapids. We were jostled a few times by small bumps, which I was informed was because we were hitting the giant Arapaima fish (I hope we didn't hurt them...)

Here are shots of a flock of Agami Heron we saw on one of the bird transects up a small stream that branched off the Essequibo. Apparently these birds fly to this same stream every year at the start of the rainy season. They have such pretty wispy blue feathers that come off their necks.

After a few more hours, we stopped at Apoteri Village to pick up some passengers. I took advantage of the stop to have a mango break :)

Here is the massive raincloud that was heading towards us. I was really grateful, since it was stifling hot (think I got a bit of sun stroke)

 Here is a cashew nut on a cashew tree at Apoteri Village. Cashew trees are scattered through Iwokrama and the Rupununi. The fruit above the nut is amazing. The nut is actually really scarce on the tree. Now I know why cashews are so expensive!

 

We continued up stream for another hour to Rewa Village to pick up one of Iwokrama's guides (since no guides were currently at the Field Station!). We stopped at Rewa Eco Lodge for lunch. It was absolutely stunning. Below is a shot of one of the guest cabins.

Here is a shot of the boat dock at Rewa Village. The village was so quaint and peaceful. I stopped by the Rewa School and met all the children who are so adorable in their school uniforms. Also, all the grades have their classrooms in the same room. I admire the teachers ability to control the kids!

Here we are piling back into our river 'mini bus'. It was soo squishy!

Although the 6 hour boat ride back to the Field Station was not kind on my bladder (higher river water levels meant no river bank!!), the trip back was stunning in the late afternoon light. There were a lot of birds that came out at this time for their night time feeding who darted and soared around our boat.

Returning to the Field Station after 11 hours in the boat, I happily curled up in my bed and fell right to sleep. I noticed the next day that despite wearing a LOT of sunscreen, I still managed to get a bit burnt!