Last day in La Esperanza

Hola bloggers!

Today was our final day in La Esperanza, we have had a nice few days here relaxing and recharging the batteries before we make our way to the next study site - Cordillera Colan National Park.

We decided to walk down to the little patch of forest near the house to get some last minute night monkey data for Nicola and also to get back into the habit of walking in the forest and of course after having been a relatively dry day, it decided to rain while we were out. 

We have all really enjoyed our time here in La Esperanza and would like to thank NPC and the guides for all their help so far, we really could not have collected our data without their help.

(from left to right: Esme, Josie, Sophia & Nicola)

So all that is left for us to do is pack and get sorted for our journey tomorrow.

We are planning to stay in the forest for twenty days and there will not be any internet, so this will be the last blog entry for a while. However, as soon as possible we will report on how our data collection went at Cordillera Colan and we will hopefully have some more amazing photos to share with you.

Thanks to all of you who have been reading the blog :)

First study site completed :)

Hola!

It was a tough 10 days in the forest and the weather on a few occasions prevented us from walking the trails, but I am pleased to announce that Nicola and I have completed our census data collection at the first study site. If anything it has made us realise how dependent we are on the weather, so we will take that into consideration for the next site.

We both had a few great encounters with our study species and I even went out and helped with some of the night surveys. The forest is a completely different place at night, but it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be, it's actually really pretty when the moon is out and there are fireflies everywhere...the only downside are the moths that fly into your face due to the head torch.

 

As we were leaving the campsite we came across a group of yellow-tailed woolly monkeys, which seemed the perfect end to our trip. 

However, we could also hear chainsaws again in the distance and after all the groups of monkeys and other wildlife that we have encountered during our time in El Torro, it is really sad to think that they could lose their homes.   

As an example, the photos that you see above, those trees were cut down during the the 10 days we were in the forest. But it is not all doom and gloom, by supporting NGOs like NPC we can protect the forests and find sustainable alternatives for local communities. 

For now we are back in La Esperanza re-charging the batteries and catching up on some much needed sleep before heading to the next study site - El Colan national park, it is at a higher altitude and we have just found out that no one has previously conducted any census research there. So all very exciting :) 

Sadly we will be saying goodbye to one of our Peru Girls (Asli), she is leaving us on tuesday to go off on some wonderful travels around Peru, she has been a great help during the project and we are all going to miss her lots and wish her a safe onward journey!

Until next time bloggers 

Chachapoyas

Hello from Chachapoyas!

We have had a lovely 5 days in Chachapoyas taking a break from our extreme hiking trips to the forest. We have embraced our inner tourists and done a lot of gift shopping, sightseeing and eating...a lot! Our first trip was visiting the ruins of Kuelap - an old city associated with Chachapoyan culture, dating back to the 6th century AD. According to the lonely planet guide there is nothing that equals to Kuelap except the ruins of Machu Picchu. 

On first looking at the outside of the city, the great walls suggest that it was perhaps used as a fortress, however it is now thought that it was a holy city, as there were bones found from several different cultures including the Incas. 

On Sunday (5th June) the Peruvian elections took place, it was between Ollanta Humala and Keiko Fujimori and it was very close. In the evening there were celebrations in the central plaza of Chachapoyas, with fireworks and a marching band, Ollanta had won! It was such a contrast to the conclusions of the elections in the UK.

Our next trip was to visit Revash - mausoleums located in the mountains. It was a 1 hour hike from the road (all uphill) and at altitudes approaching 3000 m above sea level, it makes it that little bit more difficult, but at least we have had 3 weeks of practice walking to the El Torro study site. 

Today we are returning to La Esperanza, the break has been great and we are now ready to go back to the forest in search of monkeys.

Thanks for reading! :)

Amazing encounter

Hello again from all of us in La Esperanza!

We have returned from our third trip to the forest, with I am glad to say less bruises and scrapes than usual. Esme did fantastically for her first trip (considering the rest of us are a few weeks ahead of her) and her clothes are now as muddy as the rest of ours.

The census is going well for Nicola, she encountered a group of night monkeys on the B3 trail :) unfortunately I have not been as lucky, but I am still hopeful for the next trip. 

(from left to right: Thiago, Asli, Nicola, Andrew, Josie and Sophia)

On our the final day before returning to La Esperanza, Asli, Andrew and myself decided that we would try to find some yellow-tailed woolly monkeys, as we heard them near one of the trails the previous evening. We were not too far away from the campsite when we heard the monkeys, we were immediately off the trail, scrambling uphill through the forest until finally we caught up with a group of around 10 monkeys. We followed them for 5 hours, Andrew was busy taking photographs while I was frantically taking notes on the behaviours Asli and I observed.

The group eventually stopped at a large fig tree, which made data collection a little easier, we saw very positive behaviours such as playing and allogrooming (when 2 or more monkeys are grooming each other), however there were a couple of aggressive interactions. It was truly an amazing experience and I hope that we will be lucky enough to have more encounters such as this...thousands of photos and 14 pages of notes later and we were finished for the day. 

The return journey to La Esperanza seemed to be tougher than usual for the group, but we still managed to keep our spirits up and have a few fun group photos taken along the way (see below). But we are all looking forward to having a little break from our extreme hiking.

(from left to right: Nicola, Asli, Armando, Ronal, Sophia and Esme)

Tomorrow sadly we say goodbye to our friend and honorary Peru Girl Andrew Walmsley (the AMAZING photographer), he will be greatly missed by us all and while he travels back to Tarapoto to fly back to the UK, the rest of us will be heading to Chachapoyas. The Peruvian elections are coming up and so we thought we would take the opportunity to have a few days of sightseeing.

(Above: Andrew Walmsley)

Catch you in a few days time with a more touristy blog entry.   

Starting the census

Hello again from the depths of Peru!

Well, that’s us back in La Esperanza with some new data, photos, cuts and bruises. Each group had some successful encounters with the monkeys, including the yellow-tails, the night monkeys and even a very brief encounter with some capuchins. Andrew rattled out a few thousand more photos of all of them, just see below for a yellow-tail, night monkeys, and a young capuchin...

One thing that has really been brought home to all of us is the level of deforestation in the area, and the impact that it has on all the species that rely on the forest. It is one thing to see it on TV, but to actually sit amongst the trees and hear chainsaws nearby is truly heartbreaking. The study site and the surrounding forest is sadly not protected, so farmers are able to slowly expand their pastures by removing one tree at a time. Although this may seem like a drop in the ocean, it all adds up to create vast grasslands in which very little can survive. However, it is not the farmers who are at fault: they are merely trying to earn a living in an environment that offers few alternatives. We can all help by supporting NGOs such as the NPC (Neotropical Primate Conservation) who provide employment opportunities and sustainable alternatives for local people, working in harmony with the forest and all the wildlife that it supports.

As for my own study on the yellow-tailed woolly monkeys (Oreonax flavicauda), I’ve had some ups and downs - I had a great encounter with a group whilst measuring trees (see below), but as soon as I picked up my notepad to collect some census data, they were nowhere to be found...oh well! Nicola has also had some mixed success - after finding some night monkeys (Aotus miconax) on one trip, the thunder and lightning put a fairly quick end to her second session, resulting in an interesting walk home down rivers of mud!

We’re heading back to the jungle tomorrow with our newest recruit, Esme - we’re very happy to have her with us, but she looks a little bit too clean for our liking - we’ll work on that. I hope you are all doing well wherever you are, I’ll be back with more news in five days!

First hike to the study site

Hey bloggers! Sophia here, reporting that we have all survived the first trip to the study site. It was about a 4 hour hike from La Esperanza and uphill for most of the way, we were lucky that it had not rained much, so the mud was easier to walk through. 

 

where we slept

On the first day, we hiked up one of the trails to start marking our survey points, we were quite high up the mountain when we heard monkey vocalisations, we decided to follow the sound, scrambling uphill and off the trail, I honestly do not know how Andrew managed it with his camera. But we made it and what a site, we saw a group of yellow-tailed woolly monkeys (Oreonax flavicauda) not too far away from us. The adult males are clearly distinctive from the females, due to their bright yellow hair tuft around the pubic region, which is contrary to some of the literature. They were so amazing to watch. We have also seen a few potential night monkey sleeping sites.

Peruvian night monkey (Aotus miconax)

The next day we continued our vegetation data collection along the trail, when it started to rain...it started light and soon became a torrential downpour, we were all completely soaked and had to return to the campsite, as it is too difficult to walk the trail in heavy rain. The rain continued for the rest of the afternoon and prevented us from going back.

cloud forest

On our last day before returning to La Esperanza we decided it would be better to split up into two groups, one group was to finish the vegetation data collection on the B1 trail (Nicola, Josie, Andrew and guide) and the other was to go to the B3 trail (myself, Asli and a guide). However, we did not realise that it would take over an hour just to get to the other trail and that we would have to boulder and climb through really awkward and slippery terrain. But we made it to the start of the trail and started to mark our survey points. All our hard work was paid off because later on we encountered another two groups of yellow-tailed woolly monkeys vocalising at each other, it was just unbelievable to see them so close.

yellow-tailed woolly monkey (Oreonax flavicauda)

The journey back to La Esperanza was a little bit quicker, (possibly due to it being mainly downhill) and although the rain held off during the day, there had been enough to make the mud even more slippery and tricky to walk through...the only footwear recommended for this terrain are wellington boots, anything else would just not survive, even hiking boots. The final part of the journey was the hardest, as it required walking uphill again. But we all made it back in one piece! :)


We're heading back for another five days on Thursday, so hopefully there will be more amazing photos to share with you and maybe even some video.

in La Esperanza

We arrived in La Esperanza on saturday evening, it took a whole day to get there from Tarapoto and we had some trouble in Nuevo Cajamarca, it seemed that no one had heard of La Esperanza. But eventually a taxi came for us and honestly, it was an amazing drive up the mountain. The scenery is even more amazing here than it was in Tarapoto.

Everyone at the NPC field site is really nice, there are a few other students doing research on the yellow-tailed woolly monkey and night monkeys too. We are an interesting mix of people: British, Peruvian, Brazilian and Turkish.

Unfortunately, we are postponing our first trip to the forest for a few days, due to myself (Sophia) and Nicola not feeling well.... stomach bugs are just not great. But we are hoping to head up by at least Thursday.

Will be adding photos soon...so please keep following :)

Day 3 - Laguna Azul

Hola!

We had another amazing day of site-seeing yesterday on our way to the blue lagoon (Laguna Azul) just a few miles away from Tarapoto.

The tarmac became a bumpy dirt track, taking us up into the mountains and then down to a river, where we needed to get a boat to cross it.

The scenery was absolutely beautiful, lots of lush forest....although there were quite a few fragmented sections and we passed an area that looked as though it had recently been cut down :(
During the drive we made friends with some Peruvian tourists from Lima and Iquitos, we practiced our Spanish and then found that they could speak English, so many bilingual conversations then followed.

When we arrived at the lagoon we got into a boat and took a bit of a tour, stopping at several spots. One part had a statue of a mermaid on a rock, there are legends that mermaids live in the lagoon. In other areas there were little market stalls and BBQs...it also seems that a lot of local people make their own alcohol, we've had coffe and chocolate liqueurs and Tarapoto whiskey.

Eventually we could go for a swim, the water was a really nice temperature, compared to the freezing cold water at the waterfall we visited the other day.

...Later that evening we met up with the people we had met on the trip and went to the bar 'Bananas' for a few drinks, some dancing and some amazing karaoke. It was a really fun evening.

Asli will be joining us this evening and tomorrow we will be on our way to La Esperanza to join Sam and Noga Shanee at the Neotropical Primate Conservation head office.

Arrival and first day!!!

Hola a todos,

So we finally arrived in Peru last night, it was a very....very long journey, but worth it. Our first experience of Peruvian culture came in the form of the drink Inca Kola, at Lima airport. It tastes just like Irn Bru, however it's colour makes it look like something that should be in a radioactive chamber.

When we got off the plane in Tarapoto we could smell the rainforest. It is absolutely beautiful here, the weather has been great and we did our first bit of sight seeing today. We visited a waterfall about 14km away from the town, called Cataratas de Ahuashiyacu, we even got to go for a swim (it was freezing!) but totally worth it.

How did we get there...only by the best transport ever, moto taxi, our driver was called Marco. Awesome guy, he gave us some tarapoto whiskey. Tomorrow we are off to the Laguna Azul for the day and just waiting for Asli to arrive, before heading on to La Esperanza. 

The journey will really begin on Saturday.
Ciao for now.

Packed and Ready!

Hey!
So I'm all packed and pretty much ready to go, just got a text from Nicola saying that her and Andrew are also packed and ready! :)
There's still a few hours before we need to leave for the airport, so now would be a good time to chill out and pack the laptop.
Wish us luck...the journey begins at 8pm (gmt).

The Day Before....

So, we are packed and ready to go. Cannot believe that we are leaving tomorrow, it has come around so quickly. Just need to make sure all the important things are there, leave that for the final bits of packing tomorrow.

We will be updating the blog throughout the expedition, so keep checking this blog the facebook group and twitter page to be in the know! :)