Today I was reminded why we visit Sacha Lodge. It is truly among the best of the best for a fantastic rainforest experience. No, you won't find yourself naked and using a blow dart to catch your primate dinner for the night... but you will see lots of absolutely amazing wildlife, meet whip smart and frighteningly knowledgeable guides, and stay in the most amazing lodge campus anywhere.
Many of the students, and Dr. Ball (of course!) went to the Yasuni forest early this morning to visit a large clay lick. The clay lick is a hit or miss experience - if you are unlucky all you will see is a big pile of clay... but if you ARE lucky, you'll see hundreds of parrots and parakeets. The weather cooperated, rain overnight with a clear morning, and the trip to Yasuni paid off in spades.
On the way back our students ate ants. They ate ants because two of our students have been demanding opportunities to eat things you might find in the forest. What do ants taste like?? Not chicken but lemons. Next up on the menu, grubs (they don't taste like chicken either).
This evening was capped off by a small group braving the rain to fish for electric fish. This is always fun... you catch the fish with aquarium nets in a shallow stream with bats flying around your head. You find the fish by shining your flashlight into the water and looking. We caught plenty, but the real coup was the capture of a 30 cm electric eel. We put it in the bucket with the other fish and suddenly they became flying fish. Another bucket was found, because I need to use one of those fish for a behavioral experiment, and could not allow it to be predated by our new friend.
Another beautiful but LOUD night. Everyone is sleeping - life here is fantastically grueling.
Time to test my thermal imager - think 'Predator' with the ex-Govenor of California.
Apologies about no photos - we´re more than 80 kilometers from the nearest town and it is a joy to use whatever molasses slow internet we have...
- Eric Fortune
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