Last week Sylvie was back in Talacos because she had loved it so much the first time. This time it was her and Remi (a French volunteer who arrived two weeks ago and left today) and the 20 year old Armando (another of the guides). Lucky them, they spotted a bear in one of the corn fields this time (they do exist)!
While the others were in Talacos, Claire and Stacey went camping in the village of Cazapamba (two hours walking up the road from our village). Luckily we managed to hitch a ride in one of the camionetas (trucks) which was ferrying about 20 people there to sell their produce. While standing and clinging on to the back of the truck very close to everyone Claire and I (Stacey) both got vague marriage proposals from a man who said he was single and needed two wives. I said we only had two weeks left here and he said two weeks was ok. All in Spanish of course. It was all in good fun and everyone was having a laugh with us.
At Cazapamba we stayed in tents in the back yard of one of the guides with the project, Samuel. Samuel is incredibly tall, at least six foot (the tallest Ecuadorian anyone has ever seen, we tower over most people here) and he has a huge Grenadilla plantation at his house. Grenadillas (grenadines?) are fruit here that grow on a vine. They have a hard shell that you crack open and they have lots of sweet fleshy pips inside, similar to a passionfruit except they are bigger and orange.
We camped in Samuel's back yard for two nights, the tent was reasonable except the zips were broken and both mornings we woke to find a few fat slugs in our tent. The second morning I found one crawling across the neck of my sleeping bag and lucky claire woke to a cold slimy slug crawling across her eyelid! Our mission while here was to try to catch a bear in one of the three foot-traps that had been set, and to listen out for Frida on the radio. Frida is one of the collared bears who roams around the valleys and maiz fields of Cazapamba.
Samuel has a quad bike which he rides around everywhere on. He told us he only walks when he has to, even if its just down the road. He manages to dwarf the quad bike with his long lanky legs. It must have been a funny site, Samuel driving with Claire and I perched precariously on the back, clinging on for dear life while holding machetes and bumping over the mud paths towards the maiz fields, with his big dog Lucas running along side and barking.
Both days Samuel had us traipsing around all over the valleys, through the thick forest, under vines, getting our arms torn up from thorns and branches while he hacked away at plants with his machete to try and clear a path for us. All while trying to find clues of recent bear activity. We came across a tree with lots of scratches and markings from the bears, and recently eaten corn husks. The bears seem to always be a step ahead of us and probably smell us coming a mile off. Samuel's dog Lucas who came with us got all excited at one point and ran off through the forest, following the scent of bear. He probably scared it off too but he´s such a big lovely dog we couldn't leave him behind. He accompanied Claire and I everywhere we went and sat with us patiently for hours while we looked out over the valleys with our binoculars, searching for a glimpse of a bear.
We use the radio to tune into the signals of the collared bears and we are able to tell roughly where they are and if they are close. From this the project has managed to learn the size of the home ranges of the bears. The collared bear Frida also has a cub with her so we were hoping to catch a glimpse of her, if possible retrap her to take blood, hair, and milk samples. We never managed to catch Frida or any others so I never found out about what milking a bear would involve...
The other exciting thing has been the erupting volcano in the town of Baños. We were in Baños just a month ago and sitting beside the volcano in the hot springs. From where we are in Pucara, at least three hours away we can hear it rumbling every half hour or so. Last night the sky was orange over on the horizon towards Baños. We are pretty cut off so have no idea how bad it is but I saw a pic on the net before and read they were evacuating people. Hopefully its stopped by a week because we are heading back to Quito, which is closer to the volcano.
Stacey
Showing posts with label Andean bears. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Andean bears. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Sunday, May 30, 2010
The last week on the Bear Project
So hopefully in this last week on the Bear Project we will come across a bear, but if not, it has still been a really cool experience. One of the funnest things is getting to know a different community and culture. Even today, me (Claire) and Stacey went along to this thing called a ´minga´ where the community decide a certain project that needs to take place for community benefit. Today it was clearing the road of overgrowing trees with machetes because the cars and buses were having trouble driving through some parts of the road. Hard work though.
After we are finished here, we are going to go south in Ecuador to the Poor Mans Galapagos Islands (as the real one costs heaps!). It looks really cool though and has pretty much all the species on the real island, and you can see animals like dolphins, howler monkeys, whales, and those birds called boobies that dance around. So we will just chill there for a week before meeting up with the fourth Amiga Nicola and catching a flight up to Cartagena at the top of Colombia. There we will
probably be spending most of our time eating seafood, at the beach and exploring around the place. We also want to go and see the Lost City up there (very Indiana Jones). Think it is about a six day hike, hopefully our practice here comes in handy!
That´s about all I can think of to write right now! Oh hang on, how could I forget, this morning I woke up to a slug on my eyelid. An actual slug. On my eyelid.
Ciao!
Claire
After we are finished here, we are going to go south in Ecuador to the Poor Mans Galapagos Islands (as the real one costs heaps!). It looks really cool though and has pretty much all the species on the real island, and you can see animals like dolphins, howler monkeys, whales, and those birds called boobies that dance around. So we will just chill there for a week before meeting up with the fourth Amiga Nicola and catching a flight up to Cartagena at the top of Colombia. There we will
probably be spending most of our time eating seafood, at the beach and exploring around the place. We also want to go and see the Lost City up there (very Indiana Jones). Think it is about a six day hike, hopefully our practice here comes in handy!
That´s about all I can think of to write right now! Oh hang on, how could I forget, this morning I woke up to a slug on my eyelid. An actual slug. On my eyelid.
Ciao!
Claire
Rumble in the jungle
An update to let you know what we've been up to and that we haven't been taken out by a volcano...crazy though, as I write, I can hear the Volcano rumbling away in the background even though it's ages away...
We are still in Pucara in the Ecuadorian Andes and are now just getting into our last week here on the Bear Project. Alas, I have not seen a bear yet but I have come very close to seeing Frida the bear and her bear cub but she keeps just getting away from us (we can tell how close she is from the radio signal), but I have been her tracks, bits of eaten corn, scratchings she has made on a tree and a tree lookout that she has created which has been pretty cool. We also saw a puma footprint in the mud the other day. Only two of us have seen a bear so far - Sylvie and Remi - when they went away camping they saw a small female bear eating corn on the opposite hill.
The four weeks so far have been really fun though. We have got way better with our walking, and now walks that seemed horribly hard at the start seem pretty easy! Living at the house is cool too, and we have quite a bit of down time to play cards, read books, make camp fires, drink the local beer (which is pretty low percentage because of the altitude) and spirit - called pudo (which is made out of sugar cane, and also comes in handy for lighting the fires) - and hang out. On Sundays we always make up a big feast too (as its Celia's day off) and Stacey has made cakes each time which are really good - especially the pineapple one last night.
Claire
We are still in Pucara in the Ecuadorian Andes and are now just getting into our last week here on the Bear Project. Alas, I have not seen a bear yet but I have come very close to seeing Frida the bear and her bear cub but she keeps just getting away from us (we can tell how close she is from the radio signal), but I have been her tracks, bits of eaten corn, scratchings she has made on a tree and a tree lookout that she has created which has been pretty cool. We also saw a puma footprint in the mud the other day. Only two of us have seen a bear so far - Sylvie and Remi - when they went away camping they saw a small female bear eating corn on the opposite hill.
The four weeks so far have been really fun though. We have got way better with our walking, and now walks that seemed horribly hard at the start seem pretty easy! Living at the house is cool too, and we have quite a bit of down time to play cards, read books, make camp fires, drink the local beer (which is pretty low percentage because of the altitude) and spirit - called pudo (which is made out of sugar cane, and also comes in handy for lighting the fires) - and hang out. On Sundays we always make up a big feast too (as its Celia's day off) and Stacey has made cakes each time which are really good - especially the pineapple one last night.
Claire
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Proyecto Oso Andino
The bear project we are volunteering for is called Proyecto Oso Andino - Protect the Andean Bear. Our job is to set foot traps that send out a radio signal when the bears stumble into them, so we can track them. We havent seen any bears yet but everyone is optimistic we will catch one soon as the corn is ripening. we have three traps out in various corn fields that we are monitoring. Last night Stacey dreamt that we saw two bears, so we're hopeful! So far we feel a bit useless compared to the super fit guides but it gets better each day. The fact that the guides are with us each day taking us out on the walks and setting the traps is what makes it all worth it. They are lovely and very patient, and INCREDIBLY fit. Actually, it feels like they are constantly waiting for us. They are practically running up the mountains and we seem to be collapsing behind them in a sweaty gasping heap. The altitude here really does make everything harder.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Up, up in the Andes
We have been up in the Andean Cloud Forest for two weeks now and its such a crazy beautiful place! Really in the middle of nowhere though...
For those who don´t know, we are doing five weeks of volunteer work with the Andean Bear Foundation project which consists of walking all over the mountains and tracking/trapping bears. So instead of going to the office for eight hours a day, we wander round the mountains. It's a nice change to feel physically tired at the end of the day instead of mentally tired and the scenery is amazing. We get up at about 6am and go to bed at around 8pm which is pretty different to normal life at home in New Zealand. We also eat about three times as much as we would at home. The organiser (Sarah) said that its the only time we'll be able to eat whatever we want and not put on weight, so we're taking advantage of it!
We are staying in a village called Pucara, in the Intag Mountains. We have a house dedicated to the project, with three technicians (for the radio collars) and a cook called Celia. There is also a cool Aussie couple who recently got married in Cusco with us in the house too. We have about two days off a week, which is pretty good.
So: we have set about four traps for the bears now and are waiting on those ones (they are connected to a radio collar so we can listen on the transistor radio to see if they are trapped) plus we are going camping for four days tomorrow in this other village where we are going to set more traps. They are very hopeful for us to catch some bears as it is a good time of year for it with the corn ripening!
The bears seem to be the poor cousin of the bears of the world with lots of unanswered questions and near to no funding. They are becoming more interesting to the world now though, as they are starting to attack and eat peoples cows! Beforehand scientists had thought they were vegetarian bears. This is thought to have happened because of the huge amount of land the bears need to roam around in, and the fact that that land is being eaten away by the changing land use to agriculture and horticulture. As you can imagine, the people here aren´t the biggest bear fans!
For those who don´t know, we are doing five weeks of volunteer work with the Andean Bear Foundation project which consists of walking all over the mountains and tracking/trapping bears. So instead of going to the office for eight hours a day, we wander round the mountains. It's a nice change to feel physically tired at the end of the day instead of mentally tired and the scenery is amazing. We get up at about 6am and go to bed at around 8pm which is pretty different to normal life at home in New Zealand. We also eat about three times as much as we would at home. The organiser (Sarah) said that its the only time we'll be able to eat whatever we want and not put on weight, so we're taking advantage of it!
We are staying in a village called Pucara, in the Intag Mountains. We have a house dedicated to the project, with three technicians (for the radio collars) and a cook called Celia. There is also a cool Aussie couple who recently got married in Cusco with us in the house too. We have about two days off a week, which is pretty good.
So: we have set about four traps for the bears now and are waiting on those ones (they are connected to a radio collar so we can listen on the transistor radio to see if they are trapped) plus we are going camping for four days tomorrow in this other village where we are going to set more traps. They are very hopeful for us to catch some bears as it is a good time of year for it with the corn ripening!
The bears seem to be the poor cousin of the bears of the world with lots of unanswered questions and near to no funding. They are becoming more interesting to the world now though, as they are starting to attack and eat peoples cows! Beforehand scientists had thought they were vegetarian bears. This is thought to have happened because of the huge amount of land the bears need to roam around in, and the fact that that land is being eaten away by the changing land use to agriculture and horticulture. As you can imagine, the people here aren´t the biggest bear fans!
Saturday, May 1, 2010
First stop Quito, colonial capital of Ecuador.
Sylvie was the first amiga to arrive in South America. She arrived from San Diego, and proceeded to enjoy cervezas on the roof of our first hostel, the Secret Garden. Later that night, after a hellish 26-hour journey, complete with damaged baggage and diving headfirst into broken Spanish explanations to the airport staff, Stacey and Claire stumbled in, embraced Sylvie with relief and flopped down on their beds. Exhausted but excited!
We had the next day to explore the city. First task; to buy botas de caucho (gumboots) for our volunteering work. The Andean Bear Foundation recommended that we buy the boots from a hardware store called Kiwi which was about a 15 minute taxi ride ($2) away to the south of the city. We were a novelty in the hardware store, with our huge Kiwi feet getting stuck in the Ecuadorian-sized gumboots. Kiwi gumboots are not made for kiwis, apparently.
One day looking around Quito was enough. It is very smoggy and dirty, and it doesn´t have the best vibe for tourists. In saying that, there was a beautiful big church there and we did have a very cheap lunch from a Hare Krishna cafe. It cost around $1.80 for drink, soup and main, so can´t complain!
We have found that when you speak Spanish in proper sentences (more than just a few random words) the locals here become very amicable, especially taxi drivers. Some funny conversations have included one with a taxi driver, who after enquiring about New Zealand´s cold weather, asked if we partake in dog sledding.
Later that nighk we had a few drinks at the hostel and met lots of travellers who were staying at the hostel including an awesome kiwi girl called Esther.
In terms of safety, none of us has really felt threatened yet. However, we did get the loudest and slowest wolf whistle in the world yesterday which almost deafened us! People do stare at us but it's probably because we look like slobs in our jandals and baggy tshirts, compared to the tiny, ultra-tight-pant-wearing girls (not for the faint at heart). We are also complete giants compared to the locals!
Back to Quito tomorrow to get ready before we start the Andean Bear project on Monday. Five weeks chasing after bears in the Andes Mountain ranges!
Stay tuned...
We had the next day to explore the city. First task; to buy botas de caucho (gumboots) for our volunteering work. The Andean Bear Foundation recommended that we buy the boots from a hardware store called Kiwi which was about a 15 minute taxi ride ($2) away to the south of the city. We were a novelty in the hardware store, with our huge Kiwi feet getting stuck in the Ecuadorian-sized gumboots. Kiwi gumboots are not made for kiwis, apparently.
One day looking around Quito was enough. It is very smoggy and dirty, and it doesn´t have the best vibe for tourists. In saying that, there was a beautiful big church there and we did have a very cheap lunch from a Hare Krishna cafe. It cost around $1.80 for drink, soup and main, so can´t complain!
We have found that when you speak Spanish in proper sentences (more than just a few random words) the locals here become very amicable, especially taxi drivers. Some funny conversations have included one with a taxi driver, who after enquiring about New Zealand´s cold weather, asked if we partake in dog sledding.
Later that nighk we had a few drinks at the hostel and met lots of travellers who were staying at the hostel including an awesome kiwi girl called Esther.
In terms of safety, none of us has really felt threatened yet. However, we did get the loudest and slowest wolf whistle in the world yesterday which almost deafened us! People do stare at us but it's probably because we look like slobs in our jandals and baggy tshirts, compared to the tiny, ultra-tight-pant-wearing girls (not for the faint at heart). We are also complete giants compared to the locals!
Back to Quito tomorrow to get ready before we start the Andean Bear project on Monday. Five weeks chasing after bears in the Andes Mountain ranges!
Stay tuned...
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