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GVI - 10 week end of phase news letter

17 March 2009

Staff updates
A new Ecuador Country Director was welcomed to camp at the very start of phase in the form of Karina
Berg. Having lived and worked in Latin America for seven years prior to this position and then spending
a period working for GVI back in the UK was eager to get stuck back into Latin American
American life and lingo.
Jon Escolar kicks off as the base camp manager having worked on two previous expeditions
expeditio at the camp
and knows the ins and outss pretty well. Matt Illes also returns to bring in some new exciting but smelly
research on dung beetles. Three
hree interns joined at the beginning of the ten week block, two of wh
which were
EMs from the previous expedition, Hannah Urpeth (who will be staying on as an intern for a further ten
weeks) and Andrew Mercer. The third intern, Chris Beirne, flew out from the UK to share his passion for
amphibians.. He picked everything up extremely quickly and with an abundance of enthusiasm and
proved to be a great asset to the staff team so has been offered (and accepted) a full time staff member
post. Four weeks into the expedition,, a new staff member Andrew Whitworth arrived and has tried to get
stuck into all aspects of the work with particular focus on the amphibian research and working with
Christ to develop this research for the future.
future

Week One
January. The Yachana Reserve base camp is still. The dorms are empty, the steps un-swept swept and an eerie
silence sweeps through the comedor.
or. Just then a string of swearing floats up from the steps to port. This is
followed by the stomping of heavy feet and the loud puffing and pantingpanting of a group of people under
severe physical strain. A loud thud breaks the silence as a backpack is flung down onto the floor of the
comedor. “Welcome to your new home”, ”, says John and there
is a resounding sigh of relief. The EMs had arrived.

The new year kicked off with a group of 18 volunteers from

England, Ireland, Germany, the US and Australia. It was a
melting pot of different backgrounds but they had all come
for the same reasons. The group was eager to embrace the
new environment and willing too throw themselves into what
would be a unique and unforgettable experience.

There were major adjustments within the first couple of

days. The EMs got a taste for rice and beans which is the staple
stap to any jungle diet. They took their first
stream wash and mastered the art of bathing in three inch deep water. At night they had to contend with
the sounds of the surrounding jungle although the volume couldn’t compare with the combined snoring of
18 EMs in their communal dorms.

The day after arrival they took their first walk along one of the many trails in the reserve. There was an
overall feeling of excitement. It was their first glimpse of the rustic browns of the forest floor and the
dense greens of the overhead canopy. Some struggled to find their jungle legs and spectacular falls
occurred. The falls and occasional breaching of the wellies were an unpleasant and unavoidable aspect of
jungle life but the resulting laughter and hilarity made it all worthwhile. That evening
evening Andy and Chris
(two bird enthusiast interns)) brought the EMs out on a bird survey upon one the many picturesque look
out points in the reserve.

The following night the group set out into the darkness to partake in a night walk. It was incredible to see
how the jungle changed at night. Spiders as big as your hand could be found sitting randomly on the
many different leaves, the sounds of the surrounding frogs and birds seemed amplified without any
natural light and the forest floor was even trickier to tread.. Luckily the group had the constant support of
Mauro, Flavio, Juan Carlos and Franklyn, the Ecuadorian students from the Yachana achana Technical High
School who came for work experience at the reserve. These boys have the amazing ability to pull EMs
out of the mud with one hand while wielding a machete effortlessly in the other. That night brought a rare
and brilliant sighting of a boa constrictor on the stream bank. It was an excellent start to the expedition
and the weeks ahead would bring many new experie
experiences.
nces. After a couple of days training in First Aid and
an introduction to TEFL teaching and numerous introductions to the various different science areas to be
covered during their time here, the group was ready and raring to go.

Week Two
Having completed their first week of training and introduc
introductory
tory walks, the staff decided the EM’s were
ready to take on a new challenge…satellite
satellite camp. This was going to be no easy feat however,
however with the
torrential rain forcing the campers to make several rearrangements.
rearrang Eventually the sun broke through and
the first group finally set off into the wilderness to test their newly acquired
a quired jungle hammock hanging
skills. Arriving with just enough time to set up camp just before nightfall the group of adventurers tucked
into a tasty dinner before heading out to survey the area for amphibians inn the nearby stream. stream They
arrived back at base camp to enjoy a few of the home comforts such as a pot of tea and a few biscuits and
good old chinwag around the fire camp. Exhausted from the night’s adventures after trawling the stream
for frogs everyone headed to bed for what they they assumed would be a good night’s sleep. Some however
were not so lucky and found their hammock hanging skills skills were somewhat lacking, w waking at 3am as
they plummeted three feet to the damp and soggy ground.
Another challenge faced by our EMs on sat camp was
navigating their way in pitch black night, haunted bby sounds of
yet unknown wildlife to use the jungle facilities. The next
morning the EMs (some more refreshed than others)others filled up
on granola and set off on the long hike back to camp via La
Cascada
ascada where they enjoyed a refreshing dip and mud bath.
That week the EMs also took a trip down to the local school in
Puerto Rico to teach a few TEFL classes. They hey were nervous
at first but the infectious enthusiasm of the kids left the EMs
craving for more TEFL time.

Week Three
This week started off with some mist netting. This is a method of catching birds
using suspended nets from the forest floor. It’s a great opportunity to see the
birds up close and to take some valuable data at close quarters about the local
birdlife. On the Wednesday the EMs left the reserve and took a canoe to Piter’s
farm. Piter is a graduate of the Yachana
achana technical High School. He lives on the
Napo with his family and spends all his time out of college working on the
farm. Upon arrival Piter roasted fresh cocoa beans and his mum made a
delicious hot chocolate thatat tasted unlike anything the EMs
EM had ever drank
before. He then took themm on a tour around the farm and pointed out some great
birds for watching along the way. Before leaving the group was treated to an
incredible dinner made by Piter’s’s mother. They left the farm that day with full
bellies and a longing for more traditional
onal Ecuadorian cooking.

On Friday the group took a canoe from Coca to Allpa Sumak or more commonly known as Hector’s
Island. The island is owned
ned by Hector Vargas
Varga and is put to use as a monkey reserve. The EMs spent three
days touring the island and listening
ning to Hector talk about all the fascinating plant life and animal life he
maintained there. Hector also imparted some of his cultural heritage and got the EMs making blow dates
and everyone had a go a blowing them through the long blow pipe – at the static ic target of an orange on a
post (not any wildlife!). Some of the EMs were a pretty good shot! The group partook in some trail
maintenance and was well rewarded with a heart hearty chicken soup cooked up by Hector himself. The
weekend was brief but highly memorable
memo with sightings of Capuchins, Woolly Monkeys,
Monkeys Tamarins, a
Black-banded Owl and a game of footy on a nearby beach at sunset.
Week Four
After a long but surprisingly comfortable ranchero ride back from Coca the EMs had a free afternoon to
relax before the week ahead. Tuesday saw various activities get underway, one of which was setting up
dung beetle pitfall traps in the forest. This
Thi project was set up by Matt Iles,
es, a staff member who specialises
in entomology.. One of the aims of this work is to show thethe presence of a healthy mammal population in
the reserve because the beetles that feed on the faeces can act as an indicator species.

Three weeks of laborious studying finally saw some EMs

leading their BTEC field surveys. They involved dung beetle
and amphibian surveys and needless to say they all passed with
flying colours
rs and had a lot of laughs along the way.

The EMs were finally rewarded at the end of the week for all
their hard work with the unforgettable experience of visiting a
local shaman, Curandero.. The healing process involved a
display of tobacco and leaves to cleanse any impurities that
may have been experienced so far on the expedition.

Week Five
It was the final week at the Yachana Reserve base camp before the mid-phase phase break and for those who
only opted for the five week expedition
expedition, it was their last few days in the jungle. The staff wanted to give
the group something to remember in this last week and so a long walk to the Laguna was scheduled.
However, three days of hard rain had scuppered
scuppered their plans. A group of hopefuls got up at 5am two
mornings in a row to set out, but ended up sitting in the comedor
com looking out at the torrential rain.
Despite this people kept themselves entertained with their BTEC work, yoga sessions and Spanish
lessons after dinner. On the final d ay the weather took a turn for the better and the sky opened upup. The
EM’s were eager to get out and stretch the legs after two days of cabin fever. They took off on a long
energetic walk to the Laguna and stopped for the
th occasional bird watching while snacking on apples and
vanilla biscuits. The walk turned out to be one of the best they had in the five weeks and was an excellent
way to say goodbye to the jungle.

On Thursday the entire camp headed off to Tena for the final night
together. A meal was planned for that evening and the group made
the effort to scrub up for the event. It was strange to see the boys’
cleanly shaven and wearing fresh shirts while the girl
girls put on their
glad rags and indulged in a bit of makeup.. The meal was a feast of
chicken and steak and all the luxuries the jungle had deprived
them of. After a slice of cake and a rare sighting of a sloth that
lived in the restaurant, the group took to the streets to join in with
the local festivities. Luckily for the EMs they had arrived on the
one night Tena was holding a huge festival. They blended in with
the group at the town square and engaged in some dodgy dancing to the live music while sipping bbeer and
eating candy floss.. It was a night that ended too soon and the following morning brought the heavy
hearted goodbyes to the five weekers. Although it was sad to send them off the overall feeling was one of
happiness and they were wished well on their
thei journey home.

Week Six
On Saturday the new five-week EMs arrived at base camp. They were tired after a long day on a bumpy
bus ride, motorized canoe trip and a hike up the mountains of steps to camp from port. They spent the day
unpacking all their gear andd were welcomed to the comedor by a huge wandering spider.
The next day the four new EMs took their first walk into the jungle along the Bloop op trail. They saw a
giant millipede
pede and the staff talked about all the different types of forest within the Yachana Reserve
R and
what they could expect to see in the coming weeks.

On Monday the First Aid training got underway. The EMs rolled around in laughter at the unintentionally
hilarious video about potential accidents
accide that would require Emergency First Response.. Who knew that
something educational could be so funny? That evening the other ten weekers returned to camp and gave
the new EMs a hearty welcome. Four of the ten weekers would not return
return until that weekend as they had
the opportunity to help and teach
ch at the Yachana Technical High School for a few days.

Tuesday was comprised of even more First Aid training. The group partook in role play scenarios (which
became increasingly absurd!) to practice the techniques they had learned the previous day. In tthe
afternoon they constructed baffles out of wood and tarp which would be used in a preliminary test to
catch amphibians. The following day brought machete training which involved hacking away some of the
forest. This is always an immensely satisfying activity.
acti

On Thursday the new EMs were briefed on what a day of camp duty entails and luckily managed to avoid
cleaning the toilets to start their TEFL training.
t Each of them taught a five minute lesson on whatever
they wanted ranging from how to make origami
origam crows to how to ride a unicycle!

Friday morning was a minga (a communal effort in completing a big community task, which is normally
rewarded with a hearty feed for all participants
participants) over at the Yachana High School.. All the EMs were
finally reunited and those who had been based across the river at Yachana for the week and had the
chance to meet the new people for the first time. That
morning they all toiled away in the fields to plant yucayuc
and clear their football pitch
itch of piles of earth and logs, in
preparation for Saturday’s flag parade.
para This is carried
out annually in memory of a territory battle with
Colombia on 27 February 1829.. Students of colleges
and high schools across Ecuador have a similar parade
where they swear
wear allegiance to the flag and the college
colleg
had spent the week preparing the marching
march ceremony.

On Saturday the group crossed the river to Yachana

again and congregated in the field to watch the procession. For three hours the students marched acros
across
the pitch in a disorderly fashion and kissed the Ecuadorian flag one at a time. The morning was long but,
but
for the students and their families (many of whom had travelled some distance to watch the proceedings),
it was a proud day and all were well reward
rewarded with a slap up meal at lunch provided by the high school.

After an exhausting but exciting first week for the new EMs it was time for everyone to chill out and
have a lazy Sunday.
day. Some headed off on a leisurely
leisu y walk to the Laguna while others took a well
w deserved
rest in the hammocks. It was a day to rejuvenate and prepare for the week ahead.

Week Seven
It was the first proper week of survey work for the new EMs or the “newbies”
“ ” as the others called them.
Benthic filled their days and nights. Identifying critters from the pump stream and assessing the impact of
the camp upon the surroundingng waters.

On the Tuesday night the new EMs headed out to a satellite camp for f the night with
ith new staff member
Andy Whitworth.. It was a night in the terrifying jungle with only their jungle hammocks to protect them
from the elements. Thankfully our two excellent Ecuadorian graduates, Mauro and Piter, were at hand to
save the day brandishing their
ir fire making skills and hammock stringing techniques. Unfortunately the
pesky wasps nest on the way too sat camp caused a bit of a problem when Rachel was stung a dozen times
and reacted badly with a swollen eye and tongue. Deliriously funny till in the end Rachel remained in
high spirits and amused the others with her mutated face at the camp fire until bedtime. In the morning
the campers took a tour of the Laguna and trekked through some tricky terrain. Some of them still bear
the bruises of the trek
ek but admit the effort was worthwhile.

That weekend all the EMs took a three day trip to Yasuni National Park, Park, the most biologically diverse
forest in the Ecuador and the homeland of the Huaorani tribe. There they were reunited with their oold
friend and guide Hector Vargas. The canoe ride ri was nearly three hours long down the Napo River
because it was particularly low due to a dry week in the area
and some of the team had to jumpp overboard a couple of times
to push the boat out shallow waters and river bed. be
Unfortunately some had the pleasure of getting soaked up to
their chest as a result of it. The time at Yasuni was
unforgettable with some of the highlights including: a trip to
the clay licks to see the parrots feeding on the clay walls,
walls a rare
glimpse of the Rosari’s Spoonbill Bird, chasing a herd of
peccaries through the forest at full pelt and slipping all over the
place in the process and last but not least a final night’s stay on
the remote and beautiful Allpa Sumak, Hector’s Island. It was a
weekendd of stunning sightings of wildlife and a chance for the EMs to sample some of the more remote
parts of the Amazon.

Week Eight
On Monday it was an early departure from the beautiful Hector’s Island and a short boat ride to the town
of Coca. There the EMs spent the morning gorging on meat, pastries, chocolate and many other
indulgences that they find themselves deprived of back at camp. They eventually headed back to the
jungle with their bellies swollen and were primed for a week of survey work.

The days that followed were packed with stream walks, night
surveys and camp duties. On Saturday the new EMs took too their
first trip to Agua Santa,, the local market, to stock up on some
goodies. They trekked for two hours through the river of mud to
make it to the road but they were duly rewarded with a lunch of
traditional Ecuadorian
rian cooking. Meanwhile back at camp the
other EMs got together to o do some maintenance work. In the
afternoon everyone was reunited and a small group took off on a
little adventure to one of the trails further afield in the reserve.
reserve
They stopped for dinner on a slopee overlooking the high canopy
and watched the sun set. As dusk breached they turned back on
the trail and headed home in the darkness,
dark always keeping an eye out for frogs and
nd other nocturnal
creatures.

Week &ine
Week nine was welcomed by bright sunshine. A mass of piled
laundry was washed and rushed to the drying area. At last,
last a
real chance to dry clothes. One group of EMss was sent out to
carry out some stream exploration for suitable benthic
surveying sites. After struggling past landslides and fallen
trees the stream was successfully navigated up to the road.
Now the fun began! Just off the ‘Bloop’ trail the stream was
followed
llowed back to the road where a colony of bats was roosting
in a nearby tunnel. The group then navigated their way to the
clear waters of ‘Stream 1’ for a refreshing swim.
swim
Tuesday began with a butterfly survey. This involved setting traps high up in the the trees, baited up with
rotten fish stew. The idea is to attract carrion feeding species. Whilst waiting for the traps to work some
butterfly netting was enjoyed which is particularly useful for catching nectar feeding species.

Wednesday involved an early start with half the group leaving for a local bird survey, whilst the other
half of the group set off on one of the longest walks of the expedition,
expedition deep into the reserve following
‘Stream 1’. At four in the afternoon a very tired, sweaty group returned back
b to base.. Some of whom still
went out that same evening to help out others
other on their BTEC walks!

Thursday morning involved TEFL prep and shortly after breakfast the teaching group made their way
down to the local school ready to share their English powers. The youngest group had great fun learning
the words for various clothes in English which involved dressing up! The older class did some geography
and had a good time picking out places on a map. Following a writing exercise it became apparent that
the children considered their tiny village to
t be a city. In the evening the Base Manager, Jon
Jo gave a talk on
eco-marketing – very interesting stuff.

Friday and Saturday tormented the group with torrential rain,

rain but on Saturday morning some of the group
didd get over to the local market to fill up on supplies and treats. The last Saturday evening was full of
good food and good comedy. The group was treated to a quickqui sketch play by two budding actors within
the group and then later some games were played aroundund the table. Peachoffe pie also came as a real treat
to fill us all up! Sunday brought enough rain to spoil sat camp plans but not football at Yachana. GVI
were beaten again.

Week Ten
It was the final week and what better way to end the expedition than to spend a night on another
sat camp,, this time with a different location
location. A small group departed for the Laguna
aguna on Monday
morning and braved the path past the wasp nest for the last time. After setting up their jungle
hammocks they went on a trek around the t full Laguna
aguna and took in the beautiful sunset upon the
clay mounds that overlooked the spectacular scenery. That night the group took up their torches
and made their second trip down to the water in i the hope of spotting caiman.
caim They were
rewarded with a rare sighting of a Two-toed sloth, curled up in a little ball from high up in the
canopy and a Night Monkey. At the Laguna some spotted the red beady eyes of a caiman. The
night was a real treat for the campers and proved to be the perfect way to spend one of the last
nights in the rainforest.

On Tuesday morning the remaining EMs back at camp set off on their own hike to the Laguna to
stretch the legs and catch a glimpse
mpse of some of the unique birds that can be found in the area
such as the White-throated
throated Toucan and the Blue-headed
Blue Parrot. That evening interns Andy and
Chris led the final night walk into the jungle. The sky was particularly stunning and held the
group standing in awe as they starred up at the blanket of stars. The EMs soaked up as much of
the surroundings as they could for last time and plodded home to camp content and ready for
bed. That night the sky opened up and the jungle reverberated with the crack
crack of thunder.

Wednesday was spent packing up and clearing away all the gear, it seemed like the weather was
reflecting the mood of the EMs. It was sad to leave but a final meal in Tena left plenty of time
for the EMs to reminisce on all the great moments
moments of the past ten weeks and all the wonderful
stories to tell their families and friends when they returned home.
Science updates
Dung beetles
Matt Iles has begun conducting new research on dung beetles during this phase. He intends to look at the
difference in populations around the reserve after identifying all species found and then also look into
their food preferences in the near future.
future. Hopefully as an indicator of the health of the area.

Benthic
Interns Andy Mercer and Hannah and Base B Managerr Jon have been working on the nearby pump stream
for the second half of the phase in particular, which has involved lots of stream mapping and getting wet.
Through the use of these Benthic
enthic surveys they hope to assess any impacts on water
water quality caused by
GVI camp and generally assess the overall health of the streams within the reserve.

Amphibians
Chris and Andy Whitworth have been conducting surveys also on the pump stream in conjunction with
the Benthic
enthic work. They have been trialling different surveying methods including sight and encounter
transects and pitfall traps using baffles. It is hoped that these methods can be of future use towards a
larger project incorporating looking at road or pasture effects on amphibians across the reserve.
Swabbing for Chytrid fungus has also continued throughout the ten weeks when ever frogs have been
encountered.

Birds
Point count surveys and local bird surveys have been continued throughout
through the phase but Jon Escolar has
plans in the pipeline for a more comprehensive and directional project to gatherer bird data across the
reserve, as opposed to simply increasing the list of species encountered.

Community update
Puerto Rico
GVI has continued its quota of two hours, twice a week at the local community school of Puerto Rico.
Ri
They have been teaching two classes; one of approximately ten students of between the ages of 3 and 6
years old; the other of approximately 20 students between the ages of 7 and 12 years old.

This has proved to be challenging as there is a lack of direction and continuity of the lessons, with the
change of EMs and apparent lack of syllabus from the school. It was discovered that the school does
actually have an English curriculum. However when shown the book, it was discovered that it is not the
best
est and there is a definite need for a decent course book or syllabus to continue with this programme.
This would also make life easier for the EMs as they would have a bit more guidance of what subjects to
focus on during their lessons. Karina is looking
looking into getting hold of a suitable book here in Quito, but
will have to see what is available.

Yachana Technical High School

Jon and Karina have been communicating with Marlon, the Rector of the High School, to pencil in more
dates when we could potentially send EMs across for a week to participate in the high school and
an have a
much more formal inter-cambio. This phase’s trial seemed to be successful, but it was considered
necessary to have a bit more structure to the time when the EMs are there. It was also considered useful
if the EMs had some Spanish (maybe this would be a selection criteria for the next group who head over
there).
). The EMs will always be accompanied by a Spanish speaking member of staff. ThisT is definitely
an area that we want
nt to build on and develop over the up and coming phases.

We also hosted two pasantias, students from the high school on their work experience, Juan Carlos and
Franklyn. They spent three weeks with us. Initially they were extremely shy and potentially they
t arrived
at the wrong time (intro week) when staff were focusing on getting the 18 strong expedition of EMs up to
speed with all aspects of camp life , EFR and TEFL, amongst others.. We probably didn’t have enough
time to dedicate to the students, as we were also slightly under-staffed. The boys became
me more involved
with things after the first week, but we have also learned that we potentially need to have a selection
criteria for these students to ensure that they have a minimum level of understanding of English in order
to benefit and get the full potential out of their stay with GVI.

ational Scholarship Programme

Jon has modified the BTEC programme we offer to EMs in a format that can hopefully be used as an
informal certification for the graduates who spend five or ten week periods with GVI on base in the
reserve. After much trawling he has managed to source one book in Spanish that would assist in the
course work of this and Douglas (from Yachana) found a Spanish version of A eoTropical Companion,
Com
unfortunately it is still in the USA and hasn’t made it in our hands yet, nor do we know when it might
arrive. This is something we would like to offer to give the Ecuadorians who spend longer at base more
direction to their time there and also some form of qualifying the work they have done during their time
with us.

This phase we have had three graduates with us; Flavio (for the first five weeks), Piter (for the second
five weeks) and Mauro (more or less for the whole ten weeks). Flavio was a help on walks with his local
knowledge and also giving artesania lessons. Piter (of Piter’s Farm fame) has improved massively his hi
English language skills. He really threw himself into
in the inter-cambio from day onee and it also massively
inspired a couple of staff members, particularly Chris, and some EMs to push forward with their Spanish
skills. He has been enthusiastic and helpful
helpful at all times and has imparted his knowledge on Chris on how
to make perfect rice in the kitchen! Mauro really came out of himself in the second five weeks – more
than likely inspired by Piter. He became much more involved in all aspects
aspects of camp life and
a surveys in
the latter part of the ten weeks.