This morning we all woke up and had to be at breakfast by 8 o’clock. I think we all really enjoyed this breakfast because they had cereal, but it was with cold milk. Everywhere else on the trip we have had milk that was hot which I thought was a little weird to put on my cereal. During breakfast we saw a Capuchin monkey jumping through the trees. It continues jumping to trees closer to us and actually came right down in front of us to get the banana that had been left out for the birds. He came back three different times to keep grabbing bananas. After about fifteen minutes he left the same way he came.
Photo taken by: Greg Fischer
After breakfast we dropped some people off to go on a hike, some of us went into the city, and Taylor went to the hospital L. Moira, Lauren, Cassandra, Greg, and I went into the city of Zamora to walk around and check it out. There wasn’t really much going on in the city. We did get to see the river that ran through the city. The river almost looked dirty, but it was actually different clay particles being carried down the stream. We discussed how if there were to be a dam built on this river, the animals downstream would not get the sediments they need. We saw many different bird species while we were there as well as we saw a puppy!! The puppy came over to us and looked like he was a golden retriever mixed with a wiener dog!!! The dog stayed with us for a little while then realized we didn’t have any food, so he left us.
After we got back from our walk through the city we went back to the Lodge and ate lunch. After lunch we had the option to go on a hike around the Lodge to see more of the Amazon rainforest. The lodge we stayed at was actually a land that was used just for cattle, then a couple from the Netherlands bought the land and did not touch the land and allowed it to grow again. The couple had built all of the different lodges themselves. The Amazon Rainforest has soil that is very dry and is very fertile, but there is always lots if water. The indigenous people of the Amazon believed that water is absolutely everything in life. In the Amazon 80% of the biomass is above ground and 20% is below found, because the humidity does not all the biomass to decompose. If you were to go to a temperate rainforest, not a tropical, it would be the other way around. After our hike we ate dinner at the Lodge while watching the hummingbirds.
After dinner we had a presentation by John Escobar and Moira Sweeder who discussed life and at high elevations. The Andes is the most elevated area in Ecuador, which is where we were a couple days ago and will be going back to soon. As you increase your altitude the air pressure actually decreases; when you go into higher elevations if you have an unopened bag of chips the bag will expand. When you are at a higher elevation the air particles are spread less so it’s like the air is thinner. When you don’t have enough oxygen in your system at high altitudes it causes hypoxia, which is specifically the lake of oxygen. Some of the effects can be dizziness, nausea, shortness of breath, and much more. To deal with these affects you should drink lots of water and try to adjust yourself to the altitudes slower. At higher elevations you get more UV exposure, such as when you are at 9,000 feet you are 45% more exposed to UV. Plants that grow in these high-altitude regions have developed an adaptation to help them to increase their tolerance to the UV rays. This radiation stunts the growth of these plants because radiation is attracted to chlorophyll A which is needed for photosynthesis. When living in high elevations there is also the struggle of the sloped areas. The paramos are an essential water source due to vegetation filtration which are located on a tiny belt of the Andes. Terrace farming, which is basically making flat cuts in the land, was used to create less erosion as well as the nutrients will flow from one level to the next. When accessing mountain ranges, it is hard to use machinery, so they heard llamas and animals. When irrigating crops in high elevations the main source is aqueducts, as well as hydroelectric power. The soil up in the Andes can have new minerals introduced due to volcanic eruptions. There are communities that live outside of inactive volcanoes, like Pululahua Crater, because there is a very rich soil left behind from the eruptions. The only problem is we never actually know 100% if a volcano is inactive, it is just our assumption because the volcano has not erupted in a long time. There are also communities that live outside of active volcanoes, like Cotopaxi, will struggle evacuation due to lack of transportation.
After their presentation, Greg, Moira, Julie, Diego, and I went and looked for frogs. We drove down to the dirt road, where we came in on our hotel. Diego had said he heard a lot of frogs in an area when he came back from picking up the laundry last night, so we went there. We got there and we heard so many frogs croaking!! We saw so many tadpoles in the waters of all different sizes, which was crazy to me because I have never seen them in the wild. Then after looking for a while Greg had found one that was partially in the water. Because it was partially in the water, it was a very hard picture to take. Then we continued looking and I found many baby frogs in one area which was so cool to see!! He was able to get an amazing picture of the baby frogs. We then continued to look for more and I had found something in the bushes that had looked like a big frog, well come to find out it was actually a very venomous snake. It was a juvenile Bathrops atrox or known as the fer-de-lance snake. This snake is very venomous and is even more dangerous when it is a juvenile because they do not know how much poison to release yet. Unfortunately, we were not able to get a picture of him. After finding a snake we were all a little scared so we decided to head back to the lodge.