Where'd She Go?: A Photo Narrative of 2 Weeks Living Off Grid in the Rainforest

During my search for trips into the rainforest, I entered a tour agency and struck up a conversation with the man behind the desk.  Through the course of our conversation, we realized there was a great solution for both of us.  I wanted a cheaper way to see the rainforest, and he needed help getting his new eco-lodge off the ground.  What began as a plan for a week of volunteering at an Eco-lodge on the outskirts of the Manú Wildlife Preserve, quickly turned into 2 weeks.  The plan was to help get the lodge be more ecologically sound, cater to tourist needs better, and be more user friendly.  We had the general plan or measuring and labeling trails and creating signage as a start.

This blog post will be different than usual.  Rather than a long narrative, I will do an annotated photo journal of my time.

Here's everything I brought with me: 2 buckets of fresh produce for my food, 3 gal of water, a bag of clothes, and my camera gear.  Looks like more than it really is.  I left the rest in the hostel's luggage room.

Loading tons of products brought in from the city that have to supply the small communities that live more remotely.  It's at least a day, sometimes to to transport.  It took us about 2 hours to load the entire boat, ending with a 50 gal drum of gasoline!

Here's the boat we used to get from the small town of Chipitiari to the lodge itself.  It's probably about 30' long.

Some of the cabins at the lodge.  Mine is the one in the middle!  twin bed, mosquito net, bathroom, with running water from collected rain.

Managed to finish all the signs before I left.  Trailheads, trail indicators, and names for each cabin!

Hanging trail signs

Marking trail distance

Measuring the trails was a time-consuming process as we only had a 50 meter tape, and the trails were each up to 5km long!

Our kitchen.  Simple, but enough to get the job done!  The only thing I really missed having was a rubber spatula

The kitchen pantry.  Stocked somewhat regularly with tomatoes, onions, garlic, ginger, tomatoes, carrots, eggs, rice, lentils, tomato sauce, canned fish, tea, coffee, powdered milk, salt, some other spices, and sugar.

My favorite food that came out of my rainforest time:   Chia, cooked like oatmeal!  Boil water, add cinnamon stick, powdered milk, and sugar.  Stir until smooth.  When boiling again, add 1-2 curs of chia.  Boil, then turn down to simmer for at least 30 min.  Can also take of heat and leave covered to absorb further.  Finish with chopped green apple.  Yum!

Quinoa salad, scrambled egg and green olives.  Yummy lunch!

Fries were one of our favorites.  I cooked them thin and crispy to make homemade chips!  This was a crash course in frying!

Leftover soup!  I started with the remains of cooked beans in lots of liquid, added more water, onion garlic, carrot, tomato, and tomato paste!  Delicious!

A guac-ish salad made with the last of my avocado before it went off:  avocado, red onion, tomato, lime, garlic and salt.  Perfect.

My kind of trash.  Compost on the left, trash on the right

My first grasshopper saved from the lodge.  Many many more to come

Another early rescue: leaf bug

This little guy grabbed onto my shirt as I walked the trail.  He was happily released to a nearby plant.

Yes, there is such a thing as a 7" caterpillar...  So amazing.  And it was covered with little feelers.

Looking at him from the other side.  This one definitely warrants looking at up close.

After just one day of heavy rain, the whole river overflowed, spreading into small streams and creating rivers where there were none.  It completely changed the landscape and took 2 days to go down.

So much debris was carried downstream after the rain.  Branches, trash, and even whole trees! 

Clusters of butterflies could be found gathered around various animal waste on the beach.  This particular grouped rather seemed to be a meeting of pollinators!  Various types of bees and butterflies all rotated through this spot for hours.

This group was gathered around some fish scales from my co-workers catch that morning.

These Oropenola lived right outside the lodge and they filled the air with their unusual calls which most closely resemble the sound of a water droplet

I mostly wore those boots when I was out exploring, due largely to bug protection, snake barrier, and also just mud waders.  You can see how dense the clay shore bank is.

After another heavy rain, these deep troughs were left in the clay shore bank.

On the gooiest parts of the shore, where the clay was a super-fine dust that became incredibly slippery when wet, I went barefoot, enjoying the feeling of mud between my toes again.  You can see here too the tracks from one of our nocturnal visitors.

May not look like much from far away, but I literally almost stumbled upon this nest, nearly scaring the owner half to death.

Common Nighthawk watching her clutch of 2 delicate eggs.

Common Nighthawk.  As is evidenced by the name, she rests during the day, guarding her nest, and searches for food at night.

After I scared her away one day, I looked closer to see where she'd come from.  Almost didn't see these two, light pink eggs.

See that little white tuft there?  Yeah, that.  It moves.   At first, I thought it was down, but I'm guessing it's a caterpillar.

These guys work more than I do!  They seem to only take breaks during the hottest, brightest sun, but otherwise, there they are, carrying plant matter back to their colony.

One particular trail even has a grove worn into the ground from them traveling it so often!

After a heavy storm, sometimes termites will sprout wings and fly away to safe ground.  That happened twice.  After each time, the spiders were happy buggers with very full webs.

These very fancy spiders can be seen all over

Oh yeah, tarantulas, too

Another grasshopper awaiting removal from the lodge.
This one somehow got between the tablecloth and the plastic sheeting!

This guy even managed to get inside the bug tent that was always over my bed.  Move over Tom Cruise, he needs to be drafted for the next Mission Impossible movie.

Love his body language!  Just brought him outside from being stuck in the kitchen

This little guy was so well camouflaged that I almost stepped on him!

Saw a bunch of these guys...  weird little flat bugs

I thought this moth was fascinating!  I saw her on the screen one night, and the next morning, she looked completely different!  I thought she was dead, but it turns out it is just a camouflaging technique to look like dead leaves!

Waiting 3 hours for birds to show up at the clay lick

But they do!   I probably saw 5 different species of parrot that day!

And this one bird they call Turkey Maria.  They all come to eat the clay which is rich in salt.

Trying to be adventurous...  wading across the river that flooded after the storm.  Sure, it's only 2' deep, but you can't see anything since it's so full of silt.  One's imagination runs away with you

You know you're jealous of my style!  Pants tucked in socks.  Not fashionable, but practical.

More adventurer, Jess.  completely covered for bug protection, despite the high heat and humidity, and headlamp ready to walk the trails at night looking for Tapirs.

The whole riverbank is stones, each one different and interesting.  Peru is known for it's minerals.

Like this iron ore you can find along the banks

So many different colors and shades, I had to make this rainbow to really show it

This is what happens when I have lots of free time with lots of cool stuff to look at... 

When your coworker literally builds a raft from driftwood and floats downstream for a few days to visit his family...

I brought so few clothes, was so covered to prevent bug bites, and it was so hot and humid that laundry was a nearly daily experience.

The main lodge

When the water you brought runs out, and all you have left to drink is the rain water they use for washing....  and it's this color.   Only drank it after boiling profusely

A special type of Cicada called the peanut-headed lanternfly.  THey're about 6 inches long!

About the size of my condo...

This whole spider is about 4 inches tip to tip.  Here he is devouring a dragonfly

These were my next-door neighbors

One day I was walking by the shore, and then I heard an awful screeching sound.  I looked around thinking that I would see a small bird in some kind of peril.  What I saw instead was a moth fly away from the clutches of this guy.  It's the most ambidextrous spider I've ever seen, and it snatches bugs right out of the sky!

I hope you can see this well!  It's the coolest, longest walking stick I've ever seen!  It only had 4 legs, and it played dead when I went to take it outside.  Managed to get it to hook onto the bark of a nearby tree

This was another hitchhiker during our work on the paths.  Every time I tried to remove him, he released one set of legs and hung off pretending to be a stick!

While I didn't see any of the animals myself, I saw lots of their tracks:

Deer 

a small lizard

I think they said this was a type of armadillo

Tapir

Heron

The print of an Oncilla right near my home!

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We had a few clear nights with beautiful sunsets

My first experiments with long exposure sky photography

Despite many bug bites, running out of water, 2 days of torrential rain, not seeing any mammals...  My time in the rainforest was decadent.   My ears are filled with the sounds of cicadas, oropendolas and parrots.  Oh wait, now I guess that's honking horns and inebriated people on the street....