After a few days of travel and my late arrival, today marked my first day of activity in the Panthera reserve.
In the morning, Aaron took me and a few other newcomers from France for a forest orientation and education session. We made sure we had taken our necessary preparations: sun screen, insect repellant, long boots to protect against potential snake bites, and a freshly sharpened machete. After my first few steps into the jungle, I was already in awe. I thought the Arb at Ann Arbor was nice – the Panthera reserve and Amazon jungle was five steps up from that. The diversity and grandeur of the various plants, trees, and roots was truly a sight to see.
Some highlights of my morning exploring the jungle:
The culmination of years of branching fig vines to form a magnificent tree trunk that was at least 20 feet in radius.
Learning and mastering the art of the machete by practicing on various tree vines in the forest. Only took me 20 swings to break my branch! (compared to only the two large swings Aaron needed before slicing a branch cleanly in half)
Fetching starfruit from the trees and indulging in the fresh fruit. Intriguing taste – quite sour but enjoyable. We then ran into a few pineapple plants and engaged in a riveting game of Fruit Ninja with pineapples and machetes.
We came back to the common area of the reserve to take a break and eat lunch. I decided to take an extensive break in one of the hammocks where I was graciously kept company by the reserve’s monkey, Cappuccino. Cappu was very friendly and allowed me to pet him while he sat in my lap and finished his meal of yesterday’s unfinished spaghetti. He even spent some time hanging on my arm like a branch — quite the companion!
In the afternoon Cristobal led us in bird banding. We caught three birds in the afternoon – all different types of woodpeckers. We had to carefully observe the birds and reference to the Peruvian Birds book. The first bird I tried to identify was way off the mark. Cristobal was very happy as he had caught eight birds total for the day.
-Jason Ji
EGL Family Abroad 