Yarina and Yasuni, Part Dos.#snakeweek

Captain's Log, Day 11: After listening to the Oropendolas and Caciques around the lodge for a solid week, I am in Coca for a few days. There is a lull in the stream of international tourists at Yarina, but visitors will return on Saturday. In the meantime, it looks like my dream of visiting Yasuni National Park will become reality...

Hola, amigos! I'm back in the land of people again. I promised in my last entry that I would write a bit about San Carlos (a mostly-Quechua community along the Napo River) and Yasuni National Park, as well as what is happening down here with oil companies. I was lucky enough to take a Comparative Environmental Politics class with Paul Steinberg at Harvey Mudd College, where I researched the history of the Yasuni and politics of Ecuador in great detail. That background has certainly helped me to start to understand what is going on here, and given me a very interesting perspective on the differences between what we read about Ecuador in the states and the rainforest reality. 

Some geographical perspective: I am writing this from Coca, in the east. Yarina Lodge is down the Rio Napo. 

On the Napo, we are about north from Juan Montalvo at Yarina. 

Basically, the story goes like this: foreign oil companies have been going into Ecuador since the 40s, promising economic development and wealth in exchange for land and drilling rights. The United States and China are the (past and present, respectively) biggest players in this game. The Yasuni National Park is the largest in Ecuador, and was created in the seventies to preserve the Ecuadorian Amazon and a number of tribes that live inside the park. Two of these tribes are still uncontactable (hostile to non-tribe encounters). The third tribe, the Waorani, are now fighting for their land and their rights, as Ecuador's president has recently permitted oil drilling in an additional third of the country´s protected lands. This is bad news for the Amazon, the Waorani, and the world, as tropical ecosystems are extremely important to the maintainence of our atmosphere and weather patterns. In my opinion and the opinion of many others, the loss such incredible biodiversity at such an alarming rate should be a huge global concern. Having the chance to see it now, degraded as it may be from how it was a century or even half-century ago, is beyond precious to me. 

Beyond the threat to the Amazon's biodiversity and the global climate, there is the threat to the Amazon's people. As I had mentioned before, the Waorani and Quechua have been and are currently fighting the oil companies for the rights to live on the land they have always known. Chinese oil companies are expanding their oil extraction activities in Ecuador as the land opens up with the failure of the Yasuni-ITT initiative (oil drilling has been permitted in Yasuni for the entire history of the park, in specified blocks--'protected' is mostly only in name). These lands comprise the territories of Yasuni´s indigenous tribes, and interactions are usually violent and end badly. The government here seemingly turns a blind eye, which is bad enough. On top of that, though, there is a lot of naval and army activity going on in Yasuni. We can see oil company and army helicopters going downriver (towards Yasuni) when we go between Yarina and Coca. My friend and guide Eduardo uses the word 'genocidio' to describe what will happen with the Waorani when the oil companies take their land.

Map showing Yasuni National park, the so-called 'intangible' zone, and the Waorani (Huaorani) lands. This map does not show the lands of the two uncontactalble tribes, the Taegeri and the Taromenane. In mass Ecuadorian media, the government denies these tribes exist. Local radio and TV stations around the Napo reported on a Waorani/Taegeri conflict last week that left 12 people between both tribes dead. Ecuadorian laws place the care and guarding of the park to the indigenous residents. It is all quite complicated. 

Correa, in the opinion of many people in the country, has never stuck to his pro-environment or pro-sustainability claims. There is also a ton of new development going on in Quito (toted as a 'city in revolution' and a new world tourist destination), but the forests are falling faster than ever. It's all very 'tricky,' as Eduardo so aptly put it. The story that we hear about this government in the states is certainly much rosier than the reality. 

As promised, here's a little bit about San Carlos before I caption all these pictures. San Carlos consists of about 200 Quechua families off the Napo River. They have now two schools, thanks to Yarina's construction efforts, and many of them have now adopted Catholicism (in addition to their traditional beliefs) due to the efforts of the Capuchin Mission. The Capuchin fathers have also started a high school-like program. Students can take home books to study and get help from missionary teachers, but the government is currently threatening this program, saying that they can only have a high school if they allow more oil activity in their community. Tricky indeed. The communities call approximately 45,000 hectares their homeland (about 175 square miles). Ecuador has gone, in Correa´s time, from using 200 million hectares of the Amazon for oil to about 600 million hectares. That number is, again, growing. Rapidly.

An old map (2006) showing some of the oil drilling activity that is ongoing in the Yasuni National Park. The park is divided up into blocks, which companies can lease for oil drilling. More foreign companies are now moving in to take advantage of newer land up for grabs with the failure of the Yasuni-ITT initiative (aimed at preserving parts of the ITT and 31 block in the park). 

Westernization (as the cities and mission efforts expand) is changing the everyday lives of Quechua families. Many of them now have electronics or even cell phones, and most are now 'global citizens of Ecuador'-meaning the new generation uses currency and often goes to the city, whereas the older generations mostly lived off their lands and through sustainence hunting and fishing.Where they used to use curare and bow and arrows, they now use rifles, or buy food from town.

One thing is for sure: both the new and old ways of life depend on the Amazon. 

You can read more about the quantification of biodiversity in Yasuni and its history here. 

(Alternatively, if that link doesn't work, here are the google scholar results.)

A few pictures from the lodge before I bird out. 

Wilson walking one of the lodge-built bridges on one of their many, many trails. 

A Great Tinamou egg!

That was either eaten by a predator or hatched successfully. 

The 'tarzan swing': a liana with a foothold attached with a few vines. Very sturdy. That´s Eduardo demonstrating. 

El Hefe and Amiga joining me for a midday snack. These little bananas are the perfect kind of dulce. 

The last remaining wildlife holding cage in front of the lodge. There were three or four of these here when I visited in 2007. 

The moon was waxing a week ago, but is nearly full tonight in Coca. It's fantastic. 

This little fella didn't want to leave me and Frank, a visitor from the Netherlands, alone!

We didn't mind it sticking around. Om nom nom electrolytes. 

I can't seem to right this picture for whatever reason, but these Nona/Guanabana type fruits grow on trees near the lodge. A banana and one of these after a hike, and I'm set. 

I haven't washed my clothes by hand since Costa Rica! I love the lavender detergent here. 

Pete Zani, we don't have a herpetologist here! Anole of some kind, yes?

A vine snake saying hello! They say it is a Coluber. Pete?

This one is known to the Quechua as 'shi-shi'. It is strange--a wide body, like a viper. It is poisonus. We were respectful. 

I have hundreds of pictures of leaf toads now. They're all gorgeous. 

Crazy caterpillars here, too. 

And Pirhanas! It's easiest to catch them right off the dock, where Maria often drops the meat scraps. Pirhana composting. It's the BEST. And these guys are really tasty when grilled with just a little salt. The lodge workers catch and cook them often. 

A view of the Napo near sunset in the observation tower. 

In addition to the vine snake and shi-shi, we were lucky enough to see a little Anaconda! Frank was really excited. 

It was gorgeous. 

And it wanted to give me a big hug when I grabbed it. Hehe. 

Here's Frank, being touristy with some horns from a Ceiba tree. 

So spiky. 

A lighter Leaf toad, being a leaf. 

The owl-eye butterflies are stunning. 

Another view of the Nona-type fruit. See where the space between pages is in my journal? Well CIEE people, I am going overboard again. That's my first eight days. Send more journals soon please. 

On my seventh trip between Yarina and Coca (counting 2007), it was finally clear enough to see Sumaco, the volcano to the west. 

A map of Coca, the Rio Napo, Yasuni, and the rest of one of the most biodiverse places on the earth: Orellana´s basin. Francisco Orellana was an early european explorer in this area. 

Everything has more color in Coca, as in most places in Latin America. The streets are filled with shops that fall prey to runaway selection: each generation has more music, bigger speakers, larger awnings hung with more brightly colored goods, more signs, more lights. It's hard for me to believe that the city could be any louder and brighter than it is during the day, but the night views may currently just be proving me wrong. 

This is a local market of sorts on the streetside where they sell quail eggs, fish as large as dogs, buckets of pirhana, chicha and other traditional Quechua foods in bags and old coke bottles, live hens in baskets and hanging with their feet tied in hooks, buckets of snails, guanabana bursting with creamy pulp, iced watermelon. 

I took my lunch over the naval Marina. Not much of a view, but I was there for the flycatchers and swallows. 

A bit of lunch, Coca and Quechua style. That's a fish grilled in the traditional heliconia leaves, sprinkled with a bit of salt and a bag of salsa (onions, something called palm vinegar, cilantro, and tomatoes), boiled yucca, skewered and grilled beetle larvae (the kabob! Like bacon, if the fat were entirely palm oil, if you know what palm oil tastes like), and a ten-cent slice of iced pineapple. Perfect. 

The swallows were jealous, maybe. 

I bought some food to make later. 

Om nom nom. Saving the last of four beetle larvae for last, with my yucca. 

Sign on the side of the Navy building. 

This was absurd---there were many roving PET carts. Those are dogs balancing on top, and rabbits in the crate. One of them even had a guinea pig inside...which was a bit confusing to me, with the gusto with which Cuy (fried guinea pig on night food carts) is consumed around here. 

Pollitos in a grain store for final. I can't possibly convey all the noises of this place. If you haven't been to latin american countries, you really can't imagine. Constant and endlessly varied and...different from places like New York City in a way that's hard to explain. 

More on Coca later, maybe. One last order of business for me here. 

Alright, birding gurus (Bob, Matt, Nina, and Johel). Are you ready for this?

My bird list thus far. Total: 65 new, 76 total species. Here are the new ones:

Coca: Glittering Throated Emerald, Black and Blue Swallow, White Banded Swallow. 

Yarina: Common Black Hawk, Black Caracara, Blue and Yellow Macaw, Amazonian White-throated Trogon, Chestnut Woodpecker, Yellow-tufted Woodpecker, White-throated Toucan, Orange-bellied Euphonia, Violaceous Jay, Yellow-rumped Cacique, Masked Scarlet Tanager, Green Kingfisher, Great Potoo, Russet-backed Oropendola, Yellow-crested Woodpecker, Collared Forest Falcon, Yellow-headed Caracara, Dusky-headed Parakeet, Cobalt-winged Parakeet, Black-headed Parrot, Blue-headed Parrot, Hoatzin, Crimson-crested Woodpecker, Speckled Chachalaca, Plumberous Kite, Flame-crested Tanager, Dusky Parakeet, Many-banded Aracari, Fulvous-crested Tanager, Scarlet-colored Hawk, Paradise Tanager, Gilded Barbet, Opal-crowned Tanager, Olive Oropendola, Casqued Oropendola, Greater Ani, Amazon Kingfisher, Roadside Hawk, Opal-rumped Tanager, Red-capped Cardinal, Black-tailed Tityra, Neotropical Palm Swift, Black-capped Donacobius, Wattled Jacana (bonus: father and offspring sitting on top of two Capybaras), Squirrel Cuckoo, Orange-cheeked Parrot, Orange-winged Amazon, Mealy Amazon, Gray-rumped Swift, Slender-billed Kite, Starred Wood Quail, Dusky-capped Greenlet, Black-masked Tityra, Sungrebe, Blue-chinned Sapphire, Wedge-billed Woodcreeper, Green and Gold Tanager, Rufous-bellied Euphonia, Blue-crowned Manakin, Variegated Timamou, Black-banded Owl.

OOF. So many birds! Those of you who know me know exactly what kind of maniacal gleam I have in my eye right now. A few pictures of my favorites so far:

Paradise tanager, commonly seen in the canopy of Eastern Ecuadorian lowlands (Image courtesy of Wikipedia).



Great Potoo! The one that sleeps in the maybe-Bombax tree (http://ibc.lynxeds.com/files/pictures/Potoo.jpg)

Starred Wood Quail (http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8180/8059218220_8f3e9879b9_z.jpg)

Blue-crowned Manakin! (National Geographic)

Well. Now I feel obliged to show you pictures of the classic Amazonian birds I have seen, too. Yee.

White-throated Toucan (Oiseaux). 

Blue and Yellow Macaw (Luc Viatour).

The Hoatzin, which is a crazy dinosaur-like bird. The young have claws! (Planet of Birds). 

On Friday, I am going to live a seven-year long dream and visit Yasuni National Park. It will be incredible to actually -be- in the place I have read and felt so passionately about...not to mention the chance to (hopefully) see parrots at a clay lick. Theories on why Amazonian parrots go to these 'clay licks' range from getting hard to obtain minerals to benefitting from the pH-balancing effects of the clay (offseting toxic or acidic fruits and nuts in their diet). Hopefully I will be able to post some pictures Friday when I get back, but if not, I will report back when I've wrapped up another week at Yarina!