A Trip To the Amazon for the Macaws

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A couple of years ago someone shared with me about a volunteer project with wild macaws in the Amazon. I was immediately intrigued.

The Tambopata Research Center website said we would be counting exotic birds, monitoring macaw nests and perhaps even tree climbing.  It sounded great but to imagine being in the jungle, so close to wild birds was the most exciting part to me.

I applied to the project and got in. The first document they sent for me to read was called Health and Safety in the Jungle -What to Be Concerned With. The insects, spiders, and snakes mentioned did not scare me. It said we might encounter a jaguar – but I wanted to see that! It detailed tropical diseases such as malaria or yellow fever and this concerned me some but leishmaniasis really scared me! It was an illness contracted from a type of sand flea that created open sores on the body that would be hard to cure. I definitely did not want to get that!

But I had to decide if I would go or not.

Finally, I agreed. I would be sorry if I missed the opportunity I had always been asking for- to live in the jungle among the animals. Besides, it was cheaper than paying rent anywhere in the US and I was already nomadic and without a home. So I made plans to go to the Peruvian Amazon for two months.

From the moment I arrived, I was in awe. Every plant and creature fascinated me. I could not stop asking questions. I wanted to absorb everything, to not miss a thing. Brilliantly colored scarlet macaws, green and red macaws and blue and yellow macaws were everywhere. They were magnificent.  Macaws were always flying overhead, calling to each other in ultra-loud screeching sounds that could be almost deafening. At least ten different other parrot species also lived there on the Tambopata river, attracted to a clay lick that they got a lot of nutrients from. There were even birds I knew from Georgia and Florida- roseate spoonbills, snowy egrets, and hawks. The Oropendola of the Amazon was one of my favorite birds. It was colorful and made a beautiful song that I really believe inspired Jim Henson’s alien puppets, sounding a bit like it was underwater. There were jakimar, toucans, nun birds, and buzzards among many many others. 

 

 

 

 

I saw many large snakes (never knowing which were actually dangerous) and even a spectacular electric blue tarantula one early morning. And of course, I got to see many varieties of monkeys-spider monkeys, capuchin, titi monkeys, squirrel monkeys, and howlers. I saw a family of capybaras (worlds largest rodent) and even the rare blonde anteater (almost blind) and the large river otters (only 200 left in the wild, eight in this region) made an appearance for me. 

 

As soon as I arrived I was immediately taught to climb trees. It was baby macaw season and a lot of help was needed. I was so excited to learn tree climbing that I wore myself out. I was exhausted within my first two days and had to take a day of rest.

I continued to learn to climb and within a week I was climbing the one rope system, sixty to one hundred feet off of the ground, in ceiba trees four hundred years old or more. Though I really wanted to climb, I was also terrified, wondering what the hell had I gotten myself into. After about my fourth tree climb, I finally trusted my equipment and it began to feel natural.

But climbing was not the most challenging part of my duties.

Once I was up in the tree I had to take the macaw chicks out of the nest, put them in a bucket on a rope and lower them down to the veterinarians on the ground for monitoring. Sometimes one handheld me in place and one hand got the chick into the bucket. Sometimes I even had to use a hand to hold the mother macaw under a towel and try not to get a finger bitten off while I retrieved the chick. I was always concerned about dropping the chick from such a height. I had to be very focused to ensure the safety of us both.

 

 

While tree climbing I also remembered that I have exercise-induced asthma. I would get halfway up the rope and then have to stop to catch my breath and breathe, normally again. I was not afraid of an actual asthma attack because I knew when to stop and breathe but I did not tell anyone else for fear they would think I was incapable of climbing and might try to stop me.

I wanted to be in the trees as often as possible, in close contact with the macaws and other wildlife that lived there. I loved it when I was in a tree and a troupe of monkeys would cross right in front of me, jumping from tree to tree- some with babies clinging to their backs. I felt like I was one of them, sharing the forest canopy as natural as can be.

Sometimes I would be walking a trail and come across a group of peccaries (a type of wild boar). If they had babies they could be really fierce and their big sharp tusks made me know I did not want to have a run-in with one of them. I was always sure to find a fallen tree nearby that I could jump onto if they charged. They cannot get off of the ground more than a couple of feet thankfully. You always knew when a peccary herd was close because they smelled so much like a sewer that you could not escape it from even hundreds of yards away. If they passed my room in the night the smell would wake me from my sleep.

Our other volunteer duties included research such as counting and bird census, looking for nest fights and observing the birds foraging habits. It was all a ton of work and hours of hiking daily. My muscles were constantly aching. I had had no training to prepare before I got to the Amazon but my excitement always kept me going. We wore rubber boots everywhere because the trails were so muddy and we sometimes walked through water up to our waists, home to caiman (a type of alligator) and anacondas.  I got blisters on my feet and they hurt all of the time.

The bugs were horrific, constantly biting us. There were at least three different kinds of mosquitos and six different biting flies (one which carried the leishmaniasis, but you never knew which one it was if you got bitten).

But just knowing that every day I might see something spectacular made it all worth it.

I pushed myself harder physically than I ever had. But even with all of the health concerns and all of the hard work on the body, it was better than any adventure I had imagined. And even after hundreds of bug bites, I never got a tropical disease. I was forty-four years old and I climbed forty-four trees in sixty days.

I was living my dream to be close to animals and experience the Amazon. I was getting the deeper connection with nature that I had been asking for.  

And before I left the Amazon I was blessed with one more dream come true. To see a big cat in nature. The ocelot is one of the rarest sightings of a big cat in the wild. Yet for a couple of minutes, at less than fifteen feet away, I looked one right in the eyes. I was never scared- I just knew that I was being blessed by mother nature and how truly magical it was.