We have now worked two full days with our second consultant, Amelia, with many pleasant surprises. She appears to be more comfortable and fluent speaking Omagua than last year, and has given us some good data. As of now, our mornings consist of a two-hour work session with her from 9-11AM, followed by a quick review session of what we've gotten data-wise, lunch, analysis and work in the afternoon, and dinner. We will likely up the time we spend with her beginning next week.
Today we took a day trip to San Joaquín de Omaguas, where we will be going for four weeks beginning June 20th -- our goal was to arrange various details of our stay: lodgings, transportation of some of our equipment and supplies, and making sure the people we intend to work with are in fact willing to work. To do this all in one day, we were at the taxi station by 7AM, which put us at the trail head slightly after 8AM. The hike is approximately two and a half hours. The unfortunate part about hiking in and out of the village in the same day is that our exit hike was in the heat of the afternoon, with a significantly more powerful sun than in the morning. I should have worn sunscreen...but I did have my stylish hat. The hike is overland, with various low trail areas that are almost entirely washed out and muddy. Needless to say, I broke in my new Tevas by completely submerging them in mud on some occasions. San Joaquín was hosting a local soccer tournament between various riverine comunidades, which takes place at the soccer field near the municipio. Because of this, most of the village proper was deserted, which made our entrance less of its typical fanfare. We arranged to have two rooms, as well as for the dueño of the building we stay in to bring some of our supplies with him in a colectivo (imagine a thatched bus-boat on a river) to San Joaquín. The day ended with a cramped van ride (packed with 19 people!) back to Iquitos, and majás (jungle pig-like thing) for dinner. ¡Hasta pronto!
Comments
Post a Comment