Jan 17--Hike to La Mono

Tuesday January 17
El Suspiro

This morning we arose, packed up our tents and kit, and went back to the bakery courtyard for breakfast at 6, which consisted of hard boiled eggs, fruit, coffee and freshly baked rolls. The muleteers were gathering and all of the villagers and children were again on hand to see us off. A bronze-winged parrot flew into the patio. We learned that this parrot was semi-wild having been raised and released by Andreas. It lived in the wild but came back often to visit (and beg).

Andreas with Bronzed-wing Parrot

Several of the villagers thought to ride their mules or horses up to camp with those hired to take our stuff up (the food and provisions had gone up two days previously), but Susan explained that we could pay only those muleteers whom we’d hired to carry our things . . . but several managed to strap a bag to their mount and ride up anyway. You have to understand that this is a big adventure for these isolated villagers, and though they receive only $10 for their RT service, they make only about $100 a month normally.

One of the loaded mules--me, Susan, and Evelyng in background; children peeking out of the bakery window at the departing gringos

Kathy, Evelyng, Susan Wethington, and me--Ricardo and Donna in background--standing in front of the bakery.
We all have our arms folded waiting to see how the muleteers sort things out.

The muleteers in front of the schoolroom putting our baggage in plastric bags for loading onto the mules; rounding up the muleteers and pack animals

Bagging our bags for the pack animals; the teacher's house is just behind Ricardo; an additional muleteer wants to join the trek

I had taken some photos of the saddles and the fashion in which the mules were loaded, but these were lost when in Guayaquil I erased photos that I thought had been downloaded to a disc. If I receive photos from my fellow volunteers, I will try to show what the loads looked like.

We hire 14 muleteers and start our long hike about 9 am. The first three hours or so are not too bad as we are following the river, but then we turn into the hills and have mile after mile of climbing. Donna and I are hiking out front, Donna eager to “get this part of the trip over with,” while the rest straggle behind with our two “hikers’” mules (carrying our boots and extra gear). Eventually Donna has had enough and rides one of the mules. I continue on foot despite sore feet.

A bird seen along the way; have no idea what species

We can see row after row of hills fading off into the distance (left) but our  muleteer tells us that the one we are hiking to can not be seen from where we are.

The distant hills that we are hiking to

We pass a man and his mule and dog illegally cutting paja toquilla leaves for making panama hats. We encounter  skittish half wild horses and their foals searching for grass. We hear the shots of poachers. We hike the muddy, jungle trail over several ridges. Eventually, we descend a very long, steep slope. At the bottom, we find a casita on stilts and a small stream, the Mono River. Here we stop for lunch—bologna and cheese sandwiches on squished white bread pulled from our pack animals. Tastes delicious, and the break from hiking is most welcome. While we are eating, Alejandro and another Reserve Ranger come, their guns slung over their shoulders on rope lanyards. They are on their rounds and will stay the night at this casita.

Alejandro and another ranger at the Mono River bottom

After our lunch, we cross the river and climb “the wall,” a very steep and muddy trail.  It is far too steep to ride the mules, so Donna has to get off her mule and we find ourselves hiking together again. My feet and toes had been screaming on the downhill trail to the casita and now my calves complain of the uphill portion. Finally we come to our La Mono campsite on a ridge near the La Mono River (really a small stream), which we will use for wash up and toilet flushing water.

We have hiked for eight hours through the cloud forest, seeing all sorts of trees, flowers, orchids, birds, butterflies, frogs, forest crabs, and hearing howler monkeys. I am glad that we never encountered these monkeys because we are told that they rain down excrement and piss on those below. They did not sound at all like I had imagined . . . their calls more like distant deep, hollow reverberating drums than howls.

Bucket Shower

Our first campsite consists of a plank-sided cabin on stilts; a shower area behind black plastic and containing a big blue plastic barrel of river water, a high stand to place a basin on, and wooden planks to stand on; and a bathroom area of two three-sided huts with regular toilets in them and another barrel of river water for flushing the toilets. Absolutely no paper is ever thrown in any Ecuadorian toilet that I encountered, even at the fancy hotels and airports. It is placed in a waste bin near the toilet, and at our camp was burned periodically by the cook staff.

Under the casita the cooks, Amelia and Isadora,  have set up their kitchen and have stored all the food and gear, the food on makeshift shelves. Several of our Ecuadorian staff have set up their tents under the casita also, and there are 2 hammocks strung under it as well and a community wash basin for hand-washing and disinfecting. Near the casita is a long picnic table under an old palm-roofed shelter.  This is where we eat our meals.

El Mono; my tent was to the left on the porch at the top of the stairs

Blurry photo of the Earthwatch dining shelter

Isadora and Amelia in the kitchen and storage area; most of the bottles on the table to the right are filled with hummingbird nectar

Our camp: Place under El Mono where the staff ate and some camped; our stores shelves; the kitchen; the Earthwatch table under a grass roofed shelter nearby

When we get to camp, we find our bags, which the mules had brought up ahead of us, and set up our tents. There is not enough room for all of us upstairs, so Susan sets up her tent downstairs just under the edge of the casita. She and I and Cathy and Donna find ratty foam rubber mattresses in one of the upstairs rooms, so put these under our tents between the ground cloth and the tent floor. It is very comfortable, particularly for Susan who is sleeping upon rocks and roots. I have the best spot of all as I am set up on the open porch at the top of the stairs and not in one of the small upstairs rooms, one of which is home to a large wasp nest. I string a clothesline which everyone uses.

Once we’re set up, teams are selected to erect the 20 mist nets—10 on the dry west side of the camp and 10 further up on the moist east side of the camp. The Ecuadorian naturalists (Pascual and Mauricio), who have been up here for a couple of days ahead of us have already cut the bamboo net poles and used their machetes to hack out the net lanes. Jessica—Pascual’s girlfriend, cook’s helper, and  Ecuadorian learning to be a naturalist—Cathy, and I are put in charge of East nets #6 through  #10. 

Getting to our nets requires crossing the creek, climbing a bank, and, for nets #9 and #10, climbing up a hill.  Mauricio goes off into the forest and cuts us two poles, each with a “Y” at the end, for pushing the nets up the bamboo poles and opening them each morning. I decorate mine and write my name on it. Cathy and I also use our poles as hiking sticks to help us get up and down the muddy slopes. The Ecuadorians don’t seem to need such things.

We mix the hummingbird nectar, which Carlos will take farther up the mountain to the “pasture” this evening when he goes out collecting frogs and snakes. He goes out each night in the dark to collect his specimens.  Alejandro is not up the mountain yet to guide him, so Carlos goes alone this evening.  The following night he recruits Marlene to go out collecting with him. I would volunteer to go as this fascinates me and Carlos is very knowledgeable of all plants, insects, reptiles, and animals encountered, but he is planning on going all the way back down the wall and to the stream at the casita where the rangers are and where we had lunch.  My feet and legs would not thank me for such a long descent and climb again, particularly in the dark. Already I am going to lose three toenails—two on my right foot and the great nail on my left. Having lost the great nail on my right foot on last summer’s cross-country bicycle tours, my feet are looking pretty nasty.

Donna goes to the toilet, and suddenly we hear her yell: “SPI-DAH!” We all rush to the area to marvel at the large tarantula on the back of the toilet wall.  This will not be the last time we hear Donna’s “SPI-DAH!” alert. She seems to have an eye for spiders and encounters them everywhere. Large ones. I will always remember her call.

We take turns taking showers, asking for “agua calliente por favor” (hot water, please) from the cooks who heat teakettle after teakettle for us and empty a kettle into a tall yellow plastic bucket for each person. We then mix this hot water with cold from the barrel of river water in the shower area and take bucket showers. It’s a little tricky, but we all perfect a system that works for us and conserves as much water as possible. While in the shower area I find a beautiful yellow/white/black caterpillar.
  

Caterpillar to the right is the one I photographed; one on the left is the one from the Net I wish I'd seen; I never could find what kind of butterfly or moth either of these metamorphosed into

We eat by candlelight and make plans for tomorrow’s mist netting before going to bed, weary after a long, tough day. Just as we go to bed it begins to rain.  It rains all night.