Last week students decided that we should paddle down the Pacaya River, and then continue our journey down the Yanayacu River. Our team is excited about your choice. We have been paddling hard and learning a lot as we travel down the Pacaya River.

The river is very flooded and we rarely see dry land. At night we have two choices, we can search for dry land and set up camp in the forest, or we can travel to one of the 6 ranger stations spread out along the Pacaya River. It usually takes us about two days to paddle from one ranger station to the next, so we end up camping in the forest about half the time.

When we camp in the forest animals often visit our campsite at night. Last night we had a Paca visit our camp. We also found Tapir tracks and jaguar tracks about 10 feet from where I hung my hammock. There are ants everywhere in the forest, and food bits that we happen to drop during dinner are carried off by the thousands of ants and other insects while we sleep.

When we are not camping in the forest we stay at Ranger Stations built on stilts along the river. The ranger stations are very basic. They do not have electricity or running water, but they provide us with a dry place to lay our heads, and the rangers that live at the stations can teach us a lot about the flooded forest.

Yesterday, one of the rangers took Patrick, Warren, and me along when he went out to check his fishing nets. We learned a lot about how people gather food in the flooded forest, and we harvested about 25 fish. Many of the fish were Piranha. You have to be very careful when you take Piranha out of the net because they have very sharp teeth. Warren dropped his guard for a second, and a Piranha bit off the tip of his finger. When we returned to the ranger station Patrick and Anna bandaged his finger up, and he is doing fine now. Piranhas rarely bite humans, but when they are being taken out of a net their sharp teeth can inflict a nasty wound.

Keep Exploring!

Dave

We haven't gotten very many responses to Friday's Daily Dilemma (maybe because many of you are on Spring Break). We had asked for suggestions about keeping our lower bodies active to compensate for all the time we're spending paddling. One thing you recommended is to go swimming occasionally. That is a great idea because it certainly gives us a chance to move our legs around and cool off at the same time. Thanks for your responses. If you come up with any more ideas, we'd love to hear them.

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