Cams B'day (Trap Day)
Trip Start
Jan 08, 2007
1
20
139
Trip End
Oct 01, 2007
Tena/Amazonia, Ecuador
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
The first trap is for catching "Yutu" a kind of jungle turkey, it works by enticing the bird through one of the two entrances with... yep you guessed it YUKA! The trap is very able of killing Yutu outright when the tensed branch is released. If not the trap works just as well as a cage with a second opportunity to kill on the opposite end if the bird tries to escape.
Our second trap this time meant for both Yutu and rabbits required the felling of two trees(of different size) to make an even more violent version which, works under the same principal as the first. This trap is even simpler and just uses the immense weight of the middle log to crush anything foolish enough to wander under it in search of a free meal.
The rest of the day got used up on a very clever system for catching small fish to be used in a soup for our dinner. The best way to accomplish this in a relatively wide, yet shallow river is to construct various dams spanning the river in order to slow the flow of the water. This were built in the obvious way with large stones, then packed with a carpet root gathered by Elisia (Victors wife). Further downstream another dam was built and this was plugged with large flat leaves leaving behind a small channel in the center to be placed a small fishing basket for collection. The next step is to gather up the roots of a certain plant(toxic to fish) and mash these up with a stone before rinsing them in the low water on one side of the of our first dams. The clouds of milky white water carried away are enough to knock out any fish unlucky enough to be caught in its path. Finally we spent some time collecting the various small silver fish, eel like things and tiny stone hugging sucker fish which, hide under rocks before hearing a huge storm in the distance and rain stopped play. Cam enjoyed her day after the trap building in a fit of face painting brought on by the discovery of a nut pod with bright red powdery paint like insides which, she proceeded to smear all over herself.
After our fish soup supper the 5 of us(Cam, Dan, Havier, Renan and I) sat down by the river with a fire, Ron and Ipod. Cam had a wonderful jungle Bīday- one to always remember although of course somehow left yet another camera in a position where it could be destroyed. This time it was in the river but after 2 days in the sun returned to life!(bloody hell woman every time!)
Comments
Very jealous
Hey Steve, just been reading your log as I sit here in a swealtering Internet shack in Nadi. Just killing time before I fly home from Fiji tonight and wishing I could stay away longer. I'm very envious as it looks like you are having a great time and I have to go back to freezing England.
Fascinated to hear about the work with the animals, must be very rewarding and maybe a little more risky than the rabbits and badgers etc that I am used to!
Will try and keep up when I get home, take care and enjoy every minute.
Jim.