week eight

When I first came on this trip, I told myself that it would be over soon. At times, it didn't feel like it would ever end. However, now that we're at the last stage of our trip, I feel strangely sad that our time here is coming to an end. Yes, at times this journey has seemed impossible, but every tropical rainstorm and whiff of rotting fish bait has ultimately only added to the experience. 

On our last day of fieldwork, we emerged from the forest dirty and bedraggled, but smiling, a far cry from our first, when I was too tired to even think about how breath-taking the Amazon truly is. On that last day, I no longer cared about the irritating mosquitos, the knee-deep bogs and the waist-high logs we had to clamber over. I only felt a profound sense of pride and wonder that I had been lucky enough to be able to see this incredible place.

Preparing to leave, we pack up bags and boxes and memories, snatching a last few precious moments with the friends we have made here. It's strange to even think about going home, but I am excited to see how the work we have done here translates into results and conclusions over the next year, and the impact this research could have in helping preserve this amazing place.

I'm so grateful for the opportunity to come here, and also so proud of what we have achieved here. And, after seeing so much of the natural beauty this place has to offer, from flowers and trees to macaws and jaguars (!!), I can only hope that more people join the fight to help preserve such a rich and diverse habitat as the Amazon. I certainly hope that, in our time here, we have helped make a difference.

I'd like to close with a quote that I think perfectly encapsulates our time in Peru - "In spite of the filthy surroundings we strike out with the butterfly-net and are glad to succeed in taking the animals without having seriously befouled the instrument. But even so we notice the remains of the disgusting meal on the surfeited animal, and with a feeling partly of loathing partly of pleasure we drop the butterfly into the bag. When opening it in the evening, however, our olfactory nerves once more remind us of the joy and sorrow of catching butterflies in the tropics." (Bernard D'Abrera)
 
Mahika