Peru Project – Day 9

Young Explorers Blog – Day 9

The first golden sunrays made our 6am wake-up a pleasure. After a quick breakfast, we went to watch hummingbirds bath under the waterfall of a nearby lake. Our guide Antero introduced us to the park rangers and summarized the origins of the Chaparri Reserve, which was started and run by the photographer Heinz Plenge. We then took a walk around the reserve, passing through many different types of plants. Antero also explained how they managed to photograph the first spectacled bears with the collaboration of the Frankfurt Zoological Society. Halfway through the day we stopped at a “snake exhibition” where they show people different kinds of snake species. Snakes aren’t kept for long there, the park rangers have a “catch & release” system to help people get in touch with snakes and change the wrong concept of snakes being a dangerous animal.

We were impressed by the intelligence and skills of spectacled bears. They climbed trees to reach fruits and managed to walk really fast through the rocks in the dry forest. Andrea collected some samples for a future research in the University.

As soon as we went down the hill, we had snack and started working right away. Our task was to build a fence around Chaparri’s plant garden. The first step was to carry cane from a hill to the garden. Then we had to cut it in 1.5 meters pieces to fix them all in the fence. Joel, one of the park rangers, taught us this building technique, so we were able to finish the task around 6 in the afternoon.

After five sweaty days, we all deserved a cold refreshing shower. Also Alberto was waiting for us with some pasta for dinner. Before sleeping, our guides showed us a movie about Chaparri and Heinz Plenge’s history. To end this productive day, we laid down on the top of our cars to watch the most beautiful night sky.