WEEK TWO 7/14-7/21 Cadena
Can society thrive without always understanding every detail?
Everything and nothing is significant. Finding happiness must be true to oneself. We must be one with each other, nature and our own souls. Everything I expected and more greets me with each new day in Peru. This opportunity helps me grasp new adventures and reach out beyond personal borders. There is so much to learn and I am lost in thoughts filled with a million questions. After a few fireside chats with Dr. John Janovec, who is one of the smartest men I will probably ever meet, I realize that the bigger image is mas importante (is more important). My mind and body are tired of focusing on the minute details that clog day to day life and I am ready to fully escape into the gateway of Peru.
We head out for Cadena, which will be our first of two expeditions, where we will spend four days. Cadena is a small town located forty five minutes outside of Quincemil and this expedition will act as an introduction to botany and the jungle. Currently Andes to the Amazon is in the process of analyzing the biodiversity for future transect sites. Transects are the official scientific data collection method for observing vegetation. 2mx50m plots are set up and all vegetation is recorded to a GPS location as well as the height, and surrounding habitats. In Quincemil and the surrounding area there are around 180 families of plants, 2000 genre, and 6000 species. Needless say the biodiversity is immense. As one of the four students interning here this summer, my goal is to be able to identify at least 20 families. Compared to Colorado, where I can identify plants to their correct Latin species, here the vegetation is so intense I almost feel overwhelmed.
Our days in Cadena are spent with the local school children, to whom John teaches a lesson on basic botany, a six hour walk up the river, and another all day hike up through the selva tropical (tropical rainforest). Here language is a systematic notation. We are learning about botany, we are learning Spanish, we are learning Latin plant names, and we are learning how to identify plants in Spanish as well as English. As we explore the forest we learn not only about the plant families, but about how 60 km away from Quincemil there are the richest gold mines in the world, how ecosystems based on “dominacia’ work, and all about the taxonomy of plantas. The people here are full of knowledge and there is so much we have yet to learn. But even as I engulf myself in the “Gentry Bible,” a 900 page plant identification book written by Alwyn H. Gentry, I must remember to always see the bigger picture. I remind myself always look up from the plant on the ground, in order to see the larger habitat it is part of. It is important to be aware of the larger world that we live in and the connection that binds us all together.
Everything and nothing is significant. Finding happiness must be true to oneself. We must be one with each other, nature and our own souls. Everything I expected and more greets me with each new day in Peru. This opportunity helps me grasp new adventures and reach out beyond personal borders. There is so much to learn and I am lost in thoughts filled with a million questions. After a few fireside chats with Dr. John Janovec, who is one of the smartest men I will probably ever meet, I realize that the bigger image is mas importante (is more important). My mind and body are tired of focusing on the minute details that clog day to day life and I am ready to fully escape into the gateway of Peru.
We head out for Cadena, which will be our first of two expeditions, where we will spend four days. Cadena is a small town located forty five minutes outside of Quincemil and this expedition will act as an introduction to botany and the jungle. Currently Andes to the Amazon is in the process of analyzing the biodiversity for future transect sites. Transects are the official scientific data collection method for observing vegetation. 2mx50m plots are set up and all vegetation is recorded to a GPS location as well as the height, and surrounding habitats. In Quincemil and the surrounding area there are around 180 families of plants, 2000 genre, and 6000 species. Needless say the biodiversity is immense. As one of the four students interning here this summer, my goal is to be able to identify at least 20 families. Compared to Colorado, where I can identify plants to their correct Latin species, here the vegetation is so intense I almost feel overwhelmed.
Our days in Cadena are spent with the local school children, to whom John teaches a lesson on basic botany, a six hour walk up the river, and another all day hike up through the selva tropical (tropical rainforest). Here language is a systematic notation. We are learning about botany, we are learning Spanish, we are learning Latin plant names, and we are learning how to identify plants in Spanish as well as English. As we explore the forest we learn not only about the plant families, but about how 60 km away from Quincemil there are the richest gold mines in the world, how ecosystems based on “dominacia’ work, and all about the taxonomy of plantas. The people here are full of knowledge and there is so much we have yet to learn. But even as I engulf myself in the “Gentry Bible,” a 900 page plant identification book written by Alwyn H. Gentry, I must remember to always see the bigger picture. I remind myself always look up from the plant on the ground, in order to see the larger habitat it is part of. It is important to be aware of the larger world that we live in and the connection that binds us all together.
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