December 23
This morning started quite early, as we left the resort to arrive for an early canopy walk at Iwokrama, the forest where we stopped on our first day to tour the field station. We hiked about 20 minutes into the forest, welcomed by the low noise of howler monkeys (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howler_monkey).
We were up in the canopy for about 1 hour, which was beautiful, especially early in the morning (6:30am). We saw three toucans and a couple hummingbirds, however even that early was supposedly not early enough to see that many birds. The actual canopy walk infrastructure was constructed by a company based out of Vancouver, Canada, which supposedly does a lot of the canopy walks in the world. I know there are canopy walks in Costa Rica and Florida. The nice part about it is that they don't need to cut into the trees at all to install the platforms. It is all done with cables strung around the tree trunks with pieces of rubber under it to protect the tree. There are also cables going to the ground to ensure it is safe. See the pictures for how it is done. It was partially funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (www.acdi-cida.gc.ca/). CIDA works to support sustainable development, reduce poverty and provide humanitarian assistance in order to promote a more secure, equitable and prosperous world.
The tour guide was really good and had worked there for a long time. He told us about some of the natural remedies that come from the forest and about a couple shaman that he knew in the area who know a lot about them. He also told us that it is possible to do an overnight stay in the canopy in a hamock, which I thought sounded interesting. We headed straight back to Georgetown after that since it had started to rain a bit, and if we had been more delayed, we could have had problems getting through on the muddy roads.
December 24
To see a little bit of Georgetown, we went to the fish market in the early morning and then to the botanical gardens to see the manatees. At the fish market you are right down by the docks, and can pick fresh fish right from the fishermen. Then you can take it to someone to have it scaled and cleaned.We then headed to the botanical gardens as it started to rain. In a very large pond, there are a few manatee living. When people want to see them they have to sit near the shore and splash near the surface of the water and hold out grass for them. Then the manatees come up to the surface and eat grass right out of your hand. They are such gentle animals, and you can easily pet their heads. It was such a great time! Here is some information on manatees: http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/5960/manatee.html
You can also watch some video of me feeding the manatees.
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