May 6

In the afternoon a tour guide showed us around town so we had a chance to see the school, three churches, the water well, and the lake. Yupakari is on top of a hill and the surrounding areas are often flooded so at times throughout the year it is like an island. After our hot tour, we took our laundry and sweaty bodies to the river to bathe and wash clothes.  The group was split in half and Katie, Casey, Ben, Scott Z., Mindy, Phil, Eric, and Shea went in two boats to search for caiman (an alligator) as well as other lizards along the river.  We were able to hold a tree boa, a few different sized iguanas, beetle, and baby caiman. We also saw many large caiman but they were too big to get into the boat. There were many giant lily pads with big white flowers. It started to rain during the trip and we were all drenched by the time we got back but it was definitely worth it! The rest of the group (Claire, Derek, Chelsey, Scott S., Michael, Ethan, Austin, and Dr. Larimer) went on a night hike with our tour guide, Mike.  We made our way down towards the lake, observing various frogs, toads, and beetles on our way. 

 View of the Rupununi on our way to find caiman

 We found a tree boa!

Baby caiman!

May 7

This morning we went to the primary school to meet the kids.  The children were in grades 1-6, with a total of 161.  We introduced ourselves and described Iowa, then enjoyed walking around the room and getting to know the children on a personal level.  We also delivered our school supplies donations to the Yupukari Library (est. 2005) and learned about the impact that the library has had on the village and schooling system.  Our guide then showed us the turtle pond at Caiman House and described the community efforts towards slowing the decline in turtle population.  We split into 2 groups again in the afternoon; half of us went out on the lake and took water samples to measure pH, conductivity, temperature, and to collect microscope samples while the other group went on a hike with the intent of getting pictures of spiders, but came back empty-handed.  In the evening, each group did the activity that they did not do the previous night, either caiman hunting or going on a night hike. 

By Katie, Claire, and Shea