FA Students Explore the Heart of the Amazon

In August, a group of nine FA students traveled with environmental science teacher Alanna Yannelli and OLRC director Dylan Harry to an Earthwatch research station in the Peruvian Amazon. After landing in Iquitos, students spent a day touring local museums to learn about indigenous and colonial history before traveling by bus and boat to the confluence of the Marañón and the Ucayali, where the Amazon River begins.

For the next eight days, students called the Rio Amazonas home. Once a 19th-century steamship built to transport rubber, Dr. Richard Bodmer transformed the vessel into a floating hotel and research station, and it has served since the 1980s as a hub for wildlife research and conservation in the Peruvian Amazon. Each day brought a new adventure as students traveled the river to document dolphins, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals following established research protocols. Beyond their scientific work, they visited local communities, enjoyed traditional Peruvian meals, and even caught piranhas with rudimentary fishing poles. Wildlife highlights ranged from hundreds of squirrel monkeys and a few pygmy marmosets to an anaconda, a Brazilian rainbow python, scores of fishing bats and caimans, and innumerable tropical birds.

Reflecting on the experience, OLRC director Dylan Harry remarked, "The Amazon is unlike anywhere else on Earth. Being immersed in its biodiversity and witnessing our students' awe and curiosity was a reminder of why conservation work is so vital."