{"id":2187,"date":"2019-05-04T10:41:15","date_gmt":"2019-05-04T10:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wildff.org\/?p=2187"},"modified":"2019-05-04T10:41:15","modified_gmt":"2019-05-04T10:41:15","slug":"our-journey-to-the-las-piedras-amazon-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wildff.org\/our-journey-to-the-las-piedras-amazon-center\/","title":{"rendered":"Our journey to the Las Piedras Amazon Center"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is our second blog in the Las Piedras guest blog series. Check out Catherine\u2019s layers of complexity<\/a> to learn more about the design of the rainforest canopy.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After several hours, we saw the sign to our destination from the river. On our journey, we passed many areas where the forest had already been cut down and replaced by agriculture. We could easily see the dramatic difference from the river. The Las Piedras Amazon Center (LPAC) was founded \u201cjust in time\u201d to save this piece of land and keep the forest intact.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We unloaded our stuff and walked 10 minutes on a path through the forest to where we were staying. I was pleasantly surprised to find a rustic but well-designed eco-center – LPAC! It had one very large structure that included a communal kitchen, where we would eat and have meetings, as well as some designated chill areas with hammocks. For sleeping, there were additional structures with mosquito-netted bunk beds on raised and covered platforms. Compostable toilets, sinks, and cold showers, were all part of the package.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Jungle
Jungle trails at the Las Piedras Amazon Center<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A slice of heaven<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The forest completely encircled LPAC. It felt like there was almost no separation from it, and at the same time, it also felt safe. On our first tour of LPAC, Dave Johnston, the center’s founder, told us about their successes and challenges. These included changing the design of their original toilets and the difficulties of being powered entirely by a generator with a life of its own. What a humble and great attitude!
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Red
Red howler monkey in the trees above LPAC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A surprise awakening<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Waking up the first morning was a shock. Catherine, Liz and I shared a \u201cpod\u201d in the sleeping area. At 4:30am, a tremendously loud sound above our platform woke me and Catherine up. I thought it was an enormous wind. Catherine was sure it was Godzilla! We woke up Liz who had been to the forest many times and asked her what it was. She laughed. \u201cThose are howler monkeys and we hear them every morning\u201d. And just like that, they became our alarm clocks for the entire stay.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our activities throughout the week included early morning hikes before breakfast, night hikes with flashlights, and a choice of morning activities including visiting the famous macaw clay lick, contributing to local reforestation efforts by planting native trees, and patrolling with the rangers. Most of us were able to fit in lots of these opportunities, and you can learn more about our experiences in the blogs to come.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Red
Red and green macaws at the clay lick<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Conservation in the Amazon<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The afternoons were time for group meetings, lectures, and \u201crecovery\u201d from all the activities we were doing. We were also lucky to hear presentations from LPAC’s resident scientists, who are monitoring changes in the region over time, and weren’t shy about sharing their amazing camera trap footage! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were able to spend time with the ARCAmazon and LPAC teams to more clearly understand their challenges and hopes, and they’re working in partnership with WildFF. They were all wide open to receiving feedback, suggestions, and any other comments or ideas that could be of help. I think all of us felt that we wanted to give more if we could.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Liz was very insistent on reminding us that \u201crest\u201d of any kind is a wonderful \u201cactivity\u201d and simply listening to the sounds and being with the smells and rhythms of the forest including taking a nap was always an option. I think that many of us, for one reason or another, deeply enjoyed some of the \u201crest periods\u201d including showers, hanging out, getting to know each other better, or simply lying in a hammock. After all, our lives are so busy now, who wouldn’t relish the opportunity to disconnect from everything and be at one with nature?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is our second blog in the Las Piedras guest blog series. Stay tuned for the next one, which will showcase the role of predators in the jungle.
<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is our second blog in the Las Piedras guest blog series. Check out Catherine\u2019s layers of complexity to learn more about the design of the rainforest canopy. After several hours, we saw the sign to our destination from the river. On our journey, we passed many areas where the forest had already been cut down […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":2167,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nOur journey to the Las Piedras Amazon Center - Wild Forests & Fauna<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"After several hours, we saw the sign to our destination from the river. The Las Piedras Amazon Center was founded just in time to keep the forest intact.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/wildff.org\/our-journey-to-the-las-piedras-amazon-center\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Our journey to the Las Piedras Amazon Center - Wild Forests & Fauna\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After several hours, we saw the sign to our destination from the river. The Las Piedras Amazon Center was founded just in time to keep the forest intact.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/wildff.org\/our-journey-to-the-las-piedras-amazon-center\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Wild Forests & Fauna\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/facebook.com\/WildFF\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-05-04T10:41:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wildff.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/green-ocean-amazon-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1440\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"David Feldman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@WildForestFauna\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@WildForestFauna\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"David Feldman\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wildff.org\/our-journey-to-the-las-piedras-amazon-center\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/wildff.org\/our-journey-to-the-las-piedras-amazon-center\/\",\"name\":\"Our journey to the Las Piedras Amazon Center - Wild Forests & Fauna\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wildff.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wildff.org\/our-journey-to-the-las-piedras-amazon-center\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wildff.org\/our-journey-to-the-las-piedras-amazon-center\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/wildff.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/green-ocean-amazon-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-05-04T10:41:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-05-04T10:41:15+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wildff.org\/#\/schema\/person\/15f602fb4cbb74b8d3b4bb6c1c72194d\"},\"description\":\"After several hours, we saw the sign to our destination from the river. The Las Piedras Amazon Center was founded just in time to keep the forest intact.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wildff.org\/our-journey-to-the-las-piedras-amazon-center\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/wildff.org\/our-journey-to-the-las-piedras-amazon-center\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wildff.org\/our-journey-to-the-las-piedras-amazon-center\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/wildff.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/green-ocean-amazon-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/wildff.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/green-ocean-amazon-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1440,\"caption\":\"The rainforest covers 1 700 million hectares, an area the size of South America, and 6% of the Earth's surface.\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wildff.org\/our-journey-to-the-las-piedras-amazon-center\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/wildff.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Our journey to the Las Piedras Amazon Center\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wildff.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/wildff.org\/\",\"name\":\"Wild Forests & Fauna\",\"description\":\"WildFF protects and restores threatened forests through community based projects.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/wildff.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wildff.org\/#\/schema\/person\/15f602fb4cbb74b8d3b4bb6c1c72194d\",\"name\":\"David Feldman\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wildff.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9f8b75944d367007d0c968e50b049a37?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9f8b75944d367007d0c968e50b049a37?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"David Feldman\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/wildff.org\/author\/dfeldman\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Our journey to the Las Piedras Amazon Center - Wild Forests & Fauna","description":"After several hours, we saw the sign to our destination from the river. The Las Piedras Amazon Center was founded just in time to keep the forest intact.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/wildff.org\/our-journey-to-the-las-piedras-amazon-center\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Our journey to the Las Piedras Amazon Center - Wild Forests & Fauna","og_description":"After several hours, we saw the sign to our destination from the river. The Las Piedras Amazon Center was founded just in time to keep the forest intact.","og_url":"https:\/\/wildff.org\/our-journey-to-the-las-piedras-amazon-center\/","og_site_name":"Wild Forests & Fauna","article_publisher":"https:\/\/facebook.com\/WildFF","article_published_time":"2019-05-04T10:41:15+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":1440,"url":"https:\/\/wildff.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/green-ocean-amazon-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"David Feldman","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@WildForestFauna","twitter_site":"@WildForestFauna","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"David Feldman","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/wildff.org\/our-journey-to-the-las-piedras-amazon-center\/","url":"https:\/\/wildff.org\/our-journey-to-the-las-piedras-amazon-center\/","name":"Our journey to the Las Piedras Amazon Center - Wild Forests & Fauna","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/wildff.org\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/wildff.org\/our-journey-to-the-las-piedras-amazon-center\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/wildff.org\/our-journey-to-the-las-piedras-amazon-center\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wildff.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/green-ocean-amazon-scaled.jpg","datePublished":"2019-05-04T10:41:15+00:00","dateModified":"2019-05-04T10:41:15+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/wildff.org\/#\/schema\/person\/15f602fb4cbb74b8d3b4bb6c1c72194d"},"description":"After several hours, we saw the sign to our destination from the river. The Las Piedras Amazon Center was founded just in time to keep the forest intact.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/wildff.org\/our-journey-to-the-las-piedras-amazon-center\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/wildff.org\/our-journey-to-the-las-piedras-amazon-center\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/wildff.org\/our-journey-to-the-las-piedras-amazon-center\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wildff.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/green-ocean-amazon-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wildff.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/green-ocean-amazon-scaled.jpg","width":2560,"height":1440,"caption":"The rainforest covers 1 700 million hectares, an area the size of South America, and 6% of the Earth's surface."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/wildff.org\/our-journey-to-the-las-piedras-amazon-center\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/wildff.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Our journey to the Las Piedras Amazon Center"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/wildff.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/wildff.org\/","name":"Wild Forests & Fauna","description":"WildFF protects and restores threatened forests through community based projects.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/wildff.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/wildff.org\/#\/schema\/person\/15f602fb4cbb74b8d3b4bb6c1c72194d","name":"David Feldman","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/wildff.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9f8b75944d367007d0c968e50b049a37?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9f8b75944d367007d0c968e50b049a37?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"David Feldman"},"url":"https:\/\/wildff.org\/author\/dfeldman\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildff.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2187"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildff.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildff.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildff.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildff.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wildff.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildff.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildff.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildff.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildff.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}