In this post I am going to upload photos and short comments about the ongoing fieldtrip to Beni, Bolivia, of the MSc students from the Institute of Geography at Bern University. The students arrived in Trinidad the 11th of August and will leave on the 21st.
Day 1 - 11th of August. Visit to the Museum Kenneth Lee in Trinidad.
Day 2. Excursion to the Mamoré river
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| Leaving the port |
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Describing and sampling a paleosol sequence outcropping along the Mamoré River bank
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Day 3. Visiting the Indigenous community of Bermeo
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Before playing football...
...and, with a BFC like outfit, Bermeo won :-) |
Day 4 and 5.Community of Ibiato, on a paleo levee-backswamp of the Grande River
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| Excavating and analyzing a transect of 5 soil profiles along a paleo Grande River lavee-backswamp catena. |
. Day 6. Meeting with indigenous leaders and visiting experimental raised fields
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| Doña Berta Vejarano Congo, leader of the indigenous march against the construction of the road across the TIPNIS indigenous territory and natural reserve, and Pedro Nuny Caity give a talk about the political situation of the indigenous people in the Bolivian Lowlands under the government of Evo Morales |
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| Visiting experimental raised fields built by Oxfam GB in a suburb of Trinidad, now managed and subsidised by Trinidad City Council |
Day 7 - Sunday, day off at Laguna Suarez, one of the many
rectangular and oriented lakes found in the Bolivian Amazon.
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| Laguna Suarez, about 5 km from Trinidad |
Day 8 - In the the morning visit to the Estancia La Chachra, where we learned about the extensive cattle ranching that is practiced in the Beni. We also went on a little safari.
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| Selecting the cows by size and checking if they are healthy |
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| A little safari along the road inside La Chacra |
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| One of the many alligators living in La Chacra, in the ponds that were excavated to take the material used to build the road |
In the afternoon we went to visit on of the biggest pre-Columbian monumental mounds: El Cerrito
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| Our guide invited us to have toronjas (a kind of sweet grape fruit) on the way back from the mound |
Day 9 - Visiting the indigenous community of San Miguel del Matire and the CIPCA cacao project
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| Olver Vaca from CIPCA explains to us how the cacao project works |
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| Visiting the facilities in San Ignacio the Moxos where the indigenous cacao is processed |
Day 10 - Last day - We went fishing in the Mamoré
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| Fishing from the boat with "lineada y anzuelo" |
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| The fish we caught |
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| Preparing the fish at the restaurant "La choza del Pescador" |
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| And ready to eat!! |
This is the end of the 10 day field trip in the Beni - Bolivia. I hope you enjoyed it! See you in Bern!!
