By Anna MacDonald

Today was the first day of transects after wild camp, which was a nice change. We were all put in to groups of 4. I was in a group with Dan Betney, Als and Kyana. Each group was allocated different surveys each day. Today we did the turtle survey which theoretically meant we would get a lie in. But that wasn’t going to happen. Most of us had breakfast around half six and the terrestrial transect groups left shortly after. Until ten we sorted our kit and relaxed, then we left.

Our group and John got into a peki-peki (motorised conoe) with Betty our Peruvian scientist. We floated for 5km downstream looking for turtles but no one apart from Betty actually saw them (They’re hard to spot!). After we had completed the survey we went for a refreshing swim and even managed to persuade Kyana to climb in! Betty also swam for the first time in the river and it was so enjoyable to see someone have that sort of new experience and appreciate it so much. We climbed back in and had a biscuit! Travelling back up river a baby dolphin decided to play with our boat.

Lunch was ready almost as soon as we got back – nice! For part of the afternoon people read, worked on projects and slept. We also had a drawing session with Dot. I drew a leaf and it was pretty appalling, but Emily’s and Dani’s were really good, amongst others. A really relaxing afternoon which was just what we needed after 5 days of wild camp. Around 7pm, after tea, I went to change and pick up the survey sheet for the caiman survey. We left at eight and spotted many incidents of ‘only eyes’ whilst travelling down river(Caiman eyes shine red when you shine a torch at them, but lots of them ducked under the water when we got close). On our way back we sped up and suddenly there were flying fish everywhere! Kyana was terrified and jumped in Als’s lap! The Peruvians found it hilarious and shined the torch at them, encouraging the fish to jump.

We arrived back at quarter to ten and by then I was more than ready for a good night’s sleep.