From June 7-21, 1995, David and Mo took nineteen alums and students to one of the most remote and least inhabited regions of the vast Amazon Valley, the Rio Catrimani, a meandering, eastward-flowing, milky tributary of a tributary of a tributary of the Amazon, halfway between Manaus and Venezuela. We ventured beyond the range of most settlers and all but the most intrepid travelers: 600 miles north of Manaus to within sight of the Guyana Highlands (the fabled "Lost World" of Arthur Conan Doyle). The voyage had special challenges - and unforgettable moments. At mid-journey, the Grinnellians were three day's journey from the amenities - and safety net - of the nearest town. Yet the Grinnellians had the opportunity to see animals that have vanished from most other parts of the Amazon: scarlet macaws, tinamous, tapirs, river otters, howler monkeys and nocturnal owl monkeys, which watched from the branches overhead, piqued by curiosity rather than fear. It was, in the words of one alum, "like a journey into Eden."
Photo: Elizabeth Rice '95 holding a three-toed sloth.
Photograph by David G. Campbell ©1995, all rights reserved.
