All aboard! Headed for the Amazon

Update One

AmazonQuest is an interactive expedition developed by Classroom Connect. For five weeks a team of scientists and explorers will examine one of the most unique and most threatened environments on Earth: the Amazon River basin.

Dan, Tom, and their guide Arturo land at camp at the end of the first day.

Río Azul, State of Cuzco, Peru -- Today I boarded perhaps the only flight on the planet that allowed a passenger to carry a spear aboard.

The aircraft was a Russian-made Kazan MI-14 helicopter and the passenger; a copper-skinned, muscled Machiguenga Indian named Carlos Tishibo. He and three of his fellow tribesmen joined the AmazonQuest team as we flew from Cuzco to Rio Azul, where we'll paddle through uncharted territory of the Peruvian Amazon for the next 10 days. Carlos' spear is for fishing. We do, after all, have to eat.

From my seat in the helicopter, I pressed my face against the window and watched the Amazon River form. From brown, terraced mountaintops, trickles of water flowed downward where they merged to etch streams into the foothills. By the time we reached our destination, the snaking Rio Azul, enough streams had merged to pave a 500 yard- wide swath through the jungle. There, on a spit of beach, our helicopter deposited all of us and over 1,000 pounds of equipment. Then it took off, whipping up a maelstrom of debris and disappeared over the treetops, leaving us very much alone.

VIDEO View the team's daily movie feature on the AmazonQuest site Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)   EXTRA INFORMATION AmazonQuest  from Classroom Connect

I'm writing this at 6:47 pm, sitting cross-legged in a domed tent on the river's bank. A very black night has fallen already and heavy clouds float in over the canopy, hiding the smiling sliver of a moon. The day's heat still lingers heavily. Sweat drips off my nose and splatters onto the keyboard. Next to my tent, the jungle chatters with life--only a small portion of which I recognize: cicadas' mechanical chirps, a trumpeting frog, and some dreadful bird that sounds like a screaming baby. The rest is all a biologist's wonder--or a newcomer's nightmare. Vampire bats, poisonous snakes, and insects whose bite will scar you for life-all Amazonian residents-- make noise too.

Our Amazon adventure got off to a bad start. A weight miscalculation forced us to charter another helicopter (for $4425.00) and only after we landed, did our guide realize that we were two canoes short. This could have stranded us if it weren't for Carlos and his friends, who went right to work to solve the problem. In the time it took us to eat our lunch, they felled four enormous balsa trees, debarked the trunks and nailed them together with hardwood pegs they made from a palm tree. The resulting raft now serves as a barge of sorts and will float our food down river. Still, piles of our bulging luggage -- including this computer and the satellite dishes, teetered above the canoe's bow. We spent the better part of the afternoon out of the canoes--dragging them over the river's bottom. The good news: We made it four kilometers. The bad news: We have 86 more to go.

Dan carries a load of fresh eggs to the raft that will serve as a barge to float the teams food down river.

But AmazonQuest isn't trying to prove how tough we are. We're here as part of a bigger team that includes you, our online collaborators. We'll be collecting evidence and gathering facts about the key issues, so that young people can act on those issues. On the Rio Azul, for example, we're gathering material and stories to present to Peru's president, Alejandro Toledo. We hope that he will proclaim this area a park and protect it from loggers, miners, and oil prospectors. Later, we'll investigate a gas pipeline planned for another pristine part of the Amazon, we'll look at the real benefits of eco-tourism and we might even help the U.S. Ambassador to Peru, John Hamilton, decide how to wage war on drugs at their source.

To accomplish these goals, I've recruited the best of the best. Anthropologist John Fox, photographer David McClain, technologist Nick Buettner, videographer Tom Adair, video editor Bernadette Pampuch, and Flash artist Nate Strandberg are all back from MayaQuest. New to the expedition is the young and talented Emily Sohn, who left her post at U.S. News and World Report to join us. A science writer by profession, she has also taught school and studied environmental science. She'll replace Stephanie Pearson (who left to become senior editor of Outside magazine) in writing Nature Notes, Creature Feature, and the ever-popular Gross and Disgusting. The most important part of the team, however, is you, our online collaborators. With out you directing our team, studying the issues, and taking action, AmazonQuest's mission will fail. So please, PLEASE, join us. Let's show the world that young people can make a difference.

Paddles Up!

Dan Buettner