Tiputini Biodiversity Station, Ecuador, Western Amazon

This is a story of loss. I had the chance to visit the Tiputini Biodiversity station twice, once for pleasure and adventure and the next time after pitching an assignment. It is long journey to the middle of nowhere. Five hours under a plastic tarp down the Amazon in a long canoe, Three hours over bumpy jungle roads, in a pick up truck then back in the canoe. The journey is well worth being able to experience one of the most remote and diverse ecological environments on the planet. It is spectacular. While there I spent the day following a column of army ants and a troop of monkeys with one of the visiting researchers, and somehow lost my film pack in the jungle. A small black fanny pack out there somewhere that I was sure would never be found. Two weeks later I got a phone call in Quito, the capital of Ecuador where I was staying that they had found my film and were sending it to me with the next return trip form the station. I was saved. After making it back to the states I went to my trust worthy local professional lab to have my booty processed. Two hours later I got a call saying that a technician had inadvertently destroyed 90% of my film. I thought of Robert Capa, the only photographer at D-day who had most of his film from that deadly day also ruined by a lab rat. Life cannot be repeated and I felt like I had lost a child. This is one of the few shots I salvaged. Here is a link to the Tiputini website for more info on this amazing place.