Meet the Earthwatchers

The Earthwatch gang and their guides, minus Fino and Alice Chaung: (Back L to R) Susan Walker, Sheila Champion, Richard Amable, Kathy Schroer, Dean Bloodgood, Diana Foster, Jhin Solis, Joan Chatterton. Dean Bloodgood, the husband of my good friend, Valerie, flew down and back with me. He was the oldest on the Expedition at 74.

Puerto Maldonado, a short distance from Cusco at the beginning of the eastern slopes of the Andean Mountain range, is where the tropical Amazonian jungle begins. It is in a region bursting with biological  life. This explosion of animal and vegetable life is caused by the proximity of the Andes range, which, on one hand ,offers a certain protection owing to the relative inaccessibility caused by the wall of mountains and, on the other, provides a large quantity of nutrients gathered in the highest parts and carried by the rivers, providing the enormous food chain that begins in the Amazonian basin almost a thousand meters below. This tropical Amazonian Basin adjacent to the Andes is the region of the world in which can be found the greatest numbers of animal and vegetable species, which concentration by square mile reaches unique levels.