Each species, big or small, has a part to play.
© Eva Boynton

Why Study Abroad Sticks Like Glue

My t-shirt was soaked in sweat from heat and humidity. Diverse shades of green were my landscape and horizon. Howling monkeys and buzzing cicada bugs echoed in the distance.

The Amazon rainforest was unlike any classroom I had ever known. What was once a distant place, the subject of textbooks, now came to life in accentuated brightness and flavor.

It became my home for a winter semester. And, as it changed the way I understood our interdependent and connected world, it answered the question, “Why study abroad?”

Wide rivers of the Peruvian rainforest not only provide a home to a variety of plants and animals,
but also serve as a main mode of travel for locals and visitors.
© Eva Boynton

Into the Peruvian Rainforest

Reaching Manú National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is not a simple task.

Hugging Bolivia, Puerto Maldonado
lies on Río Madre de Dios.

• We arrived by plane in Puerto Maldonado, east of Cusco and the Andes.

• After driving to Puerto Carlos, we took a boat across the Inambari River.

• Then we drove to Boca Colorado and traveled by boat about six hours up the Madre de Dios River to Manú River that meanders through the park.

Listening to the motor roar in his ear for all six hours, a local from Puerto Maldonado steered the boat, dodging debris to take our group of 13 students and two professors into our classroom.

The dynamic route offered direct experience with the geography and landscape that set the stage for later connections.

Watching for river otters, pink dolphins and
other wildlife along the river
© Rydell Welch

Biodiversity in Our Backyard

On the first day in the national reserve, we stepped into our new backyard with local researchers and guides René Escudero and Rufo Bustamante. We tiptoed on tree roots to avoid rain-flooded trails, ducked under leaves as big as my torso, and maneuvered around intricate spiderwebs seen at the last minute.

Buttress roots find nutrients in the soil and stabilize 200-foot trees.
© Eva Boynton

The rainforest was, in one word, alive! To put things into perspective, rainforests cover only 2% of Earth’s surface. Found within that 2% is half of all Earth’s plants and animals.

Manú National Park contains some of the greatest biodiversity on Earth. Consider the butterfly—Europe may have an impressive 321 species, but Manú National Park supports 1,300 species in an area 3% the size of France.

The canopy is home to 80–90% of the animals in the rainforest.
© Eva Boynton

From Big to Small, Everything Counts

With each step of our explorations, we uncovered secrets of the rainforest, including many interdependent relationships.

• One myrmecophyte (plant living in a mutualistic relationship with an ant colony) offers leaf pouches, called domatias, that serve as nests for particular ant species.
• The ants, in turn, offer the plant an army for protection against other insects that might feed on it.
  

  Ants trade protection for shelter.
  © Eva Boynton

Howler monkeys, awaking us each morning with bellowing sounds, seem like independent animals. But they, too, rely on other organisms within this rich world of biodiversity:

• The monkeys depend on leaves from the canopy for food.
• Trees in the canopy grow by extracting minerals from the soil with the help of fungi on their roots.
• The fungi rely on beetles that decompose litter on the forest floor, including the excrement of howler monkeys.

In the rainforest, when you look up, a howler monkey
munching on leaves may be looking back.
© Eva Boynton

Everything is connected in a cycle—monkey, tree, fungi, beetle, and back to monkey. As big as towering trees or as small as some of the 3,600 species of spiders, the organisms in the rainforest are connected by a web of interdependent relationships.

More Connections Under the Canopy

Study abroad plunged me into the vastness of the Peruvian Amazon and opened my eyes to countless scientific connections.

But there were personal connections, too, the kind that made me say “Oh, I see!” 

I found that I learned best when lessons were non-linear and sprang from discovery. Study abroad is immersive (so different from textbook lessons). The direct hands-on experience that it provides transformed the Amazonian world into my greatest classroom.

Hands-on interaction in the Amazon meant letting your senses make the discoveries:
listening, smelling, tasting, and touching.
© Eva Boynton

Study abroad, also challenged me to become familiar with something unknown and different. I saw, just as the organisms in the Amazon rainforest depended on each other, that I, too, fit into an interdependent world larger than my neighborhood. I made the connections, and my way of seeing changed in the process.

When people make personal discoveries like learning style, face challenges, and find their unique roles, they connect the dots of the diverse network that is our world. And that’s why a study abroad experience sticks to people like glue and stays with them for life.

The wall of forest signifies a moving, grooving, buzzing home to the world’s most diverse habitat.
© Eva Boynton

For more information on Amazon biodiversity check out Discovering Peru.

To learn about conservation of Peru’s rainforest visit Amazon Conservation Association. 

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

<\/h2>\n

Each species, big or small, has a part to play.
\u00a9 Eva Boynton<\/p><\/div>\n

Why Study Abroad Sticks Like Glue<\/h2>\n

My t-shirt was soaked in sweat from heat and humidity.\u00a0Diverse shades of green were\u00a0my landscape and horizon.\u00a0Howling monkeys and buzzing cicada bugs\u00a0echoed in the distance.<\/p>\n

The Amazon rainforest was unlike any classroom I had ever known. What was once a distant place, the subject of textbooks, now came to life in accentuated brightness and flavor.<\/p>\n

It became my home for a\u00a0winter semester. And, as\u00a0it changed the way I understood our interdependent and connected world, it answered the question, “Why study abroad?”<\/p>\n

Wide rivers of the Peruvian rainforest not only provide a\u00a0home to a variety of plants and animals,
but also serve as a main mode of travel for\u00a0locals and visitors.
\u00a9 Eva Boynton<\/p><\/div>\n

Into the Peruvian Rainforest<\/h4>\n

Reaching\u00a0Man\u00fa National Park<\/a>, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is not a simple task.<\/p>\n

Hugging Bolivia, Puerto Maldonado
lies on R\u00edo Madre de Dios.<\/p><\/div>\n

\n
• We arrived by plane in Puerto Maldonado, east of Cusco and the Andes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
  \n
  • After driving to\u00a0Puerto Carlos, we took\u00a0a boat across the Inambari River.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
    \n
    • Then we drove to\u00a0Boca Colorado and traveled by\u00a0boat about six\u00a0hours up the Madre de Dios River to Man\u00fa River that meanders through the park.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Listening to\u00a0the\u00a0motor roar\u00a0in his ear for all six hours, a local from\u00a0Puerto Maldonado\u00a0steered the boat, dodging debris to take our group of 13 students and two professors into our classroom.<\/p>\n

      The dynamic route offered direct experience with the\u00a0geography and landscape that set the stage for later connections.<\/p>\n

      

      Watching for river otters, pink dolphins and
      other wildlife along the river
      \u00a9 Rydell Welch<\/p><\/div>\n

      Biodiversity in Our Backyard<\/h4>\n

      On the first day in the national reserve, we stepped into our new backyard with local researchers and guides Ren\u00e9 Escudero and Rufo Bustamante.\u00a0We tiptoed on tree roots to avoid rain-flooded trails, ducked under leaves as big as my torso, and maneuvered around intricate spiderwebs seen at the last minute.<\/p>\n

      

      Buttress roots find nutrients in the soil and stabilize 200-foot trees.
      \u00a9 Eva Boynton<\/p><\/div>\n

      The rainforest was, in one word, alive<\/em>! To put things into perspective, rainforests cover only 2% of Earth’s surface. Found within that 2% is half<\/em> of all Earth’s plants and animals.<\/p>\n

      Man\u00fa National Park contains some of the greatest\u00a0biodiversity on Earth. Consider the butterfly—Europe may have an impressive 321 species, but Man\u00fa National Park supports 1,300 species in an area 3% the size of France.<\/p>\n

      

      The canopy is home to 80–90% of the animals in the rainforest.
      \u00a9 Eva Boynton<\/p><\/div>\n

      From Big to Small, Everything Counts<\/h4>\n

      With each step of our explorations, we\u00a0uncovered secrets of the rainforest, including many\u00a0interdependent relationships.<\/p>\n

      \n
      • One myrmecophyte (plant living in a mutualistic relationship with an ant colony)\u00a0<\/i>offers<\/span>\u00a0leaf pouches, called domatias, that serve as nests for particular ant species.<\/li>\n
      • The ants, in turn,\u00a0offer the plant an army for\u00a0protection against other insects that might feed on it.\n
        

        Ants trade protection for shelter.
        \u00a9 Eva Boynton<\/p><\/div><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        Howler monkeys, awaking us each morning with bellowing sounds, seem like independent animals. But they, too, rely on other organisms within this rich world of biodiversity:<\/p>\n

        \n
        • The\u00a0monkeys depend on\u00a0leaves from the canopy for food.<\/li>\n
        • Trees in the canopy\u00a0grow by extracting minerals from the soil with\u00a0the help of fungi on their roots.<\/li>\n
        • The fungi\u00a0rely on beetles that decompose litter on the forest floor, including the excrement\u00a0of howler monkeys.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
          

          In the rainforest, when you look up, a\u00a0howler monkey
          munching on leaves may be looking back.
          \u00a9 Eva Boynton<\/p><\/div>\n

          Everything is\u00a0connected in a cycle—monkey, tree, fungi, beetle, and back to monkey. As\u00a0big as towering trees or as small as some of the 3,600 species of spiders, the organisms in the rainforest are connected by a web of interdependent relationships.<\/p>\n

          More Connections Under the Canopy<\/h4>\n

          Study abroad plunged me into the vastness of the\u00a0Peruvian Amazon and opened my eyes to countless scientific connections.<\/p>\n

          But there were personal connections, too, the kind that made me say “Oh, I see!”\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

          I found that I learned best when lessons were non-linear and sprang from discovery. Study abroad is immersive (so different from textbook lessons). The direct hands-on experience that it provides transformed the Amazonian world into my greatest classroom.<\/p>\n

          

          Hands-on interaction in the Amazon meant letting your senses make the discoveries:
          listening, smelling, tasting, and touching.
          \u00a9 Eva Boynton<\/p><\/div>\n

          Study abroad, also challenged me to become familiar with something unknown and different. I saw, just as the organisms in the Amazon rainforest depended on each other, that I, too, fit into an interdependent world larger than my neighborhood. I made the connections, and my way of seeing changed in the process.<\/p>\n

          When people make personal discoveries like\u00a0learning style, face challenges, and find\u00a0their unique roles, they\u00a0connect the dots of the diverse network that is our world. And that’s why a study abroad experience sticks to people like glue and stays with them for life.<\/p>\n

          

          The wall of forest signifies a moving, grooving, buzzing home to the world’s most diverse habitat.
          \u00a9 Eva Boynton<\/p><\/div>\n

          For more information on Amazon biodiversity check out Discovering Peru<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n

          To learn about conservation of Peru’s rainforest visit Amazon Conservation Association.<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

          Comment<\/a>\u00a0<\/i>on this post below, or inspire insight with your own\u00a0OIC Moment\u00a0<\/em>here<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":null,"protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":21420,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[225,502,191],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nature-travel","category-peru-mappoints","category-study-travel"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21419"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40744,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21419\/revisions\/40744"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}