Expect Simple Meals Explorers use a lot of energy. So they need food that’s filling. It must be easy to carry and cook. Some trips last weeks, so the food also must last a long time. T at rules out a lot of fresh food. It goes bad too quickly. One kind of food is just right, though. In the field, “I eat a lot of plain rice,”


Cooke says. It gives her energy. It’s a little boring, though. So, like most explorers, she has a fantasy meal. It’s what she wants to eat when she returns home. Halfway through a trip, she starts thinking about this meal. She dreams of juicy cheeseburgers. T ere are no cheeseburgers in the rain


forest. As a special treat, though, “you might eat a little chicken, sometimes,” she says.


Keep Cool No matter what challenge Cooke faces in the rain forest, she can’t panic. She learned this lesson the hard way. While hiking in the Amazon, she suddenly realized she was no longer on the trail. T en things got worse. Cooke heard a


crash. A tapir charged out of the forest. T ese animals are strong. T ey can run very fast. And they oſt en don’t like visitors. Cooke froze. Yet she felt a little thrill.


Tapirs are “very secretive and hard to spot,” says Cooke. “It was incredibly frightening, but I knew how lucky I was to be seeing it.” T e tapir ran past her and disappeared.


Cooke felt awe and relief. She was still lost, though. She tried to retrace her steps. Finally, she found the trail. “I don’t think I’ve ever been so relieved,” she says. Keeping calm may have saved her life.


14


You’re the Guest T e rain forest is the tapir’s home. It’s home to a lot of other animals, too. Cooke is just visiting. She was reminded of this on one trip. She stayed in a hut. She soon discovered that she wasn’t alone. She found cockroaches in her sleeping


bag. She shook them out of her gear and her clothes. T en one day, the bugs found her toothbrush. T ey crawled all over it. Cooke took a deep breath. She reminded


herself that the bugs belonged there. Her job was to observe and not disturb. Her toothbrush clearly was in the bugs’ way. Putting it away solved that problem.


Listen to Your Teammates Preventing some problems takes teamwork. Recently, Cooke traveled to South America. She wanted to find the world’s most toxic frog. “T is frog has enough poison to kill 10 or 15 men,” Cooke says. “You have to wear gloves, or you’d be dead in 3 minutes.” Cooke and her team spent more than a


year carefully planning this five-day trip. “For 25 years, I have wanted to see this creature,” Cooke says. When she finally did, “I burst into tears. I went to wipe away my tears, when my entire team yelled ‘STOP!’” She had poison from the frog on her glove. One touch to her face could have been fatal. Being an explorer is a tough job. T e


food is bad. T e bugs are creepy. T e danger can be deadly. Cooke says it’s all worth it. Her trips have allowed her to spread the word about the threats frogs face. She doesn’t mind roughing it, just as long as she remembers her explorer’s lessons.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24