Sleeping in the Jungle

Up very early today for our 6AM take off on skiffs. We slept well except for the 1:30AM emergency siren that went off. We heard this morning that someone was smoking in their cabin, actually there are more smokers on this trip than we have been around in a long time, weird because there are no Europeans, but it is none of the “younger” people that smoke, it is all the generation above us.

Off we go at 6AM and we are travelling on the Yanallaquillo Creek, off the MaranonRiver. We venture off this river onto a little riverway that is again only accessible at this time of year when the water is high. What a fantastic time of day to be out, the sounds are amazing. We see our first pink dolphins this morning, but they are juvenile, which means they are grey, and I can't tell them apart from the gray ones ??

We again see spider monkeys, so fun to watch them jump from one tree to another. There is a mother carrying her baby on her back. We also see Tamarind monkeys, but these were really hard to spot. The driver stops our boat and asks us to just listen to the sounds for a couple of minutes, we could hear howler monkeys in the back ground, and can they ever howl! Our guide tells us they are about a mile away, and very rare to see, but we could certainly hear them!

We also see our first toucans, these seem so much smaller than the fruit loops guy, but the colors are great. Again we see parrots and parakeets, and a falcon that we didn't see yesterday. Really for a bird watcher this place is paradise, you just need to sit still for a while and you are amazed at the number of different birds that pass by, a good pair of binoculars are a must.

Bats

Back to our ship for 8AM and breakfast. After breakfast we headed out for our first walk on land. First off we had to take skiffs to a landing, we passed by kingfisher nests which were interesting, they build all along steep riverbank where they dig out holes. Many of the holes are not used, simply decoys from predators.

Then on to our land walk which is on a reserve, and first stop was a butterfly farm. This was our first dud of the week, we saw 2 butterflies, the farm is full of host flowers and really pretty, but kind of disappointing. We asked if we could just go back out to the wild, yesterday we saw hundreds of butterflies, many of them were landing on us and we got great pictures, so we're not too sure why we were here.

After the farm we walked down to a lake and went on rides in dugout canoes. There were 2 canoes latched together and 4 people sat in each canoe. Andre and I ended up with paddles, and the young guy that was supposed to be in charge of the boat ended up spending most of the time bailing water, very funny until I think about sinking in a canoe on the Amazon!!

We didn't see too many new things on this little trip, I'm not sure if the canoe ride was supposed to be the new experience. We did see some bats, they were amazing, this is the second time we saw them. In the day they sleep on a tree all in a line and just look like part of the bark on the tree trunk, you really have to be good to figure out they are not part of the tree.

The best though was seeing our first macaw, beautiful bird color, and it's voice was so loud you could hear it from pretty far away.

Getting out of the canoe I bent over and my sunglasses fell in the water, my sunglasses seem to go on many adventures. The guide tried to grab them, then a kid jumped in the water to try to get them, all I am thinking of is there are piranhas in there, they were not expensive glasses and they are half broken but he really wanted to find them. He did find them and then I wanted to give him a couple of dollars and didn't have any money, very funny as I was asking everyone if I could borrow a couple of dollars and no one had money with them, imagine all of us in the jungle and not having money? One girl did have 10 soles which I gave to him, I can't imagine what he could use it for, he probably would have rather had my backpack or a shirt or something, if it was nearer the end of the trip I would have given him that. I know he didn't do it for the money, and now I am afraid they will be knocking the glasses off every tourist that comes by so they can get a tip. 10 Soles works out to about $3.00, I am afraid I really over tipped.

We boarded the skiffs again and went up river for about 10 minutes in search of a prehistoric bird called the Hoatzin. What a strange looking bird, so worth the little sidetrack, I must read more about this on internet when we get back. From here back to the ship and lunch.

After lunch they announce that we will be leaving for the camp this afternoon and sleeping in tents tonight. It is about a 1 mile hike that we do very slowly and learn more about the flower and fauna, and hopefully find some toads. We also have to wear our gators, I am sure some of the group really want to see snakes, I am not one of them. I just finished packing up, we each have to carry at least 3 bottles of water, plus whatever else we need. Also the emergency sirens have gone off a couple more times, doesn't make me feel too comfortable.


We started off with a short skiff ride to shore. We all had to wear gators, think wearing leg warmers made out of heavy plastic in 40 degree weather with 190% humidity, not fun! Plus we had to have long sleeves on and long pants for the mosquitoes, the gators were for the snakes. We hiked approximately 1 hour to get to the camp where we would be spending the night. It was mostly under a canopy of trees, the trees were so tall and so lush that very little sunlight was getting through, but being in the rain forest that gets 120 inches of rain a year it was so green, and everything so big!

Along the way we were introduced to some of the trees, very little flowers grow here, it is just too hot. The one that I remember most clearly is the rubber tree, when the guide put a little notch in it rubber ran out of it like sap does from our maple trees. The rubber tree is what brought a lot of money into this area originally in the 1830's.

We also saw 2 different poison dart frogs, amazing colours. The guides picked them up and you could see the venom on their fingers, they said as long as they didn't have any open wounds it was fine to pick them up, not for me!

The camp itself was quite nice, every cabin from the ship had their own tent, and 2 tents shared a bathroom. Our tent had 2 cots, I was never so glad to not have to share a bed. These were large tents up on wooden platforms, I tried very hard not to think of the creepy crawly things that are out there.

Our Tent

We were given a little cooking lesson from the chef and served a traditional Peruvian meal, it was chicken and olives in rice with many spices, wrapped in leaves and boiled. We had a little laugh when they told us the chef from on board had come with us and give us the cooking lesson, the guy came out and he looked about 10 years old, turns out he was 18 but did he ever look young.

They had 3 different camp fires lit to help keep down the mosquitoes at the camp, but you didn't want to stand anywhere near them it was already so hot.

After supper we were out for a night walk to search for night bugs and other scary things. We saw lots of bugs, spiders, and some toads, geckos, definitely nothing I wanted spending in my tent that night.

Fire ants

Back from our walk and it is off to bed as we have another early morning tomorrow morning. I have no idea how to express just how hot and stinky we were. We have spent a good part of the day in leg warmers, walked more than 2 hours, and carried in our stuff for the night. The tents were beyond hot, they were a regular tent with an outside and inside zipper like we have at home, but then there was also a sheet all around the inside for I am not sure what. There was literally no air at all, and so hot and sticky. Our clothes were drippy wet from the day, and we knew we had to wear the same stuff again tomorrow, yuck. I was so impressed that we had flush toilets, but they were only screened in which made it interesting as ours was right beside the dining tent. I ended up sleeping OK, the night sounds were fantastic, tree frogs, crickets, spiders (yep they communicate), and I don't know what else. I could hear people speaking Spanish a couple of times so I am pretty sure they had guards for the night. Ready for tomorrow.