The boat ride only takes a few minutes and drops us off on the shore of an island. We scramble onto the muddy bank, and into the dense vegetation. We follow the path and end up in a clearing overlooking the river and the exposed cliffs on the other side. We set up chairs and start watching for macaws. At first there is very little activity, but as it gets lighter we can see more and more macaws arriving. The first macaws we spot are the scarlet macaws, flying along in pairs, which then land on the huge trees. The vivid colors are just amazing.
The air is pierced by increasingly more raucous 'caws' as more birds arrive. Soon we see blue and yellow macaws, mealy parrots and other species arriving. The trees in front of us teem with birds, their colours dazzling in the early morning sunlight. Occasionally something startles the macaws and they fly off and land on another tree. A lot of time passes and then eventually a group of birds are spotted perching on the muddy banks. The birds seem to have been waiting for one to take the plunge, and then the clay lick is officially open.
Initially we see blue headed, orange cheeked, chestnut fronted and mealy parrots making making use of the clay lick. These are later joined by blue and yellow macaws, white bellied parrots and scarlet macaws. Apart from their beautiful colours, the birds look somewhat awkward, flapping and jostling for a spot on the clay lick. The reason the birds come for this clay lick is to supplement their sodium levels, and also to absorb toxins from their digestive system as a result of eating certain fruits. The birds continue to arrive, but gradually less and less are left on the clay lick until none are left.
In the meantime the guides also spot a chestnut eared arusari (an amazing Tuscan like bird), dusky headed parakeet, yellow crowned parrot and a white throated guan (wild turkey). A while longer and then unfortunately we have to return to the lodge for breakfast. While we wait for the boats, we spot some capybara footprints, a turtle in the water, another turtle in the water (which gets mistaken for an caiman, then a gecko), an amazing white throated toucan and a lineated woodpecker. Back at the lodge we enjoy a breakfast of fresh fruit, pancakes, cereal, rolls and most importantly coffee. We try a jungle passion fruit, tastes a bit like litchi! We have a short break until our next jungle walk at 9:30.
By the time we have to leave for the walk, the sun is high in the sky and the mercury is rising. We head into the jungle and almost immediately encounter white lipped pecari (amazon pig). They make a lot of noise, grunts, knocking/clicking sounds produced by their snapping their jaws. Things are a bit tense, the pecari is known to attack if threatened and their tusks make fearsome weapons. Lucio the guide tells of hunters who kill a pecari mother and take the piglet as a pet. Apparently the piglet imprints on the hunter after being held for a few minutes and will then follow the hunter wherever he goes. The down side is that the pig will attack any other human if it's captor is not around.
In the distance we can hear the noise of a howler monkey. Moving on we see some large ants, Lucio explains that these are army ants. If you leave these ants alone they will clean your home of any insect. There have been cases where an unattended baby has died when the ants are attracted to the moisture in the child's mouth and lungs (could not verify if this is true). Further along the track we find some ear mushrooms growing on a rotting log, Lucio explains these are edible (only one in the amazon) and taste like cows liver. Nice with rice ;)
The trail continues and soon we are ascending until we reach a vantage point over the river with the jungle and the Andes beyond. We pause for photos. We continue walking roughly parallel to the river.
Along the way Lucio points out a leaf cutter ant colony. Leaf cutter ants cut leaves and take them underground, where a fungus grows and decomposes the leaf, after which the ants eat the fungus. The ground that the ants dig up apparently sells for a high price and is used as part of cosmetics. We press on an reach another vantage point quite close to the macaw clay lick we saw earlier in the day. It's a hot humid day and we enjoy the break.
Lucio tells us some terrible stories of tropical illnesses that he has suffered including denge, ismanisus, bot fly. The bot fly is particularly nasty, it inserts an egg into your skin which then develops into a larva that lives there until it metamorphoses into a moth. He shows us the wound from one he has just removed, it looks very large and ugly. He says he even had one in his scalp once, and could feel it moving at night. We want to vomit. The amazon is not for sissies.
After the break we follow the trail and a bit later come upon a large web of social spiders. They grow together to create bigger web and share the catch.
A bit later on we encounter a solitary capuchin monkey, Luis explains that this one is most probably a young male striking off on his own as capuchins are usually social and travel and groups.
Below one of the trees we find some large holes, an anteaters home. We make our way back to the lodge for lunch.
After lunch and some chill out time we go for an afternoon swim in the amazon around 15h30. On the way to the port we see some howler monkeys, spider monkeys and a dusky tity. The howler is dangling his legs and arms over the branch, using only a tail for stability.
The spider monkeys are cartwheeling through the trees, using all their limbs and tails to swing from branch to branch effortlessly. The dusky titi is a smaller brown monkey.
Once at the port, the boat takes over to the stoney bank on the other side and drops us in an area of calmer water where the current is not so strong. We wade into the refreshing cool water with some trepidation. Stories of piranhas, sting rays, caymans attacking people fill our minds. The most terrifying story is of the candiru, a tiny fish that is attracted by urine and can swim up a person's urethra or anus. We checked google and it seems this is no urban legend - these things have been recorded to swim up penises... The guides assure us that if we wear tight fitting swimwear and don't pee in the river, we will be ok...
Soon we are all the way in without any problems. We swim a bit upstream and into the strong current which takes us downstream where we swim back to the stoney bank. The power of the the river is truly incredible and this is not even its highest level. We pause for photos before heading back, we have survived swimming in the amazon!!
We chill and have dinner, a chicken cooked in banana leaves with rice. Shortly after dinner we head back into the jungle for a night walk. We walk very slowly, carefully examining the forest with our torches. At one point Lucio asks us to turn off our lights and we are enveloped by impenetrable darkness. Its claustrophobic! The sounds of the forest come alive, but to our ears nothing sounded familiar. Having to spend a night out in the amazon alone without any light would be a terrifying experience. The lights go back on and we gradually start to spot creatures in the undergrowth. Tiny tree frogs, wolf spider eating a worm, other poisonous spiders, a brilliant orange snake, moths. The walk ends around 9pm and after a quick shower we are in bed to get enough sleep for another early start the next day.
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Location:Tambopata research centre, Amazon
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