We were up for an early morning walk and excursion on the lake. We walked fairly quickly to the lake and were rewarded by having the lake to ourselves and nice reflections of the jungle. Pepe found an oar hidden in the jungle, cleaned up the boat for us and we were away, paddling quietly around the lake. Among the highlights were some small bats, neon blue damsels, piranhas & turkey type birds. As everyone else started to arrive, we left and wandered our way back to the lodge, stopping to view things along the way, These included a walking tree, which can move up to 50 centimetres in a year, howler monkeys, leaf cutting ants and several birds.
When we returned to the lodge, we gathered our belongings and made our way back to the boat to head up river to the Tambopata Research Centre (TRC) – a four hour journey. The guides were very good at pointing out numerous birds to us as well as several capybaras along the way. The weather was kind to us and with the sun on our backs, we even managed to have a nanny nap along the way.
At the TRC, we unpacked our bags and were amazed to discover that we have limited access to the Internet, despite only having power for a few hours a day. We spent the remainder of the afternoon / evening relaxing around the bar, chatting with other guest, the majority of whom seem to be Canadian, and recharging camera batteries. After dinner, one of the research students gave us a lecture on macaws.
Friday 25th May
Our guide had told us yesterday that the behaviour of the swallows was an indicator for bad weather & he was right. It is now pouring with rain, despite being the start of the dry season. We had planned to go to watch the macaws at the clay lick but that will have to wait until tomorrow when hopefully the weather improves. Instead we had a leisurely start to the day and then after breakfast, we donned our rain gear & headed off into the rain forest. It was very pleasant walking and after all it is the ‘rain’ forest so we expect to have rain. We saw several macaws including one which had been hand reared and released came down quite close to say hello. The highlight of the morning was Pepe finding a very pretty green curare (poison dart) frog. The vivid green stripes on its back were a warning sign to keep clear.
Mid afternoon we set out for another walk. This was fairly uneventful, but we did see spider monkeys (too far away to photograph) and a few macaws. Darkness fell while we were still walking so we ended up making our way through the mud in the dark hoping that we didn’t slip. We did see a large wolf spider sitting on a leaf and some grasshoppers.
After another delightful meal and comparing stories from the day and travels in general, we retired for the night hoping for better luck with the weather tomorrow.
Saturday 26 May 2012
We were awake at 4:30am to go to watch the macaws at the clay lick. Our viewpoint was a bank on an island opposite the clay lick where the birds come to eat the clay which is an essential part of their digestive process. We took up positions on camp stools and the staff gave us hot tea & coffee and biscuits. About half an hour into the wait, one of the guides was horrified to see a poisonous snake curled up about a metre in front of his feet. We all took photographs from a respectable distance and then, rather than move us away, the guides quite unceremoniously poked and prodded the snake until it headed off into the weeds at the edge of the water. After much thrashing of the bushes to make sure that it didn’t return, we all settled back down again. Although we were assured that the snake had not been hurt, we felt bad about the way it had been treated.
The macaws all gathered in the trees on the opposite bank and prepared for their morning ritual. However a combination of misty weather and a large vulture circling around obviously made them feel unsafe so after some fly bys, they moved on.
We returned for breakfast and said goodbye to the other guests who were leaving. We still have another 2 nights here and it appears that for the next 24 hours at least we will be the only guests.
After breakfast we headed back to the island to see if the macaws had returned. Quite a few had gathered and we watched them through the telescope that our guide had brought with him. We also attempted to take photos through the telescope, however, while the image was enlarged, the end result was not very successful. Again the macaws disappeared without having fed on the clay. Meanwhile we were amused to see a turtle climb out of the water onto a caiman, which we assume it had mistaken for a log.
We then walked further along the island to a pond where we watched a kingfisher. A small caiman was sunning itself on the bank and several other birds flittered by.
Back at the research centre, with no one else around, the Internet was reasonable so Jak was able to football scores and the Formula 1 starting grid positions.
After lunch we ventured out again and spent most of the afternoon following the convoluted series of tracks that exist in the reserve area around the Research Centre.
Amongst the highlights was finding a chicken tarantula’s burrow and eventually enticing it to appear by waving a little stick in its hole. These large spiders can attack and kill a small bird. The female is much larger than the male and the toxin from its bite is poisonous but not usually fatal.
We also encountered four capuchin monkeys that were feeding on fruit/berries high in the tree-tops above us. They flit from tree to tree, often jumping relatively large distances and thus getting a photograph of any quality is highly problematic.
The sound of chattering macaws permeates the tropical rainforest but sighting the birds is often more difficult due to the extremely high density of foliage forming the canopy of the forest. However, we did manage to observe two pairs of scarlet macaws that were busily protecting their nesting sites (hollows in the tree trunks) high above the ground. Even though the nesting season is well past, the macaws jealously guard their territory as sites are hard to come by. To overcome this shortage the rangers have attached sections of 20 cm diameter PVC pipe to the upper parts of trees and the macaws are adopting them as if they were the genuine article.
One feature of this encounter with the Amazon rainforest is the incredible diversity of butterfly (and moth) life. The colours, shapes and sizes of the butterflies give the photographer a major treat.
Sunday 27 May 2012
We were up again at 4.30 am to prepare for observing the dawn “clay lick” that the macaws and other parrots partake in. We sat and waited as a rainstorm moved through and then with the sky clearing, the mass movement of parrots began. This Amazon region is renowned for this fascinating feeding frenzy where many thousands of parrots (especially macaws) gather to eat clay from a cliff side so as to assist their digestion and to help remove certain toxins they ingest via the berries they eat.
The clay licking took place over an hour or so and then it all finished dramatically with much screeching when a vulture appeared. As we were viewing the event from a hide across the small river from the clay bank we had an excellent view although the amount of bird movement made photography difficult.
We had two other walks during the day where howler and spider monkeys were the main focus of interest. Corinne also sighted a red squirrel as it scurried across the path ahead.
Monday 28th May 2012
The TRC resort had changed dramatically from yesterday when we were the only guests in the whole resort. Now the place was over-run with guests and very noisy ones at that. The people in the room next door to us got up at 4.30 am to go to the macaws’ clay lick and forgot to turn their alarm clock off so it proceeded to ring for a brief period every 5 minutes or so. We were quite pleased to be leaving TRC as it was no longer a quiet sanctuary in the Amazon wilderness but more like Flinders Street Station on a busy morning!
We headed down the Tambopata River with the current assisting our speed considerably and made our first stop at another macaw gathering point above a clay cliff region. The birds (mainly green & red macaws) were shy in our presence and stayed in the trees, failing to drop to the clay lick area below.
The journey downstream was leisurely and very enjoyable with herons and egrets being plentiful. A couple of caimans and copybaras were sighted along the way.
We finally stopped at the third resort operated by our tour group in the area called the Posada Amazonas. Our bungalow had HOT water (not seen for 5 days) so long and relaxing showers were the order of the day. We then went for a jungle walk amongst giant brazil nut trees and climbed a 37m steel tower to view the Amazon rainforest from above. The view was spectacular and a number of birds were seen including a bat falcon sat in a tree to quite close to us. The mature brazil nut trees are vast with trunks over a metre in diameter and heights over 40m. The trees are dotted throughout the jungle but not common. Bees pollinate the flowers which then develop into large (coconut sized) outer shells which falls to the ground throughout summer. Locals search the forest floor for these ‘coconut’ sized brazil nuts and cut them open with a machete to obtain 12-15 hard nuts which is what we see in shops. The nuts are a great source of dietary selenium and the kernels are crushed to obtain an oil used in soap making.
