(DH writes) The ecolodge we are staying in can cope with 40 guests but luckily there are only 12 of us here - this means we get our own personal tour guide every day. There are 10 cabins and a central meeting point/ communal cabin that even has wifi. This lodge employs lots of people from the local community (80%), including our guide Rodriguez. The cabins have no glass windows, only mosquito netting which means the noise of the forest continues through the night. Lucas was convinced bullet ants had invaded his bed in the night, but this was far from the only noise that woke us up! One bird called a ???????????, makes a noise like loud 'heavy breathing' outside the door - a bit disconcerting until you get used to it.
We were woken at 5.40 am and had breakfast at 6.15. The best times to see wildlife are early in the morning or late in the evening/ at night. Another bright sunny day met us with temperatures heading up to 28*C. We headed off by canoe to see a clay mineral lick in the Yasuni national park which attracts parrots from 20 km. On the way we spotted red howler monkeys and then a brown necked three toed sloth high in the canopy.
You can see the Dusty Headed Parakeets (green) in the clay river cliff below. Larger varieties were scared off by a Red Tailed Boa Constrictor we spotted in the branches.
We also saw..... swallow tailed kites, a pygmy marmoset monkey, yellow necked turtles, laughing falcons and a host of other birds and insects. The number and variety (as well as the size) of butterflies is amazing. On the way back, we stopped off at the home of one of the indigenous people who worked at the lodge. Lunch was a bit of a surprise
Mmmmm, palm grubs cooked on an open fire.
(SH writes)Only Dave was brave enough to eat a raw one (well, half a raw one)! Then we tried our hand at using a blow pipe...Lucas was a pretty good shot!
And for the big event of the day..... swimming in the lake with piranhas!! As you can see I (Shelagh) am missing...someone had to take the photos!
Just to make sure there were piranhas in the water, we went fishing to catch some...Rodriguez caught one and Dave caught a 'brill'. The rest of us just fed them with lots of bait!
To finish off an already eventful day, we went for a night walk before dinner...creepy (in all senses!) Look at the size of this tarantula! We saw tailless scorpions, a screeching owl, amazon bull frogs, 2 types of tarantulas and all sorts of other wee beasties.
A torrential downpour started at 7 o'clock, and it continued until breakfast.
Posted with Blogsy
No comments:
Post a Comment