Napo Wildlife Centre 2

Not quite such an early start today, 6:00 wake up, breakfast 6:30, leave 7:00 to go to the clay licks.  These are frequented by blue headed and yellow crowned parrots most days as without the minerals they are ill, but if it's raining they don't visit.

We were off in the canoe as usual with Hugo at the front then Andreas, me and Ian sharing a seat, then the lads with a seat each and finally Blue at the back with another oar.

A few sightings along the way (various times of the day so different lighting but they are just snaps so I'm lumping them together.

Greater Ani

Lesser Kiskadee

Long Nosed Bats

Ringed Kingfisher

Limpkin

We weren't long in one of the waterways when Hugo heard the sound of the Giant River Otters.  There is a family of 6 living in the area but it is so vast that sightings are few and far between - how lucky were we to spot them.  

Then they dashed off in the opposite direction and we followed, paddling as fast as we could (not actually us obviously).  We caught up with them just in time to hear an almighty squeal which Hugo said was a pup demanding a share of the just caught fish.  They had swum into dense vegetation and it was really hard to get a clear shot, I ended up half standing and leaning on a log. 

They really are quite evil looking creatures but............ Wow!

Having spent a long time watching them we then hurried off but unfortunately just before we got to the landing stage it started to spit with rain.  They paddled like crazy and luckily got us under shelter before the heavens absolutely opened - glad we've seen Amazon rain but so, so pleased we weren't caught in it.

Because of the rain we knew the parrots wouldn't visit for a while, so after it stopped we went up river to the Kichwa Community Centre to see how life was before the Spanish arrived.  As usual this kind of thing isn't really up our street but we listened intently and nodded at the right moments.  The Wildlife Centre was conceived, built and is run by the community for the community and I have huge respect for what they've achieved.  I'll write separately about it later.

We had lunch at the centre and whilst we were waiting for it to be served, school finished and firstly there was a race around the field and then the infants came out.

Andreas produced a hunting blow pipe and darts (non poisonous) so Danny and Freddie amused themselves trying to hit the target - unsuccessful but good fun.

We had a delicious lunch of catfish, palm hearts, rice and cassava (yukka) and then the special treat Andreas had arranged - fried insects of some sort plus some kind of roasted nuts.  For a moment I thought I'd been transported into I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here - we ate the nuts but not the bugs, the crazy Italians did though and declared them to be very tasty.

The finale was a large grub (4cm x 1cm) and Freddie was nominated to eat it but as soon as he touched it, it wriggled - yuk!  Eventually after many false starts he did eat it but I couldn't look, I knew I'd be ill.  He said it wasn't too bad, very watery but not an awful taste.  

All credit to him for having a go - it was probably a rite of passage - he's 9 years younger than his brother, and Dad and Danny have been adventure holidaying for years and this is Freddie's first time with them!  Wife is apparently at home having bought a new house which Vittorio hasn't even seen and is busy getting it ready for him!

We then heard word that the parrots were at the clay lick so instead of the slow canoe, Hugo jumped in a speed boat and got us back to the creek quickly, we than had a 1.5km very fast walk through the jungle in the afternoon heat and me carrying my backpack which weighs about 4kg.  But we got there and there were loads of parrots in the trees around the lick (you may need to look carefully!)

Sadly though they didn't come down and after about 20 mins something scared them away and apparently it would be at least 2 hours before they returned and we couldn't wait that long.

On leaving the hide, we saw this cute Leaf Nosed Bat curled up under a leaf!

And a millipede - goodness knows how large a centipede must be, this was about 10cm long.

On the way back to the lodge, this squirrel monkey kept us amused trying to get at these fruits and dropping them almost on top of us.  In her greed she tried to get the whole bunch and sent it crashing into the water.

Somehow Blue, our rear oarsman, spotted this anaconda asleep in the dead reeds, awful shot but we didn't want to disturb it just for a photo!

Back home we decided we should have a look at the observation tower as it has a lift. Unfortunately we got stuck in it for a while (no real problem).  The views from the top were amazing but Ian decided it was safest to walk down the 7 floors!

Napo Wildlife Centre 1

Probably not surprisingly, the humidity here is amazing, almost 100% and it was very difficult to sleep last night.

We were woken at 05:30 for breakfast at 6:00 and ready to set out at 06:30.  We paddled across the lake and no sooner had we left the shore we saw fairly large Caiman, a Red Capped Cardinal and a Snail Kite; light levels are low post dawn so rubbish pics. 

After about 20 mins up a creek (!) we came to a landing stage and walked about 15 mins through the jungle to the observation tower.  Built of steel it is about 100ft high and a jolly hard climb – the steps are quite shallow so there’s probably about 200 of them.   It was amazing to be above the jungle canopy but nigh on impossible to actually see anything, let alone take pictures.  Andreas had a telescope (don’t know what range) and he and Hugo (our indigenous, non English speaking guide) found a few birds for us to view through it, but somehow it’s not the same as finding them for yourself either with the naked eye or binoculars.  We probably spent about 2 ½ hours up the tower and then walked a different way back through the jungle with Hugo describing how various trees were traditionally used pre Spanish times.

A perfect illustration of the effects of high humidity.

A very fuzzy picture of our companions, I made the mistake of getting my 2^nd camera out whilst up the tower and didn’t wait for the humidity to clear from the lens.

There were some Bullet Ants around, apparently so named that their bite is so painful you feel like you’ve been shot.  I wasn’t prepared to get close enough to put some scale beside it but probably 1”

And this delightful lizardy thing which was obligingly displaying.

We were lucky to see these Night (Owl) Monkeys which as the name suggests are usually nocturnal but they watched us for a long time from the safety of their tree.

Back at base mid morning we had a short break before lunch (delicious) and them some much needed downtime and whilst Ian was having a rest I wandered around the lodge taking photos of butterflies, flowers and my favourite leaf cutter ants.

 I also spotted a Turtle and a very large Caiman (can’t see the whole of it)

At 4pm we were back on the water looking for any wildlife but the jungle is so dense it’s really difficult to spot anything or take decent photos, so here’s a couple of monkeys - Red Howler and Squirrel

These Hoazhin’s are very funny creatures, their common name is Stinky Turkey and they remind me of pheasants, the moment you get slightly near they take off  like a noisy helicopter and land a in another tree a few meters away. 

They’re nesting at the moment so mostly are in pairs and they sit on a branch making this weird huffing noise.  We spent a lot of time watching some Capuchin monkeys trying to steal the eggs.

This cute little thing is a Tagu, a smallish reptile, which had probably climbed into a birds nest to steal the eggs and fallen asleep in the sun.

Phew, better get this posted before I lose Internet yet again so probably lots of typos which I'll correct later!

Heading Up The Amazon

The skies were very much cloudier today and we've just seen the weather forecast for the northern part of South America and it looks awful - heavy rain and thunderstorms are the order of the day so I have a horrible feeling our 4 hour trip along the Rio Napo will be less than pleasant.  We've brought our "safari suitcases" with us as these are soft bags and easier to store on boats/small planes etc but they are not as watertight as the Samsonites.  Having seen the forecast we've tried to line the insides with bin liners (thanks for the tip Al) in the hope we can keep our clothes a bit dry.

Estevan picked us up on time and as we were nearing the airport casually asked if we actually wanted to take all our luggage with us to the Amazon for 3 days as we could leave a bag with him and he'd drop it at our next hotel.  Really kind of him but we wish he'd mentioned it before as we could have sorted the stuff methodically, instead we knelt on the floor in a quiet corner of the airport and frantically tried to move stuff from bag to bag - no doubt forgetting something vital.

Being an internal flight, security was very lax and we were soon boarding the plane.  Although its only a 35 min flight we were still pleased to find we had front row seats with plenty of legroom.  Amongst the others to board were 3 very, very tall people, looked like father and sons and it turned out they were part of our group.  Lovely lads, Vittorio, Danilo and Frederico, the former is an ex basketball player and now an agent and the middle one plays professionally for Denver **** and also for the Italian National Side.  Youngest son is hoping to get picked for an American team.  Their heights are 6'8'', 6'10'' and 6'7'' respectively.

After collecting our one bag we were transferred a short 10 min ride to the river where we boarded a motorised canoe which held about 40 people, just us 5 at the front but a bunch of what we assume to be staff at the back.  The two hour trip wasn't particularly interested as we may our way down river, zigzagging from side to side.  

After that we transferred to a paddle canoe for another 1 1/2 hours which was far more interesting although light was fading so not easy to see/photograph.  A monkey and another guy travelling with us but on a private tour.

Boat billed Heron

The lodge from the approach across the lake in fading light.