JUNGLE EXCURSIONS

Journeys into the Jungle.

The Lodge offers 4 jungle activities a day.  None of which are mandatory, especially after they took a look at the 6 of us!   Your day should you choose begins with a 2 hour, before breakfast hike looking for birds and anything else that is foolish enough to be up and out in the mud at that hour.
Every adventurer or Bird watcher knows he or she must arise at dawn to start THE HUNT.

 

This happy crew sets out early despite my dire warning of a lot of rain.

 

 

This canoe full of fools chided me as they paddled past my cottage.

 

 

Within the hour the water started to fall from the sky, really fall,  It was so pleasant in the hammock with the warm amazon  rain surrounding me. Not a drop touched my skin.   Meanwhile in  the deeps of the Jungle.....

 

 

......... the hardy before breakfast crew found out that ponchos and rain hats could not keep them dry.  The guide used his machete

to fashion rain breaks.

 

 

The bird watchers snuck back in to the dining hall  soggy, their boots covered with mud and I don't think they saw anything.

 

 

 

Piranha fishing.....

 

 

  A activity offered after Breakfast was Piranha fishing,  the quite tropical downpour had passed.  We all grabbed our sunscreen and bug spray and set out once again into the far reaches of the flooded Amazon.

 

 Now I have seen Pat land almost record Salmon but this 3 oz little fish must have  been just as much a thrill.

 

 

This is a picture of one of Ron's two P fish.  He was so excited (scared) he flipped both in the bilge of the boat and the guide had to dig them out.

 

AFTERNOON EXPLORATIONS

 

 

After lunching on a typical Amazonian lunch of stewed chicken and stewed fish served with rice and tropical fruit the afternoon attack of vines and trees began again.  Rafael on the bow of the boat was quite adapt at cutting a path through the tangle of vegatation while at the stern the motor man worked miricles by not breaking a propeler.

 

 

This afternoon we were in search of the giant water lilly.  At time Rafael would stand on the bow like Ahab searching around the boat for a path to the prized lilly.  These beautiful palm trees appeared to form a protective barrier around the lillys.

 

 

Take a close look at the barbs on the trunk of one of those palms.  Rafael said these barbs protected the tree and its fruit from rodents.

 

  

 

At last the giant lilly's came into sight.  Each pad was about 5-6 ft across and felt like the finest finished leather.

 

 

Each blossom was the size of a beach ball.

 

 

We saw a lot of monkeys high in the trees during our trip but this little Owl Monkey was the only one polite enought to pose for us.

 

 

Every trip on the river for the entire week, even the night trips offered us a sighting of the Three Toed Sloth  This on was the best by far and it was old eagle eyed Pat Mitchell's sighting.

 

 

 

We did not see the exotic colorful birds I was expecting.  This is the Black collared Hawk.

 

 

Black Headed Turkey Vultures were everywhere.  The Jungle telegraph must have broadcasted that 6 medicare recipites were in the Jungle!

 

 

 

This row of umbrellas are lined up waiting for a shower???

 

 

No, in the Amazon they are used mostly as a shield from the intense sun.

 

 

Night Hunting

 

 

Everynight after a dinner of Amazonian treats of chicken and fish stew server with boiled rice and tropical fruit I couldn't pronounce, we could head out in search of night creatures.

 

 

The main prey of the evening is Caimon, which Rafael would catch with his bare hands.

 

Now this is suppose to be a baby Tree Boa, we voted and we think it is a piece of orange plastic someone placed in the tree for the entertainment of tourists.

 

The 6 days and 5 nights we spent on the river were a pure delight.  The Lodge and the personel were a hoot to spend time with.  The meals were different from most food we had eaten in the past but absolutely delicious.  Where there dishes we only sampled once, sure there were.  But that was also part of the adventure.  The animals and birds were not as plentiful as we would have liked.  We knew that coming in.  We chose the wet season to encounter as little mud as possible.  In so doing. we cut down on the amount of wildlife we would see.  Viva Amazonia!!