Day 06: Back Down the River and Our Lake Visit

At dinner, Delford offered an option for the morning for people to again get up at 4:30 AM and head back to the clay lick. I decided to sleep in a bit, but offered Gwenn the video camera since she was planning to make the trip. It was apparently an “excellent” day, with more birds and more sunshine. I was still happy with my decision not to go, especially since Gwenn came back with what looks to be some fabulous video. When I get back from this trip, I’ll see if I can get one or two of those on YouTube and embed them on this blog. Stay tuned.

When everyone returned, we concentrated on cleaning up, packing, and getting our suitcases out to be picked up and transported to the boat. By 10:30 AM we were headed for the boat and what turned out to be a three-hour boat ride down river to the place we stayed the first night in the jungle, Refugio Amazonas. The trip was two hours shorter because we were flowing with the current. It seemed cooler on this leg and was a really pleasant ride.

After the walk in from the river, we cooled off with some ice cream, then headed to our rooms to get settled in for the night. We had a little downtime before the afternoon activity–a trip to a lake. Delford didn’t tell us too much about what we could expect to see, but we’ve learned to trust him, so off we went.

This route took us past the canopy tower we visited on our first morning here, then on a longer trip to Lago Candenada. The first picture opportunity was at a plant where Delford gave us each a leaf from the sanipanda tree (bush?). He told us to start crushing the leaf. With the little bit of water he added, the skin of our hands started to turn purple. Turns out, these leaves produce a temporary or permanent dye that the indigenous people use for skin and fabrics. It’s temporary until you boil something in it, then it becomes permanent. And it comes in different colors. The color you see on my hands stayed until I washed them with soap. Even a hand wipe couldn’t remove it–only soap. Cool.

By the way, Delford took the picture of me, which was nice. Usually I’m the one taking the pictures, not being the subject of them. Delford has a good eye, and he knows his way around cameras–I guess because he helps so many people with them.

We saw some leaf-cutter ant highways, though my pictures didn’t come out so well so they’re not included here. It wasn’t just a line of ants, but was a true alternate trail, devoid of greenery for perhaps a six-inch wide swath. The ants on their way to the nest had leaf cuttings and the ones going away didn’t. As we progressed down the trail (trying not to step on them!), we went from seeing the leaves moving one way to moving the other way, so we figured we’d passed the nest.

Next up was a couple of monkeys! They were elusive and fast, but I captured one that is pretty recognizable. He’s the brown blob with a tail in the middle of the picture. He stopped briefly to eat something, and that’s when I got him.

In the next picture, the seed pod that Delford is holding up is from the kapok tree. The fuzzy stuff inside is used to disperse the seeds, but what’s interesting about this tree is that the fuzz apparently makes a good type of down for pillows and such. And before other synthetics, kapok was what was used for the filling for life vests. Cool.

And then we were at the lake, complete with dock and boats. The oars were a short ways up the trail, and Delford picked one up as we passed. This lake used to be a lot bigger, but after it was cut off from the river, the sediment from the decaying greenery has filled it in. Eventually it will be completely filled in, I guess.

The lake itself was quite a treat. Not only was the surrounding vegetation beautiful, it held some nice surprises. First, we saw a rare bird that was quite elusive. I didn’t get a very close shot, but trust me–the brownish blob in the middle is a rare moment when this bird was exposed. Usually they landed on a branch and then moved right into the greenery. We actually saw several of these and they were great fun to watch.

Next, we thought Delford wasn’t watching where he was going because we bumped into a log. Lo and behold, he had spotted some bats clinging to that log. I think he said they were pointed-nose bats. They were really cute! I’ve cropped the area in the picture so you can see that those bumps on the log that look like they’re part of the tree are really bats. Zooming in makes them a little fuzzy, but they’re there!

Last surprise at the lake was when we tossed some crackers into the water–piranha! They were VERY hard to see under the surface, but I think eventually everyone got a look. They’d come up to visibly splash and take the piece of cracker. The one I saw best was when one grabbed a piece in his mouth, then took it under and swam away with it. Cool. A little unnerving, though, since we were in a both with a pretty flat bottom and the water was just a few inches below the edge. We had some good fun joking(?) about that!

Then we docked and headed back as it was getting dark. One more surprise was a tarantula on the way. Everyone lit him up with flashlights and both Delford and I tried to get a picture. I’m not sure who got the one that you’ll see below, but it’s pretty clear. We didn’t get too close!

The last picture I haven’t described is of Kip and Linda in hammocks. That was actually at the Tambopata Research Center from this morning just before we left there. Those hammocks are great. There’s next to no breeze here in the rainforest, so moving in the hammock is the next best thing. I think we all enjoyed them.

Our last activity of the night, after dinner, was a talk by Delford about the Tambopata Nature Reserve. A precious place that deserves protection. The new highway across the continent (Peru-Brazil) will certainly change things, bringing more development to many places. Hopefully this area can continue to be protected.

So tomorrow we’re up and out early (breakfast ast 6:30). We’ll retrace our steps down river once more, then the bus to the Rainforest Expeditions office to pick up all that winter stuff we shed before we came, then back to the airport and the flight to Cusco. The weather will be quite different–significantly cooler. That’s about as hard to imagine right now as it was when I was in Texas, sweating 40+ days of over-100 degree days, trying to figure out what warm clothes to bring for Cusco-Machu Picchu. I hope I chose well. We’ll find out soon!

I will hopefully have internet access in Cusco that will be good enough to upload these blog entries and pictures from our time in the rainforest, so everyone will have a lot of reading to do!

Until tomorrow, folks.

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