"Ronald....It's 5am and we're leaving in ten minutes."
Just as I was taking the photo of the Camungo (above) a Caiman made an appearance in the reeds next to our raft and helped himself to a fish supper! It certainly made us jump and the splash and commotion was incredible!
This was no joke....
The sun was starting to rise, it was a stunning morning and we were off to see a man about a parrot.
We got in our boat and headed ten minutes downstream to a place Ronald has found where dozens of Parrots meet each morning at sunrise to eat clay. Yes, you heard me, clay!
As we arrived, our knowledgeable guide explained that as parrots generally eat seeds, lots of these are quite acidic so they have to settle their stomachs regularly with some alkaline in the form of riverbank clay.
Parrots are very sensitive birds so the closest we could get was about 30 metres so we didn't scare them away.
We then watched as dozens upon dozens of Parrots flew north, south, east and west checking the landscape for predators such as hawks and eagles. One sight, the alarm would be raised and they'd disappear to fight indigestion for one more day.
Scardy birds in the sky
The sun rising over the rain forest
The cliff face where the parrots usually eat from and the beach from where we would observe them
After about 30 minutes they settled and started eating from the Gaviscon cliff face.
The only clear way to see them as we were so far away was through a telescope Ronald had brought with him.
My iPhone's zoom is good but not that good so I thought I'd put the lense on the telescope to see what would happen. I was remarkably pleased with the results!
Zoom in to see the Military Macaws on the cliff face.
They then moved and were joined by a beautiful blue headed parrot (on the right of the picture)
As we packed up to leave, the heavens opened once again and we sailed back to the lodge in yet another rainforest downpour!
After our 7:30am breakfast we set out on another trek, this time deeper into the jungle and much steeper than before.
The humidity was almost unbearable but, walking with Ronald was so exciting that we forgot about it and trekked on.
Interlude:
I'm sat here on my own at 3:15pm on jungle day 3 (Weds 7th Jan). I'm in the dining room of the lodge and everyone else is having a siesta before our 3:30pm rendezvous for the next adventure.
The rain has just started again, along with rumbles of thunder, but it brings a slightly cooler temperature so I personally, don't mind too much!
Our guide Ronald is a legend. I know I keep going on about him but he could easily get away with doing half of what he's doing and we'd still have an amazing time.
As you follow him through the jungle he's constantly searching and listening, listening and searching. His years of experience mean that he knows what he's listening for and when he hears it, where and how to find it.
Any noise we hear, we can ask him and he'll not only tell us what it is but will give us untold details about the species.
He speaks great English (Self taught) and has a great sense of humour. He had a great laugh yesterday when he explained the Latin name of a tree which Lauren misheard as "Cauliflower". It took us all a good while to carry on walking (for laughing so much) after discussing a little bit of fruit and veg theory, and that Cauliflowers don't grow on trees, to my beautiful wife!
He deserves top credit for making this trip one of the most memorable experiences of our lives so far. I hope he gets to read this blog sometime.
End of interlude:
After 20 minutes of walking, Ronald held up his hands for us to be quiet and beckoned us to follow him slowly and quietly. He'd heard some Dusky Titi Monkeys (insert cheeky joke here) and if anyone was going to find them, Ronald was!
You won't actually see a monkey here but it will give you a great idea of our trek and how we followed Risks to see the most incredible sights:
We crept further into the thick, evergreen jungle and the noise was deafening! 7 or 8 monkeys were screeching and calling at the top of their lungs! It sounded like some kind of jungle emergency!
The Dusky Titis were again, quite elusive and maybe camera shy but we managed to see a few, albeit in glancing moments.
As we moved on, Ronald pointed to a tree and said, "You can't touch this". Lauren thought he was bursting into an MC Hammer song but it turns out the tree was infested with nasty ants that can give you a series of very bad bites that will make you feel like your body is on fire!
He proved his point by knocking his machete on the tree and immediately an army of viscious and swarmed out of holes in its bark.
The tree and the ants were a perfect example of symbiosis.
The tree provided a home and food for the ants. The ants fought off anything that came anywhere close to the tree. If any other plant started growing near the tree and was going to threaten its sunlight, bang, the ants would eat it. Isn't nature incredible?! I was completely blown away by this.
We moved on and not 5 minutes later Ronald looked, stopped, bent down and gently lifted a few leaves and a small branch and stood back up with a tiny rain frog in his hand!
This guy must have some kind of jungle treasure map or jungle GPS!!
Our last spot was a gum tree or rubber tree. Lauren's holding some of the sap and stretching it out like an elastic band.
At last we'd reached the top of our trek and it was time for some exhilarating zip wire action!
30 metres above the rainforest carpet were 3 wooden platforms built in the canopy of the trees.
We took it in turns to be safely attached to the wires (2 harnesses Mum, just in case the first one broke!) and then launched ourselves like Bruce Willis in any one of the 17 Die Hard movies, across the stunning canopy of the Amazon Jungle! The view and experience was incredible and well worth the bucket of sweat we gave to get there.
Lauren on the zip line
Me on the zip line with on board camera:
Lauren filming me:
We both absailed down from the tower:
On the way back down to the lodge we crossed a small stream and Ronald told us he'd found a wolf. We couldn't understand as he was pointing behind a rock in the stream and there was no room for a wolf there.
However, he insisted and kept looking at Lauren with a sneaky grin on his face.
I crossed through the stream to investigate and sure enough, there was a wolf there. A WOLF SPIDER!!
You can see its eyes reflecting back at us. Another time I would've liked a better zoom, so I didn't have to get so close!
Ronald kindly(!) offered to move the giant spider out from its resting place for us to get better pictures.
A gentle prod with the end of his machete and it moved almost as quickly as Lauren, to the other side of the rock!
For some reason it only had six legs but according to Ronald it couldn't hurt us. That said, he wasn't prepared to pick it up.
We believed him until I asked him why it was sitting behind a rock in the middle of a stream. "He's waiting for a fish to swim by so he can jump on its back and eat it" was Ronald's reply. That was our cue to move on back to the lodge!
The moment Lauren came face to face with her fear!
After another cold shower (actually really lovely in this heat) we had some lunch and then most people took a siesta to catch up on sleep we lost getting up at 5am! I used the time to catch up on a few blog posts!
Our next activity was supposed to start at 3:30pm but at 3:00pm heaven's waterfall overflowed once more and Ronald suggested we wait until it stopped.
At 4:30pm the rain eased and we all boarded our boat again for a 5 minute trip across the river to Machu Wasi nature reserve that was created a few years ago. The river used to run through this area but a huge storm diverted it in a different area creating a small lake which has become home to hundreds of different species of birds including some incredibly rare ones. Also, a number of Caiman (small crocodiles) are resident there.
It was a 20 minute walk to the reserve from the river and when we arrived we were shown to a couple of wooden rafts which we 'boarded' and were punted really slowly around the lake so as not to scare the wildlife.
Up until boarding the raft I had been really keen on seeing some Caiman but seeing as we were effectively floating around the lake on not much more than a glorified transportation pallet, I was now quite happy just bird watching!
A social fly catcher
Camungo (horned Screaming Bird)
A few times on this travelling adventure I've wished we brought more than an iPhone to take photos on. This was one of them! Whilst our iPhones have been more than sufficient for 95% of shots, when trying to find animals and birds camouflaged in undergrowth, having a better camera would've made for a far better outcome. Still, not having one is one less thing to carry and one less thing to have stolen!
We returned by boat to our lodge and after dinner Ronald brought out a bottle of Peruvian red wine for us to share. It was a lovely touch and we spent the next hour as a group teaching each other funny phrases in English, Italian, French and Spanish.
Once the wine was gone, Lauren and I cracked open & shared our beers and I started a game of "2 lies and a truth" which continued the banter until Ronald kicked us out at 9:30pm, as he was late switching the power off.
The lodge is powered only by solar power so lights can only be switched on between 6pm and 9pm. At 9pm each night, the power goes off and you're left to what torch light you have available. It was like being on a school trip and I felt like Lauren and I should have a secret midnight feast just to be naughty!
Midnight feasts aside, we headed to bed along with another group of 3 who had arrived that afternoon.
It was our last night in the jungle and we had a long journey ahead the next day, back to Cusco. If only we knew what was about to happen...
Lauren's thoughts:
More monkeys!!! Before we left for the jungle we were told we might see two species of monkeys but we have now seen four. The surprise for me was actually really enjoying seeing the different variety of birds, helped by the beautiful and tranquil setting.
Spider gate update: looks like there are spiders in the jungle and big ones at that! Ronald knew I had a fear of spiders, so thought it was funny to entice me near the Wolf Spider. It's bad enough they are called spiders but throwing the word 'Wolf' in front of it certainly doesn't reduce the fear factor, added to the fact that Ronald made the spider jump out of the little cave on to the rock right next to me, made me jump out of my skin.
Spiders, wolves and jumping as a combination is not up my street. I took a few moments to compose myself and spent the next ten minutes only one meter away. Apparently the Wolf Spider and the Tarantula are the largest in the Amazon. We also found a spider looking Cricket in our room that was jumping from one item of clothing to the other. We watched it jump and I didn't run out of the room screaming. I know I'm not completely there yet but I'm pleased I'm getting closer to conquering my greatest fear.
Whilst there is no Wi-Fi and the humidity does nothing for my hair, the jungle has become one of my favorite places on earth. You must all be sick of us having these amazing experiences but I hope they inspire you to have them too. These will be memories I'll never forget.
Wow!
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