Amazonian adventures come to an end

After four nights and three action packed days
we were paddled one last time across the beautiful
Pilchilocha, leaving the delights of Sacha Lodge behind.





and for the last time seeing the wierd aroid
plants rimming the channel


On the way, however, we had a good look
at two species of woodpecker. We watched this
one picking bits of lichen off the branch to
use as a kind of sponge to clean under its wings

and this one, a spectacular and aptly named
cream-coloured woodpecker.

Then, back onto the Napo we went, back up-river
to Coca and farewell to the Amazon rainforest

Next stop the Andean highlands!

Amazon adventures: The Canopy Tower

In the evening of our final day at
Sacha Lodge we visited the Canopy
Tower,
an extraordinarily large wooden
scaffolding structure built around
a (still growing) Kapok tree.
Great views were to had from 135 feet up
(and not even quite at the top of this tree!)
over the treetops of the surrounding
rainforest. Almost as extraordinary
was it to admire the bromeliads and
orchids growing on the limbs (still very sizabley
girthed - a branch transplanted onto the
ground might still be considered a large tree
back home in the u.k.) of the kapok tree we had
climbed.










We had some good birdwatching.
Here is one of the photos of which I am most proud:
a pair of many-banded aracaris (photo taken
through a telescope)



and here a much less great photo of a puffbird







a view downwards from our dizzying height...


and, as the sun began to set accompanied by
the roaring - howling - sound of a troop of red howler
monkeys and we descended to the forest floor to head
back to the lodge, a last view back at the tree platform.
The light of the setting sun on
the crown of the kapok tree made it look
somewhat autumnal!



We took a canoe back to the lodge,
with the frog evening chorus to mesmerize us!

Amazonian Adventures: Out on the Napo

Leaving the jungle for a while we had a venture out
onto the waters of the Napo, to visit a small island.


The main aim here was to see a number of bird
species that specialise in living in the relatively open
conditions and distinctive vegetation found there.
It was interesting to note the succession of
vegetation types working up from the bare sand
of the river edge, through a stage where spikey
grasses predominated (reminding me of marram
grass tussocks on coastal sand dunes).....


then with shrubby broadleafed plants
growing up......

until the middle parts of the island started
to look much more like your bog-standard
amazon rainforest!



...although the grass/bamboo clumps still
thrived: requiring a little "bush-whacking" from
Forrest's machete to keep the trail open!

Islands having been thoroughly "done" we then
headed off in our canoe once again, now to explore
up a side river, rimmed with lush vegetation.




Here we were favoured with a fly-passed (twice!)
by a pair of blue-and-gold macaws, their distinctive
calls alerting us to the approach. Their two visits
meant that first time around I was able to track
them with my binoculars, the second time I was able
to record them with a video-clip (whence cometh this
image!)

Amazonian adventures: Yasuni Parrot Lick

One truly memorable episode of
the Amazon visit was coming here,
a parrot lick in the nearest corner of
the Yasuni National Park.
http://www.saveamericasforests.org/Yasuni/index.html


We arrived at a viewing hide after a shortish
walk along a forest trail. At first no birds were
to be seen, but plenty heard. Obviously there was
a flock of parrots hanging out in surround trees
and bushes, calling to each other noisily and checking
the ground below for signs of danger.
Then, all of a sudden they started tumbling downwards
...like a snowfall, and had a good old "lick" at the mud
at the base of the little rocky hollow.
Here's a close up view taken through an available
telescope.

The smaller birds are cobalt-winged parakeets,
the larger ones are orange-shouldered. The brilliant
flashes of cobalt and red/orange as birds flew up
from the ground were thrilling! The noise too was
an unmissabley exciting dimension to the hour
or so spent here.



Leaving the parrots to their licking we had a
good bit of jungle trekking followed by lunch back
in the hide. Whilst we lunched the heavens opened
and a stream that had been easily fordable on our
walk in was now a raging torrent! We waited
half an hour before attempting a crossing, getting
wellys-full in the process.
Further along the track, however, we were treated to an
encounter with this creature...

...Not a snake, not a worm...a cecaelian! A legless
amphibian, an inch wide and several feet long!
Our American guide, Forest, said that he had only
four of these in three years guiding at Sacha.
Another lucky encounter!

Back at Sacha Lodge I finally fulfilled me desire
for a good long swim in the lake. The water was
a lovely temperature, the colour of a strong
cuppa. There were piranhas here, one had bitten
someones fingers (moments before I got in for my swim)
as he tried to extract his fishing hook from its mouth.
I met no piranhas on my swim, nor did I bump into any
caiman (they come out in the evening).
I did, however, manage to sneak up on this
little heron as it watched for small fry.

Amazon treking 2

The forest floor is a place for decomposition
and on this fallen log were to found a whole
host of different fungi, so many that it
took me two shots to get them all in!!




More fungi, different log..

Here's a nice little bird...a wire-tailed manakin
(the male bird charms a potential mate by "tickling"
her with his "wire tail" feathers!) The wire-tail
in question is, sadly, not very distinct in this shot.
It is a photo I am proud of however!



Here's another species of manakin: the dwarf-tyrant
manakin known locally as "God's eye" apparently
because, being difficult to see God alone must be able
to! (Well, it wasn't that hard for us actually....it sat
on a branch "hiccupping" loudly!)

Amazon trekking 1

The following aims to give a little
taste of what trekking through
tracks in the Amazon rainforest
was like.....but there is no substitute
for the real thing!












































































I was very taken by the shapes of
this creeper!!

Amazon Adventures: Walkway through the treetops

On our first full day in the Amazon we spent
a morning visiting the amazin Arial Walkway.
http://www.sachalodge.com.ec/eng/atractions.asp#birdwalk
This, apparently is the largest such walkway
in the world. It enabled us to see right over the
(very large) tree tops to view an apparently
endless sea of treetops, broken only by a glimpse
or two of the river Napo. In early morning
mist it was very atmospheric.

We had a good session of "birding" here with
particularly memorable moments including
spotting a group of swallow tailed kites circling
in a distant themal, with elegant long thin wings
and equally elegant long forked tails coloured smartly in
white, grey and small areas of black.
http://www.birdcheck.co.uk/main/previewpages/previewpage336.htm

Many, though not all views of birds were distant
views, but from time to time a variety of multi-coloured
species of tanager, or birds such as gilded barbets
were nearer at hand

In quieter periods there were things VERY
close at hand to watch......this ant wandered
about fairly aimlessly for a good couple of hours
while we watched birds from the platform on
one of the three supporting towers.




















Other diversions came with a little
photography.....(just to prove I WAS HERE!)


Then, finally, we proceeded across the sturdy
walkway and decended into the forest again,
admiring the structure that had afforded us
such great viewing on the way down.


Our decent was halted for a while, however,
to admire some jacamars (related to kingfishers)
sat nearby






























A jungle-floor ramble then commenced, rambling us
back to the lodge for another tastey meal at lunchtime!