Day 96 14.10.15
An early start it was, however we seem to have been waking up quite early at around 5:00 ish every day anyway so the early starts aren’t that bad. (It will also help with the jet lag once I get back to Europe…).
And guess what, while waiting for the others to arrive for our jungle hike, we witnessed two agouti running through the lodge.
The sun had come up and we headed out for a hike through the jungle. At the beginning we were a bit hesitant, especially at the distance and the time we would have to complete the distance (straight after the quarry or Inca trail…), which was a 14 km walk in about 6 hours… We then realised that we were going to do several stops in between to spot wildlife or to accomplish other activities along the way and so the actual trekking wasn’t as bad.
So off into the jungle we went.
We got to see different trees, unlike some I had seen in Ecuador.
We saw some uprooted trees, which helped us understand the root system of especially the larger trees in the forest. As the soil is quite dense and there is a lot of water, the roots don’t have to grow far and can’t grow far either. Which means that the roots have to spread out far in order to stabilise the large trees and to find enough water, as they cannot take it from the water table below. Therefore it is easier when strong winds pass to topple these trees over.
We saw another fig tree.
Of course more insects, for example this owl butterfly. Its back is completely blue.
Some nice mushrooms growing on a fallen tree.
We were lucky that our guides spotted a group of monkeys that were jumping from branch to branch.
We then heard the call of an eagle and the monkeys started to frankly scatter in order to avoid being caught by the bird of prey. Eventually the eagle settled and we managed to get a shot at taking a picture of him (or her).
Every once in a while we’d pass some beautiful flowers, either some parrot beaks or these examples of the scarce distribution of flowers along the jungle. Some plants only blossom once a year, so the floral spread is quite low and you see more green than specific colours.
We passed a little stream heading onwards to our main mission – the secluded ox-bow lake.
After the little bridge and stream we spotted some macaws sitting in their nest of a broken off branch on the jungle canopy.
We saw several termite and ant nests, that can be distinguished between the fact that termite nests are smoother as they are just made out of wood and ants nests tend to me more like soil mounds as they use different matter be it plants or animal remains.
A little caterpillar along the way.
Finally we reached the lake, which was surrounded by a thick forest of mangroves. Quite beautiful especially with the pier running through the trees.
As soon as we got into our canoe and started paddling we were immediately covered in butterflies that were obviously attracted to us. Possibly wearing a hat with flowers on didn’t help with that :).
We continued paddling and found other groups that had spotted something that I had been dying to see. An anaconda! It was about 7 metres long and resting in the water. The anacondas can get up to 10 metres long, but this specimen was quite impressive. The sighting definitely was my highlight of the day!
Back on the lake we paddled back to the pier and spotted some vultures and eagles on the way.
We headed back on the trek towards the lodge. When we got back to the little stream we went about to try and fish some piranhas. Yes, you read right. Unfortunately none of them bit the hook but hey, we tried fishing piranhas!
We carried on and found a small parakeet family nesting in a termite’s nest. Thanks again Mo for the photos!
Next our tour was made complete by our sighting of a tarantula! We saw it come out of its nest / hole / tunnel, and lift its little hairy legs to fend away its imposer a little stick.
Thank you Mo again for the awesome photos!
We headed back to the lodge to dig in to some great lunch. We had some banana chips and as a main we had some tamales with a corn and chicken filling, some salad and as a desert a watermelon.
After our lunch we headed back to the little terraces with hammocks, a cocktail in our hands and relaxed a little from the trek.
Meanwhile someone shouted that they had seen a sloth and so the "I have to see this before I leave list" of many of our group got completed...
I even was lucky to get my first ever jungle haircut! My very dead hair needed that severely!
Now freshly done up it was getting later and later and we were preparing us for a great time spotting caymans before dinner. We also managed to see some, however I was surprised to find them being so very small. Hence, try and spot this one on the photo…
We headed back underneath the roof of stars and returned to the lodge.
Dinner awaited us and for a starter we had some canned tuna roll with potatoes and as a main a pasta dish with chicken and potatoes.
Having had so many carbohydrates I had expected to get some rice pudding but instead we “only” got Madeira cake. Delicious too! One more cocktail as a nightcap and we enjoyed a lovely stroll back to our cabins underneath the stars to pack for the next day.
