No drone zone

It's January 15, 2023.

There was a huge thunder storm all night.  If I had been asleep, I would have awakened when there was a huge crack of thunder at 4 am - at that point I thought Maybe I will finally be glad brought rain pants.

As an aside, I was still trying to figure out why I hadn’t brought Malaria meds.  Did I even remember to look into this?  I did remember asking about one of my trips, but I think it was India.  Well, at 1am there was an internet connection and I looked at the NHS website - turns out Ecuador is a no/low zone and they don’t recommend the meds - maybe I looked into this before and that’s why I didn’t take it further.  Note to self - look at this next time before coming in March.

Today our start time was 6;30 but this was pushed back due to rain and we finally left at 7.  This was a much nicer distance, as our first activity was a canoe ride across the lake and a forest walk to a forest canopy viewing area. 

We got out at this dock

and walked through the forest

to the kapok tree and we walked up 205 stairs to get there.

Here's the base of the tree - It was huge

Not wild about wearing their gum boots because they are hot and give no support.  We are required to wear them unfortunately….

I can’t say it was as spectacular as yesterday, but we did see some macaws (red and blue) on the wing, tucans, howler monkeys and other assorted birds.  I even saw some small orchids in bloom. 

There were so many bugs Ann and I put our head nets on.

Here is the bird list:

Rufescent tiger heron

Weaver birds

Blue macaw

Paradise taninger (no photo)

Red winged parrots

Aricari toucans

Crimson crested Woodpecker (no photos)

Opal rump tanenger (no photos)

Bat falcon (no photos)

Slender bill kite (no photos)

We met Manny from Ecuador, by way of Vermont where his family owns a roofing company.  He decided he was going to use a drone which wasn’t allowed.    He insisted about the time we started down.  I yelled at him and insisted he not use it, so I was the ugly American for the day.  I hate drones and, at the end of the day, he finally shut it off, so it was quiet again.

Highlights of the return walk were

Woolly monkeys

A millipede

It turns out there are no seasons or growing seasons - trees don’t have rings and can have fruit at any time of the year. We were told orchids and bromeliads don't kill their host trees - it's their weight that pulls them over.

Kapok tree-emergent tree-above canopy (see above)

Ficus - emergent tree- above canopy (no photo)

Wire tailed manakin (no photo)

Turtle eggs- seeds on trunk of tree

We had a nice afternoon paddling quietly through another black creek nearby and saw a number of birds, as well as a Cayman (1.5M - juvenile) and the Giant Otter family from yesterday.

We also saw a family of 11 long nose bats sleeping on the trunk of a tree. 

There was also an almost invisible nocturnal frog sleeping on a leaf.

There was some beautiful white flowering ginger

and various types of fungi and interesting roots

During the afternoon it started to rain and we used the lodge’s raincoats that were thick, heavy and smelled like mildew - they stayed on the minimum possible time.

Birds:

Striated herons (no photos)

Green kingfisher (doesn't look very green)

When we got back to the lodge, I noticed six foot tall orchid bushes all around the grounds. They were amazing.

I had a seat in the hammock and watched the Hoatzin Birds

Before dinner we met for drinks

After our BBQ dinner, which was a rather bizarre choice in the Amazon basin...

...we went for a night hike.  This was a 45 minute hike around the lodge area in the pitch dark with headlamps.  We saw all sorts of disgusting things like huge ants and ants carrying leaves.

We saw spiders

and turantulas

various crickets and bugs

Fungus and Leeches (that's one leech, so long that it is wrapped through the leaf)

Lizards

And scorpions