Amazon - Birds and Frogs

Bird-spotting on The Island

We never knew the name of the big island in the middle of the Amazon just opposite the camp, but it was huge – several kilometers wide and a lot longer.  It seemed to have no habitation, so made a fine place to do a bit of twitching.  We left early – 6 am and had a magic time

 

but you’ll have to take my word for it as all the birds we saw – lots of them - were too far and too fast for our cameras.  On an earlier river outing, we had seen some rare birds called a Hoactzin, really close up. These birds have pre-historic orgins and can't fly, being genetically closer to mammals than birds.

and we had a beautiful Crested Woodpecker at the camp:

 

But this morning, it was only thanks to Luis that we knew these were parakeets:

and  a funny shaped one that flew across in front of us was an Umbrella Bird (no picture but look him up on Google)

And there was one sweet  kingfisher who did pose for us, and a sweet little Jesus bird (he seems to walk on water)

 

I loved pottering gently through the myriad water-lettuce and brushing past the huge lily-pads, it was all so serene and beautiful

 

The local village

When theExplorama camp was first set up, the local village was all straw huts and people in grass skirts, but things have changed/progressed, as they must. But to retain a little of their heritage for their children, and to earn a few bucks, the villagers put on a show for the Lodge visitors. We enjoyed it, and as they relaxed and got into it, it seemed they did too.  The little chap fair stole the show. Not great photos, but they capture the scene

 

 

They then gave us a blow-pipe demo and invited us to have a go too – they’re jolly heavy! The ends of the darts are sharpened by piranha teeth, then dipped in curare – see “frog” post later! Mick manged to hit the target but I just missed!

Then a little look round the stalls where we did our best to improve the local economy without overfilling the cases! The kitten wasn’t for sale – boo.

 

Luis then took us to the modern village where they live now – what a contrast.  But all healthy, happy people, so who are we to say get thee back to your mud hut?

 

The techno pub had been pouring out a thud that I thought was native drums the night before, for the Valentines Hop! And there were more weaver birds and a pet parrot.

 
Lovely happy people, and so friendly – except the shy ones, just like anywhere.

Nature trek for a poison frogs

On the last morning, Luis took us on a frog hunt. As mentioned before, the natives used a form of curare for the darts in the blow-pipes, which is extracted from a poisonous frog. So off we set with Luis to find one – a good target for a lovely hour or so’s walk through the jungle at the back of the Lodge.

 

On the way, we saw lots of camouflage frogs – so well camouflaged are it’s quite hard to spot them, even in the pix!

We kept going past wondrous trees, fungus and flora, and butterflies… you get the picture

 

until finally Luis pounced and came up with the tiniest frog I’ve ever seen, with a bright red back

 
This was the poison fog, and he assured me it wasn’t dangerous to pick it up unless you have a wound, but I declined to hold him!

On home to finish packing, last lunch and then a slow boat home back to Iquitos…..aptly named the Amazon Queen

And that’s the summary of a truly wonderful 3 days in Amazonia –  could have stayed so much longer, I loved every minute and left part of my heart behind……