Rainforest - Day Five

Having failed to see the macaws yesterday, we had another early rise to see them today. I was up at 5, brushing my teeth by candle light when I head Marlene outside my bungalow shout my name. I came to the door, toothbrush in my mouth and she said – there’s a tapir! I said ‘I’m coming’, and quickly finished brushing and headed out the door. As I put on my wellies (the incessant rain had meant that wellies were the footwear du jour) I found myself wondering, did she really mean tapir?

Yes, she did! There, on the steps to the dining area, was a female tapir.

She was called Vanessa and had been found and raised by natives. She’s now pretty much wild and has given birth several times, but every now and then wanders into the lodge in search of food. And here she was. I was allowed to stroke her. I’ve always imagined tapirs felt a bit like pigs but they don’t. The hair was smooth and reminded me more of horse than anything. A bit coarse, like a winter coat, but softer than I’d expected.
She was given a banana and led away from the lodge. I walked alongside her and it was incredible to be that close to her. I couldn’t believe it, still can’t really. To get that close to such a rare animal was a true highlight.

So, buzzing from my encounter with the lovely Vanessa, we headed to the macaw clay lick. Macaws and parrots, along with a lot of rainforest animals (including tapirs) eat clay. The clay is eaten to settle stomachs which have been irritated by eating under-ripe fruit. I was warned before I left that there might not be many macaws at the lick at this time of year as there is a lot of ripe fruit. I took this on board and thought I’d be very happy if I saw a couple of dozen at most.

The weather was better than it had been the last few days with the sun actually shining! We went to a hide which was positioned directly across from a clay cliff-face. There was a stream and marshy grass below, and forest above. We saw some howler monkeys and there were a few parrots around but no macaws.

The parrots normally feed earlier than the macaws, but both follow the same pattern. They gather in the trees around, then, when it seems safe, they move closer to the cliff edge. After some time they then move to the edge and even onto the few bushes that are growing out of the cliff face. Finally, after much deliberation, one will fly to the clay and start eating. The others then quickly follow and suddenly the face is covered in birds. After some time one bird will hear, or see, or think it’s heard or seen something and give an alarm call. All the birds fly off and the whole process begins again. If the alarm call is given before they have reached the cliff face they will fly away anyway, heading further back into the forest and slowly creeping forward. It can be quite frustrating as you watch the birds slowly move towards the cliff-edge only to be scared away before they make the final leap, meaning another half hour before they’ll next attempt it.

As my camera was broken I resorted to taking photos through the scopes that were provided, but I managed to get some ok shots.

We spent the morning watching the macaws and it was amazing. Frustrating but amazing. We had a couple of false-starts but finally they all came and fed and there were over 80 macaws on the cliff-face! We think the rain the day before meant that those birds couldn’t feed, so we had two days’ worth of birds.

We went to the lodge and that afternoon Marlene and I went to a capoc tree which had a walkway around it. it was a long walk up the spiral staircase but it was amazing to be in the canopy of such a large tree. We then walked on about an hour and a half into the rainforest. We were going to our second clay lick of the day, this time used by tapirs and forest deer. We arrived at dusk. There was a viewing platform which had mattresses and mosquito nets. We ate dinner then got into bed. We weren’t intending to spend the night but the recent rain meant it wasn’t as warm as normal and as night fell so did the temperature.

We sat and waited for a few hours but nothing arrived. There were a few bats but that was it. Nothing else. At 7.30 we decided to head back to the lodge. I had a funny feeling that tonight was the night I’d see a snake and I wanted to get it over and done with! The reason for this feeling was two-fold – firstly, it was our last night and therefore my last chance; secondly, we’d walked further than we had before so we had more chance of seeing things than before.

We walked back, Marlene in front leading the way. She was incredible. I could only keep up by keeping my eyes firmly on the path which was slippery and dangerously covered with tree roots and broken branches. She was walking as fast as I could manage but looking all around spotting a butterfly here, a frog there, and a . . . ‘um, you really don’t like snakes?’.
‘No’.
‘Ok, it’s well off the path anyway, we’ll just carry on’.

I took a few steps then, forcing myself, I said I’ll have a look. After all, I need to conquer my fear, not run away from it. So we went back and there, sitting incredibly close to the path was a catsnake. It was on a leaf, poised to catch any frogs that get too close. It was very thin but probably a metre long. My heart pounding, my hands shaking, I took the scariest picture I’ve ever taken.

We walked on. I was elated but incredibly jumpy. Every leaf rustle, every falling twig, made me jump. At one point I even squealed when a branch or a frog or something hit the leaf litter. I was incredibly embarrassed at myself and glad there was only me and Marlene around to see my fear!

The walk back to the lodge was brilliant. We saw so many things, including a poison arrow frog, a couple of other species of frogs, army ants, and, best of all, pseudoscorpions. They’re actually spiders but look like scorpions (well, I think they look more like something out of a sci-fi film!). Their bodies were about 10 cm long and their legs took them to over 30 cm. They were incredible!

We reached the lodge just after 9 and went for a few last-night drinks at the bar. I couldn’t believe the last night had come so quickly. I’d had so much fun and seen so much wildlife in the few short days spent here. I went to bed not wanting to leave.