Rainforest - Day Four
We had to be up at 5am to get to the macaw clay lick early enough. We went to the boat in the dark and headed up-river. The weather was grey and drizzling and Marlene and the other guide decided we’d try to skip the clay lick and go to an oxbow lake instead. Apparently the macaws don’t like the rain!
We were able to go to the clay lick the next day so went to the lake. We had breakfast on the jetty (pancakes and maple syrup – yum!) then got on a simple catamaran. It was two canoes tied together with boarding on top, and folding chairs laid out. Two porters paddled us around so we didn’t make any noise. We were there to see giant otters, but I’ll say at the start, we didn’t see any. Seems that otters don’t like the rain either!
It wasn’t a complete loss though as we saw some pretty incredible wildlife all the same. My favourites were the hoatzin. Hoatzin are a primitive-looking bird. The chicks have claws on their wings which help them climb branches, they’re poor fliers and look prehistoric. They also have a really weird call, which sounds more like someone breathing raspily than any bird I’ve ever heard before. I’ve wanted to see hoatzin for years and couldn’t believe that I was seeing them so close (they didn’t seem that bothered by us; they would fly off when we got too close but just to the next branch, generally in the direction we were heading!). I also couldn’t get over how many there were. For some reason I thought they’d be really elusive and difficult to see, instead you head them well before you saw them, they clattered through the branches and we must have seen about 20 or 30 birds in the space of an hour’s gentle paddling.
We also saw egrets, kingfishers, herons, jacanas and a lot of other small birds, including this red-capped cardinal.
Unfortunately, as we were heading back to the jetty I discovered my camera had a fault. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong, I thought maybe it had got damp from the rain despite my best efforts to keep it dry. It turned out to be a fault with the shutter and I had to send it away to get fixed under the warranty. (I’m pleased to report that I got it back this week and it’s working again!).
It had been a mixed day. I’d seen a lot of amazing wildlife but my camera had broken. Oh well, I still had a camera and we were going to see the macaws tomorrow.
We were able to go to the clay lick the next day so went to the lake. We had breakfast on the jetty (pancakes and maple syrup – yum!) then got on a simple catamaran. It was two canoes tied together with boarding on top, and folding chairs laid out. Two porters paddled us around so we didn’t make any noise. We were there to see giant otters, but I’ll say at the start, we didn’t see any. Seems that otters don’t like the rain either!It wasn’t a complete loss though as we saw some pretty incredible wildlife all the same. My favourites were the hoatzin. Hoatzin are a primitive-looking bird. The chicks have claws on their wings which help them climb branches, they’re poor fliers and look prehistoric. They also have a really weird call, which sounds more like someone breathing raspily than any bird I’ve ever heard before. I’ve wanted to see hoatzin for years and couldn’t believe that I was seeing them so close (they didn’t seem that bothered by us; they would fly off when we got too close but just to the next branch, generally in the direction we were heading!). I also couldn’t get over how many there were. For some reason I thought they’d be really elusive and difficult to see, instead you head them well before you saw them, they clattered through the branches and we must have seen about 20 or 30 birds in the space of an hour’s gentle paddling.
We also saw egrets, kingfishers, herons, jacanas and a lot of other small birds, including this red-capped cardinal.
Unfortunately, as we were heading back to the jetty I discovered my camera had a fault. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong, I thought maybe it had got damp from the rain despite my best efforts to keep it dry. It turned out to be a fault with the shutter and I had to send it away to get fixed under the warranty. (I’m pleased to report that I got it back this week and it’s working again!).Luckily I still had my little camera, so while I couldn’t get any more shots of monkeys in the canopy I could photograph all the small things which were in abundance. I went for another night-walk that evening and saw a lot of frogs – the rain had brought them out, as well as the best insect we saw – a leaf insect. It was huge – about 7cm (3 inches for you old folks!) long.
It had been a mixed day. I’d seen a lot of amazing wildlife but my camera had broken. Oh well, I still had a camera and we were going to see the macaws tomorrow. 
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