Rainforest - Day Three

We left the lodge just after breakfast and continued on our way down-river. We were travelling on motorised canoes and we were close to the water. We saw lots of shore-birds, mainly herons, storks and egrets. The river was quite calm but in the rainy season becomes very swollen. Banks are washed away and beaches are created, it’s very dynamic and the course of the river changes every year. There were lots of trees in the water, some were mostly covered by water with only a few branches poking out above the surface, while others were in shallower water and their size could be better appreciated.

We were heading towards the Manu landing strip where we were to pick up another group who were flying in, then head back up-river to the Manu Wildlife Centre. When we arrived we found the plane was delayed due to fog in Lima and would be a few hours. Rather than waste my time I decided to go bug-hunting.

There was a small lodge near the landing strip and in the clearings were more insects than I’d seen so far. This may be because it was the first time I’d had the chance to properly explore one area, or it may have been a particularly diverse spot. Either way, I saw lots of bugs.

There was a huge number of grasshoppers of all different shapes, sizes and colours. I couldn’t understand how so many could live together in such a small area and figured that there must be a lot of specialisation.

Marlene and I went to the landing strip to get an update on the flight (I went mainly because there were lots of butterflies in the grass there). We were walking along the path to the lodge when a couple of porters came towards us. A couple of seconds after we’d passed each other we heard this loud crack and the sound of tree branches being bashed. Just above us, a large branch had broken off and was falling to the ground! We ran a couple of metres then decided we were safe. The branch fell right across the path and must have been a good couple of metres long. We laughed at our close encounter and headed on our way.

(the tree branch that fell)

The plane finally arrived and we went on our way once again. We arrived at the lodge mid-afternoon and went on a walk on one of the trails. The thing that struck me most was the huge number of fungi growing. The rainforest is warm and damp, perfect conditions for fungi, and they flourished.

But best of all was the trees. We finally saw some really big trees. Massive trees. Strain-your-neck-looking-up-to-see-the-top trees! It was brilliant. One of the best we saw was a strangler fig. The tree it had strangled had died and you could go inside and look up. It was brilliant, although someone (I can’t remember who) teased me that there might be snakes inside so I made a hasty retreat!

(looking up inside the strangler fig)

That evening we went for a night-walk around the lodge and saw more insects and some frogs. I went to bed once again excited about the next day – we were heading to the macaw clay lick. I couldn’t wait!