Friday 19.9.14. Jatuncocha Lagoon.

Wow, what a day!!!

We are home after 9 hours on the water and in the jungle.

Early wake up call was 6am, we awoke about 5.30, before the engines at 5.45. Watched the sunrise out our window.

Sunrise out the window of our cabin.

Went up to sundeck for a spot of birdwatching before breaky. Lots of small birds and a long way off, no good for pics, but fun to spot and watch and learn about the names and behaviours.

Not sure, but a great yellow breasted bird.

The guides here are amazing – Freddy and Javier (Cousins), Avela and Renee are all very knowledgeable about the birds and animals, species, latin names and behaviours, as well as plants and indigenous customs and uses of plants etc. Great English too, given it is their third language after Kichwa and Spanish.

Breaky at 6.15 (this was announced in error, so kitchen not quite ready, then up on bow for departure at 7.15. Into the canoe for a 45 minute journey.

All aboard, roof rolled back for viewing.

We stopped in at the last Ecuadorian Army base (before Peruvian border) to get paperwork sorted.

Paperwork, all good.

Another Oropendula nest.

Muddy brown Amazonian river.

Then further up the Napo River, then turned into the Yasuni River, that took us to a campground in the Yasuni National Park, we had a toilet (banos) stop. Yasuni National Park has 1130 species of trees, 150 species of amphibian and 596 species of birds, it is the largest protected area of Ecuador.

Kapok/Ceibo/broccoli tree
standing tall above the canopy.

A third of the group took off into the jungle and we returned to the canoe to travel further to Jatuncocha Lagoon – A black lake. On the way we spotted lots of things:

• Macaws 
• heaps of other birds, 
• jungle trees and flowers, 
• Amazon dolphins or Pink dolphins. They are pink when they are regulating their body temperatures (a bit like penguins) 
• Kingfishers 
• Oropendulas 
• Herons 
• Terns 
• Egrets 
• Vultures 
• Chachalacas 
• Piranhas – both red bellied and others, my what big teeth they have for little fish 
• Greater Ani’s – a blue black bird, sunning themselves on some bushes.

A tarantula on the toilet ceiling.

Macaw.

Pink dolphin.

The jungle.

Pink dolphin.

Probably an ant, wasp or bee nest.

Butterflies on my cap...possibly cos its wet and sweaty,
I had dipped my hat in the river.

Close up, nice shot Suzie.

The water between the river and the lake changed from brown to black, in the transition zone it was like unstirred milk in coffee, all mocha like. Once in the black water, the landscape changed, there were more reeds, we glimpsed a Grey dolphin – just! We cruised around in the lake a bit. There were some good reflections. Saw some more birds and then headed back towards the campsite. Along the way, the canoe pulled into the bank and tied up, while the guides – Freddy and Javier, along with Liz and Santiago tried to catch a piranha to show us. Eventually after a few snags, with the simple tackle of a stick, about 1.5metres of line and hook baited with beef Liz was successful – a Red bellied piranha. The fish was quite beautiful with its shimmering scales, orange belly and deadly teeth.

The brown river turning black.

Reflections on the black water.

Hard day on the water, Lee snoozing, Bob snoozing
behind the glasses and Marg.

Javier un-snagging a line.

Red bellied piranha.

Tortoise.

Kapok tree cotton.

Then back to camp for a sanga, Coke and an apple for lunch. It is hot and humid, so the coke and water goes down really well and we seem to be perennially hungry, even though we do a fair bit of sitting around in canoes.

The campsite was full of many butterflies and dragonflies – plus really interesting insects etc.

After lunch we divided into two groups to walk in the jungle. It was a little cooler in the jungle, but the humidity was pretty high.

Walking palm tree.

Heading into the rainforest. One person has already
got their rain poncho on.

Buttress, Kapok or Ceibo tree.

Javier hunting in the plant to see
what he can see.

We hadn’t been walking long, when we could hear the rain falling onto the canopy above us. It took a while for the rain to reach the jungle floor, but it was pretty wetting when it did. We have been issued with heavy plastic ponchos, which we carry every day, all but two of us donned the ponchos to stay dry, I chose to cover the pack and put the camera in the dry bag, I was hot and sweaty anyway, so I thought the rain might be a refreshing change, which proved to be the case. It was yet another thing ticked off to experience Amazonian rain.

A pair of drowned rats.

Dwarfed by the buttress roots.

In the jungle our guide, Javier, found amazing plants and trees and bugs we saw:

• A walking palm 
• A grasshopper living in a pitcher type plant, Javier, tickled him up the funnel of the leaf with the collected water – no pics, as all our cameras were put away. (Dopey me, didn’t have my waterproof one with me) 
• A tree frog 
• Greater Ani’s (bluish, black jay like birds) 
• Huge Buttress trees, also know as the Kapok, Ceibo or Broccoli tree. These are sacred to the indigenous Kichwa people. They have a huge canopy/broccoli type top which stands above the rest of the jungle canopy, with the huge buttress routes at the base – these represent basically heaven and earth to the locals with strong trunk between. 
• Tarantula spider in a hole, which Javier tickled out with a stick 
• A very well camouflaged toad 
• Wine glass mushrooms 
• Bull horned spider 
• Skull spider. 

After the rain it got instantly muddy underfoot and we were thankful for the hot/sweaty gum boots.

We arrived back from the walk before the other group and I chased more butterflies and dragonflies, some flowers and other interesting things. I found a caterpillar in the throes of making its cocoon; Javier explained it’s the caterpillar of one of the biggest butterflies – the Owl Butterfly.

All in all a great day out.

We travelled about 45 minutes back to the ship to be met with hot chocolate and fruit kebabs. The ship began motoring again soon after our return. Time for showers and washing – especially the muddy pants.

There will be lots of photos of brown muddy water today, as the dolphins were very elusive and hard to photograph. Their behaviour and looks are quite different to our bottlenoses.

A quick visit to the bar where I had one of the ‘welcome drinks’ – the Anakonda Special – phew – no shortage of alcohol in it.

Leani and Graham.

Jose and Renato.

We two with our drinks.

Dinner with Bob and Cherie, a lovely couple from Brisbane. Bob has a Canon with a big lens – 70-300mm, he has some of his and Cherie’s photos on the ipad, they both have some brilliant shots which were fantastic to see. (still pretty sure I couldn’t manage to lug one of those around tho) We really appreciated the effort Bob made to go and get the iPad and share. (Dinner of Palm heart fettucine/steak with olive sauce and Passionfruit mousse)

After dinner it was off to the bar for our briefing for tomorrow which includes a visit to a farm, cooking class, jungle walk and canoe ride.

Tried the internet tonight, very slow and not able to do terribly much.

Thursday 18.9.14 – Canoe ride and Kichwa family visit.

Breaky a choice of cereals, fruits, scrambled eggs, bacon, pancakes, fruit juice, tea, coffee, bread rolls and jam. I managed some muesli and a bacon roll. After breaky it was pretty much time to clean teeth and get ready to go ashore to visit a traditional home in this area.

We are advised to wear long sleeves and long pants, sunscreen, insect repellent and a hat. Life jacket is mandatory in the canoes. So dressed and loaded with water, camera and binoculars, we headed off down the river for 45 minutes or so.

Passing a Kichwa community, one of many along 
the river. This is their communal area, with 
usually a large meeting room, schools and some other 
buildings.

A cicada on one of the reading room couches.

All on the bow, life jackets on, gear packed, ready to 
board canoes.

View of the MV Anakonda from the side.That's our 
room, above the white things at the back, you can see 
our two black windows.

A tortoise, with a cluster of yellow butterflies on 
its head. The butterflies are feeding on the salt from 
tortoises tear ducts.

Front view o ship. Probably Mauritio up the top 
seeing us off.

A barge with gravel. The boat at the back generally
 pushes the barge and is not attached.

It was nice to get the wind in the canoe as it is already heating up at 9.00. We visited the home and land of a local Kichwa family, basically little thatched huts on stilts, providing ventilation, no power, no walls, no beds, pretty simple living. We met the matriarch – Leila?, and three sons, there are 9 children all up, only 2 sons still at home with her. The daughters are married and have moved away to live. They live a subsistence life on the banks of the river, fishing, hunting and gathering their food. They had chooks, cocoa trees, bananas and other stuff.

The thatched ceiling.

Leila making string from 
dried palm leaves. She 
does this by rolling a few 
strands together over her knee.

We tasted the seeds of the Cocoa plant, which they make chocolate out of, the flesh was quite sweet. We left the family home at midday – phew it was getting hot.

Captive tortoises, in a small 
area on the family 'farm.' 
They are grown for eating.

Freddy showing us the tortoise.

Not a great shot, but there he is up close.

These are bird nests, it is the nest
of one of the Weaver birds or
Oropendula. Lovely black birds
with yellow on their tails.

Hibiscus flower.

A nut/fruit thing, Freddy used to 
paint one of the sons and one of our 
group.

Painting with the inside of that seed/flower. 
Very red.

Butterfly.

Freddy with ripe cacoa, which we ate the seeds, 
tasted sweet. Then we had a spitting competition with the 
seeds.

Hellaconia, they are everywhere.

Family dogs.

The main house/sitting/sleeping room.

Butterflies.

Leila walking out into their dugout canoe, to wash 
her dish.

Here's us inside the family room.

Then back to meet the boat that had continued sailing towards us, with banana cake and guava/passionfruit juice as we stepped off the canoes, it was nice to get the gum boots off, as it was pretty hot and sweaty out there once the sun broke through the clouds.

Lunch at one, (ceviche, curry beef and rice, caramel banana) followed by a couple of hours siesta/rest time (time to catch up on journal and type up in readiness for internet connection?) before next expedition at 4.00pm.

At 4.00, we did like Gilligan and into the canoes, for a 3 hour tour…to spot birds along the Tiputini River, a much smaller tributary. Some we saw were:

• Yellow rumped Cacique – who are a weaver bird and build the pendulous nests.
• Several toucans including a white throated one, really they are a long way off, but have very distinctive shape, when flying and in the trees, OK through binocs, but camera just not big enough.
• Woodpecker – adult and juvenile - ????????????
• Turkey – of some sort, up in the tree, smaller than domestic turkey.
• Oropendula – another type of weaver bird, with longer pendula nests and yellow in the tail and body.
• Macaws
• Chachalacas – which had a call a little similar to Kookaburra
• Kingfishers

It was a lovely river to cruise up and we had a brilliant time, a bit of lighting as we returned to the big boat in the dark. Along the way we saw fireflies in the jungle beside the river, they are cool. There were lots of stars in a clear black sky.

Came home to the boat, with our juice of the day being tree tomato which is a bit like orange, and potato chips.

The Amazon is very different from Antarctica in as much as things are very far away and in the trees and vines of the jungle, so the zoom lens is not really big enough, several people have big 300mm and 400mm lenses plus extenders…hard work holding them, but some great photos. So despite not seeing them up close, the binocs help and it is great to see these guys in their natural habitat.

We went off the bar for a drink before dinner. Dinner at 8.00 with Veronica and Ross (mushroom empanada, Chicken roulade and figs with cheese – a tad sweet for me) Then it was off to our briefing for tomorrow.

The days are busy and despite a siesta time in the middle of the day, it is so good to get into bed at the end of the day and sleep soundly, something we just couldn’t do in Quito. Most of us on the boat are saying the same thing, and it seems everyone was having trouble in Quito, but we were all trying to ignore it.

The dining room.