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.