Guess what, now back in Quito once more this time for the last time before we get the plane home on Wednesday.
We have just spent the last 4 days cruising down the Napo river into the Amazon rain forest and what a wonderful experience it was.
The boat was a bit like the pictures of the old Mississippi paddle steamers were like except no paddle and a big deisel enging for power. There were 19 passengers and 12 staff plus 2 guides. The passenger accomodation was arranged on the top two decks with the dining room on the lower deck along with the engine room and the crews area. The top deck also housed a sun deck and bar. We were on the top deck.
We flew from Quito in the high Andes down to Coca on the edge of the jungle. We then took a motorised canoe downstream for a couple of hours to meet the boat. The boat had two canoes atached to it (I call them canoes but each could seat 20 or so plus luggage and with a couple of large outboards pusing it along it was fast. The Napo river is a fast flowing very wide but quite shallow in places with lots of shifting sandbanks and islands so the boat weaves in and out and back and forth across the river. At the start near Coca the river is bordered by lots of settlements mainly housing oilwoerkers from the many oil exploration areas. The canoe soon gets to the more remote areas bfore metting the boat. After embarking we navigate on downstream to get nearer the jungle reserves and national parks.
The first night we do a walk in the jungle along river and strams to look at wildlife in the dark. Lots of insects some very large and a small vine snake along with lots of bats.
The next day was a canoe ride up a narrow tributary to Panacocha. On the way we get our first sight of the fantastic birdlife along the narrow waterway wsith lots to photograph. We also sight in the roots of a tree a very rare Giant Otter, these are very rare so it was a great experience. Panacocha mean Piranha Lake and soon we are there. As we enter the lake the first thing we see is a pair of pink river dolphins, another rare sighting. despite what is said about piranhas they prefer fruits and vegetation to live meat so we were all allowed to swim. Swimming with Dolphins is so common now but swimming with Pink River Dolphins is very very rare. We all came out complte with fingers and toes intact.
The next day was time to take in a Parrot clay lick. Birds like to eat fruit and have worked out that often the most nutritious part of the fruit is the nut or seed in the centre. Over time the seeds have developed poisons in the seed to stop birtds eating them but parrots have countered that by going to eat clay with lots of other nutrients especially kaolin to counteract the poisons in the seedsnand go to these clay licks to eat the nutrient rich clay. The birds go to specific licks at certain times each day. Hundreds, even thousands gather in the trees and fly around making a tremendous noise. We went to two of them, the first before 7.00am. As predators have got to know about these licks then the parrots are obviously wary and take time to come down. They gradually get lower in the trees before first one then two then hundreds descend to the ground. At the first place a few were down when an eagle flew over and they were gone, silence and that was that place finished, they do not return again that day.
The next site was deeper into the jungle and much smaller. It was a small clay cave at the base of a cliff. This was was reckoned to work later in the day around 11.00am and was more for parrakeets and smaller parrots. The same thing thousands around flying and settling lower and lower down the trees checking for predators like ocelots, eagles and boa constrictors. They garadually got to ground level then all of a sudden hundredds on the ground and in the cave A very spectacular sight and right on time.
That evening was spent watching Caimen in another lake. The crocodile like creatures get up to some 8-10 feet and are nocturnal. The way to see them is to look with torches. The eyes shine bright orange and they stay on the surface as you approach in small canoes.
The trip ended today with the canoe ride early this morting back to Coca and the flight over the mountains into Quito once again
We arrived back at the hotel to find our room not quite ready so we sat in the courtyard. Sadly we suffered at the hands of a distraction theft and the bag with the passports, wallet, some credit and bank cards and all the cameras went, taken, stolen. Yes I was peed of but most pictures had been downloaded so kept them. Now got to spend last day getting new passport and sorting other stuff
OH Well our fault, easily taken in by a guy in a suit dropping a couple of small coins by me and making a fuss, distracted and bag went, turned round so was he!
Back if we get passports on Thursday so last blog report while away.
Mike & Jan
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