Holiday starts early in the jungle, with the wake-up knock at 5:30am followed by a splash of cold shower. Breakfast on the open-air dining terrace overlooking the lake includes much needed Ecuadorian coffee, strong and dark, con leche. The water is glassy with striations of the minerally water pushing in from the Napo as the sun slowly rises over the forest canopy.
We shove off at 6:30, being paddled back the way we came
from yesterday. As soon as the canoe passes
from the lake to the stream, Omar stops the boat with an excited “shhhhhh” and
a point upward. There we see a family of
big Howler monkeys, and the heavy 400mm Canon lens once again proves it’s worth.
Just a few more minutes downstream and we’re directed up again
for a quick glance of a Capuchin monkey as she zooms past. Within
5 more minutes we encounter a troop of Tamarin monkeys leaping from branch to
branch over the water. We catch one on the move with his take-out breakfast of
Hatchling McMuffin sticking out of his mouth.
It’s not even 7am and the rainforest is already generously sharing her
gifts.
We see more Hoatzon, those exotic birds from yesterday and
learn that the locals refer to them as “stinky turkeys”, a nickname that’s half
right. They do stink thanks to their
digestive system fermenting its food into pungent nutrition. But with no relations to any modern bird and
having primitive claws on the top hinge of their wings, this is thought to be a
rare, surviving prehistoric species. They
are plentiful, unafraid and very noisy, so it’s easy to get good pix. Guillermo, our local guide even points out some
fishing spiders, which as the name implies, is another example of survival
adaptations.
We transfer to the motor canoe and speed off to the Parrot Clay
Lick. It seems that salt, an essential
mineral for survival, is hard to come by here in the natural diet. The soil layer is just a foot or less thick and,
in a few spots, washes away revealing the clay below. Parrots flock to these bald spots to ingest
some of the clay for their recommended daily dose of NaCl. We stop
the boat just off the shore at the Clay Lick.
There are hundreds and hundreds of parrots and parakeets, and we can
make out at least three species by their coloring. The most flamboyant is a male hanging upside
down just above a row of 7 or 8 females, flapping his wings and shaking his
moneymaker like an avian version of an Elvis concert. When a perceived threat approaches, huge
flocks take flight all at once in an arching, swirling spectacle.
Next stop is Mandi Wasi, the same place we dropped off our local riders yesterday on our way into the resort. Mandi Wasi is a project of the Kichwa El Pilchi, a local tribe who have leaned-in to eco-tourism as a way to share their traditions with the outside world while simultaneously funding their continued existence and eliminating their former deforesting ways (logging was the tribe’s sole former source of income.) It’s not unlike what small farms in the USA are doing to thrive, turning themselves into event spaces, artisan markets and CSA. Today we’re hosted by Rosa who extends her hospitality by offering us a local tea of smoked Guayusa leaves. Rosa and our guide Omar clearly have a mutual respect for each other, and Omar translates as Rosa discusses the traditions, culture, food and work of the Kichwa. The structure is a scale model of the traditional Kichwa home, all made from free material found in the forest like bamboo and ironwood. In the next room, there’s a wood fire under an iron grate. They say the fire never goes out, being used for cooking (on the grate) and smoking (hung a few feet above the fire to preserve food). There’s no chimney, just a fire in the middle of the floor, and the smoke cures the thatched roof making it last for many years longer than it otherwise would. Rosa demonstrates machete skills and farming practices while other women prepare food and add it to the grill. Hearts of palm, yucca, catfish wrapped in banana leaf, yellow and green plantains and a skewer of fat palm weevils all cook while we sample the local hooch, chicha, a casava beverage fermented 1 to 7 days to the desired proof.
.JPEG)
We go outside the hut to see how the people use the local
plants and also talk about their efforts to bolster the turtle population. This part of our tour ends with us playing a
traditional game of darts – blow darts – from a 5 foot blow gun to a target
with a jaguar painted on it (humbly, I crushed it, and Mandy scored
great too!)
Back inside lunch is served with a portion of each prepared
food for each visitor. Did I mention the
weevil? It’s not actually a weevil. It’s the larvae of a Palm Weevil, essentially
a maggot about half the size of a hot dog and looking like a fat pig-in-a-blanket. A good and readily available source of protein
and healthy fats, these grubs are skewered live and roast in their own juices,
wiggling through the first part of cooking.
Needless to say, not all the guests are enthusiastic about this
delicacy. But hey, what makes the better
story?
We buy some handicrafts – it’s how the Mandi Wasi program
funds itself, a fine cause to support and a way to that Rosa and crew for a really
fun time today. As a closing, we weave headband
crowns out of strips of palm leaves and pose looking like Sonny and Cher circa
1971. Mandy also “adapts” a baby turtle
for an additional $5, and it’s given to her in a banana leaf bag as we say our
goodbyes.
It’s another 90F/80%RH day here in the Amazon (ain’t they
all?) so we rinse off before lunch. And
after lunch. And pretty much every time we get back to the room. We take a very nice hour long
yoga practice in an outdoor pavilion where I’m reminded just how much better shape
Mandy is in than me. Another rinse –
ahhhh, the blessed relief if only fleeting – then back on with the big rubber
boots. We march ourselves to the 130’
observation tower for some sunset fauna spotting. We get to see some Macaws, Green Honeycreepers, Spangled
Cotingas, and more. Once again, I’m
humbled by what art an experienced guide can make with a spotting scope and a
smartphone camera. Guillermo calls us down
a few flights of the stairs to show us an Amazon Tree Boa who’s coiled himself
up around the sunbaked steel of the tower to warm his cold-blooded self. He’s calm and lets us take some pretty wild
closeups.
After the sun sets, we power up the flashlights for the night hike back to basecamp. We see plenty more creatures, small and smaller, like the blunt headed tree snake, several types of katydids, and crazy slingshot spiders. The jungle is a cacophony of sounds at night, and we’re still having a hard time connecting to the fact that we’re really in the Amazon.
Dinner is a lovely time with our resortmates, recounting our
adventures of today and telling tales of past travels. The morning will come early, so we bunker
down to the serenade of the wild.
No comments:
Post a Comment