AMAZON & THE GALAPAGOS DAY 5 – THE 4th, 5th and 6th RULES OF THE JUNGLE

 

LaSelva is situated on Laguna Garzacocha (Heron Lake), so called as it is home to some 6 species of Herons.  It’s hot today, even by Amazon jungle standards, so Omar, our Naturalist guide, calls an audible and rearranges our schedule.  

After breakfast, we convene in the shaded observation deck on the top of the main lodge. We bring the camera and binoculars, and Guillermo sets up the two spotting scopes on tripods. Wildlife is very, very diverse in this part of the world, but often very localized so the entirety of a particular sub-species may exist in just a 5 mile area. We see everything from the common to the rare including a ring kingfisher, lesser kisasdee, chestnut fronted  macaws, orange winged parrots and a blue grey tanager.  All while sipping coffee.

We move our photo expedition to the dock and climb aboard a canoe with our guides and Yvonne, a quirky, artsy Australian woman with a quick wit. (The British couple from our group left very early this morning). Mandy’s Fairy Butterfly, a blue morpho the size of a finch, flitters by as a way of letting Mandy know she’s where she’s supposed to be at this moment.  Casting off, It only takes a few minutes to spot one of the lake’s namesake birds, cocoa heron, standing majestically along the waters edge.  

We hang a right and glide over some waterlillies into the mouth of a barely visible creek, ducking under some vegetation as we do.  It’s another world back here, a tiny but important sub-ecosystem of a sub-ecosystem. The creek is only about 3 times the width of the long 10-person canoe, but with our guides expertly rowing front and back, there’s no trouble navigating the tight turns.  There some new obstacles since the last time anyone was here - branches fallen across - and we duck to slip away under the first set. The second set is more challenging so Guillermo, rowing from the back, passes Omar, rowing front, his machete. In just a few minutes we have a freshly hacked passage and continue on.  

Along the way, Omar gets bitten by something on his back and has to remove his shirt to get the creature out. This leads to him telling us about the Botflies. This remarkable flying insect will grab mosquitoes mid-flight and lay their eggs on the mosquito. When the mosquito bites a mammal, Omar being the mammal in this story, the Botfly eggs are deposited under the skin to gestate.  As they grow into pinky-length, worm-like larve in the host Omar’s back, the itching makes sleep impossible for the subject Omar.  Misdiagnosed twice, Omar (now a full-fledged, Jeff Goldblum style Brindlefly) is finally treated just days before the fully formed adult botflies would have poked a hole and exited right through his skin and flown away.  I recant this story, dear readers, as a way of introducing Jungle Rule 4 - WEAR BUG SPRAY!

(Ivonne curing the jungle insect problem with a pink plastic fly swatter)

Conversation turns to the less ookey topic of this swamp’s giant anacondas. Jungle Rule 5 (and this one is pretty evident) - DON’T GET EATEN BY A GIANT ANACONDA!

(no picture of a giant anaconda as we strictly adhere to Jungle Rule 5)

We run the canoe aground, disembark and go for a nice hour-long jungle hike.  We’re shown the swamp aroid, a natural mosquito repellent plant of the philodendron family, and red cap cardinals, not actually a cardinal but called that anyway, among other plants and animals.  Several times during the hike, I have to remind myself that I’m actually hiking in the Amazon jungle. Surreal. 

As an absolute Top 10 highlight of any moment in our travels, Guillermo spots a Pigmy Marmaset, the world’s smallest monkey at just 7 to 9” tall and weighing a mere 3.5 to 6 ounces.  What’s more, there’s a second one, just a baby, even tinier and never too far from mama’s sight.  If you plan a trip here, it’s something you don’t dare let yourself hope for, as the spottings are so rare, and take such a crazy mix of luck and skill, plus a whole lot of cooperation from the Marmoset to not run off immediately once encountered.   We are speechless and shoot hundreds of exposures as the monkeys hang around for well over 10 minutes. We even get to see the mother feed by gnawing holes in the tree, then both drinking the sap and eating the insects that get stuck in the sap over the next few minutes.  Breathtaking!

We make it back to the canoe, exit the creek and do a counterclockwise loop around the edge of the lake, binoculars and cameras fully deployed.   Omar points out a row of sleeping bats on the bottom of a branch, who skitter away as we get too close and land back just a minute later.  We spot a hatchling Hoatzon, maybe the ugliest baby ever, so much so that it comes full circle to super-cute.  We see another of nature’s impressive adaptations: a butterfly drinking turtle tears. It seems that parrots are not the only creatures who have a hard time sourcing salt in this freshwater environment. On very hot days like today, turtles will weep tears as a way of sweating. Butterflies, not a group prone to wasting a nice nutrient source, will land on the turtle’s head and drink those tears to get the essential salts. Yes, this really happens in the wild, and occasionally nature is very, very gentle. 

 

After lunch and a semi-refreshing nap under a full tilt ceiling fan, we forgo the afternoon yoga as it’s just too damned hot. By now, everything we own is soaked with sweat, we’re burning through at least three pairs of socks a day, and trying to keep up with hand washing our skivvies.  Yet this is still one of the most glorious and magical trips we’ve done.  

Around 4, our expedition of five heads out for the evening adventure.  We hike another 20 minutes past last night’s observation tower, encountering still more exotic species.  We get a great snap of a lorhama eyemark, a quarter sized, bright blue butterfly that’s apparently a rare find.  Somehow Guillermo see a male/female pair of crested owls in a branch 50’ off the trail, despite their excellent camouflage. 

Omar guides us around a big colony of army ants, teaching us how not to get bitten and what to do if you do.  This leads us to our final adage.  Jungle Rule 6 – GET A GUIDE, PREFERABLY ONE WITH A BIG MACHETE!  Several reasons.  First, it really helps with adherence to Jungle Rule 5.  Second, without a guide, we could have walked around this jungle for weeks and would have been lucky to see two animals.  Third, the knowledge, passion and experiences they share really connects you to this strange and vital place.

We come out at the Mandi Cocha Lake, where we are met by national park guides.  These guys work 20-days-on/10-off living here and acting as rangers and ambassadors.  This is an Igapo forest, meaning an entirely different ecosystem of a jungle that gets temporarily flooded by black water (the rainwater mixed with the decaying soil nutrients of the forest floor).  We climb into their waiting canoe and are treated to a whole new set of species that only live in this sub-bionetwork.  We get some great pix of the Amazon kingfisher, and mating pairs of the black capped donacobious right along the lake’s edge. 

In the feeder stream, the light changes and we see the ancient riparian palm, known to have been alive during the time of the dinosaurs, and another species of trees that developed air-breathing roots, dropped down from up high like so much drying spaghetti, that allow the tree a continued source of oxygen during the high-water periods.  Sunset over the western edge of the lake brings out new colors and new creatures, and the serenade of the frogs signals the end of the day.

On the walk back, it’s spider night here in the jungle.  We use flashlights to see a very dangerous banana spider, the harmless but imposing scorpion spider and I score my first official sighting when I nearly put my hand on a huge hairy tarantula.  Rule 1!  Do not forget Rule 1!  But 10 minutes later, there is Omar scootching a map tree frog around a branch with his fingers so we can get a better look.  Let’s just leave touching stuff to the pros.

LaSelva is that place where jungle meets lux.  Dinner is certainly lux as the chef has prepared a luscious swordfish carpaccio appetizer and I pick the octopus entrée.  Omar, Yvonne, Mandy and me share pictures, stories and laughs, enjoying the last night our little band will be together.

(hidden track! if you've gotten this far, text or dm me on fb messenger for a video on the 3rd rule!)