One Month In The Jungle!
Well there we go, Saturday the 18th of November was our 1 month anniversary of arriving at Taricaya! What a busy month, and what a busy week!
Its been pretty hot and humid, compared to last week when we had quite a bit of rain and the creek rose right up over the bridge, this week we´ve had little rain and the creek has dropped to the lowest its been since we arrived. In one day it dropped over 2 metres!
Monday saw a bonazana day of bird watching for both us, Rachael was at New Farm Platform and had quite a few new birds plus a very cool view of some Roadside Hawks circling around the nearby trees. Lee had a brilliant session up in the Canopy, he decided to take our telescope which really impressed the staff and other volunteers with him as it gave them much better views of distant birds, aiding with ID. A total of no less than 8 new species!
That afternoon we all went over to Enrique´s, he lives across the river with his family. They are from a traditional local tribe, but left as they did not agree with some of the laws. Taricaya volunteers have recently helped him to build some houses in their traditional style, using no plastic, hammers, nails or planks of wood...simply as it comes straight from the jungle! Enrique now shows tourists his way of life and we went over to find out for ourselves. He showed us their traditional clothes and bedding, made from the bark of a particular tree, showed us how they make fire and cut things down with out macchettes or knives, told us about how they hunt with bow and arrows and about their traditions.
Tuesday was quite quiet on the wildlife watching front, Lee helped build a predoor to the ocelot enclosure while Rachael helped dismantle and move one the bridges along the trails. In the afternoon Lee went for a walk and took some wax casts of some peccary, paca and agouti (all mammals) footprints he had found. Rachael rode through the jungle on the donkeys =0)
Wednesday was a real adventure, we headed into Peurto with 6 other volunteers with the aim of canoeing back to Taricaya! The canoe trip was stunning, no engine and only two paddles, which we used to keep us in the right direction and simply let the current take us down river. It was so quiet! and at the same time alive with sounds of the jungle, we could see loads of birds as they were not scared off by the boat, Lee and I saw over 30 species of birds including quite a few new ones!
It was very hot and sunny, so we plastered ourselves in suncream, drank bucket loads of water and wore hats, then simply jumped into the river to cool off! It took us five and a half hours to get back but it was one of the best trips we have done since being here.
Thursday saw Lee carrying arm loads of wood up from the boat for a new monkey enclosure, while Rachael helped feed the animals and clean the lodge. A troop of squirrel monkeys again came past, crashing through the trees. That afternoon Lee had a quiet observation session at a platform called HOB, while Rachael went on an herpetology walk looking for frogs, lizards and snakes. During this walk she spotted a huge snake skin, which Daniel (the herpetology expert) thought it might be that of a Yellow-tailed Cribo - similar to the one caught the other week at the lodge which was 2.5 metres long!
Friday, and we both were at New Farm Platform in the morning doing observations with our scope! It was a really good session again, Rachaels favourite were the two Red and Green Macaws that flew over a couple of times, these are the large, classic parrots. Walking back to the lodge we were really lucky to see 4 South American Coati´s, racoon type mammals. They were climbing a tree, pulling all the bark off.
After breakfast Lee was strimming grass around the lodge and Rachael was clearing trails and was lucky enough to see the Coati´s again, including one which burst out of the undergrowth in front of us, ran along the trail a short way before disappearing once again.
That afternoon Lee went on an herpetology walk, and unfortunately caught nothing. Rachael went to New Farm to cut flowers, this is quite time consuming work as all the leaves need to be trimmed off and there are lots of flowers, but as we were doing this we saw an Agouti - a large rodent, which calmly walked between us and the river bank, picked up a piece of fruit and calmly walked off. Quite a day for mammals!
Back into Peurto this weekend, and its heaving with people. Its the local elections and everyone from the surrounding area has to come to town to vote, one positive is that all the main bars and clubs are shut (Peruvian law so people should be sober when they vote) which meant the very loud kareoke bar next to our hostel was quiet for once!
We had quite a busy weekend popping all over Peurto, booking our flights to Lima for the end of our stay and we even went up the Obelisk - a observation tower which gives great views of the whole of Peurto and the surrounding jungle. We are now off for a refreshing icecream - at 1 soles (about 17p) for two huge scoops who can argue with that!
Well there we go, Saturday the 18th of November was our 1 month anniversary of arriving at Taricaya! What a busy month, and what a busy week!
Its been pretty hot and humid, compared to last week when we had quite a bit of rain and the creek rose right up over the bridge, this week we´ve had little rain and the creek has dropped to the lowest its been since we arrived. In one day it dropped over 2 metres!
Monday saw a bonazana day of bird watching for both us, Rachael was at New Farm Platform and had quite a few new birds plus a very cool view of some Roadside Hawks circling around the nearby trees. Lee had a brilliant session up in the Canopy, he decided to take our telescope which really impressed the staff and other volunteers with him as it gave them much better views of distant birds, aiding with ID. A total of no less than 8 new species!
That afternoon we all went over to Enrique´s, he lives across the river with his family. They are from a traditional local tribe, but left as they did not agree with some of the laws. Taricaya volunteers have recently helped him to build some houses in their traditional style, using no plastic, hammers, nails or planks of wood...simply as it comes straight from the jungle! Enrique now shows tourists his way of life and we went over to find out for ourselves. He showed us their traditional clothes and bedding, made from the bark of a particular tree, showed us how they make fire and cut things down with out macchettes or knives, told us about how they hunt with bow and arrows and about their traditions.
Tuesday was quite quiet on the wildlife watching front, Lee helped build a predoor to the ocelot enclosure while Rachael helped dismantle and move one the bridges along the trails. In the afternoon Lee went for a walk and took some wax casts of some peccary, paca and agouti (all mammals) footprints he had found. Rachael rode through the jungle on the donkeys =0)
Wednesday was a real adventure, we headed into Peurto with 6 other volunteers with the aim of canoeing back to Taricaya! The canoe trip was stunning, no engine and only two paddles, which we used to keep us in the right direction and simply let the current take us down river. It was so quiet! and at the same time alive with sounds of the jungle, we could see loads of birds as they were not scared off by the boat, Lee and I saw over 30 species of birds including quite a few new ones!
It was very hot and sunny, so we plastered ourselves in suncream, drank bucket loads of water and wore hats, then simply jumped into the river to cool off! It took us five and a half hours to get back but it was one of the best trips we have done since being here.
Thursday saw Lee carrying arm loads of wood up from the boat for a new monkey enclosure, while Rachael helped feed the animals and clean the lodge. A troop of squirrel monkeys again came past, crashing through the trees. That afternoon Lee had a quiet observation session at a platform called HOB, while Rachael went on an herpetology walk looking for frogs, lizards and snakes. During this walk she spotted a huge snake skin, which Daniel (the herpetology expert) thought it might be that of a Yellow-tailed Cribo - similar to the one caught the other week at the lodge which was 2.5 metres long!
Friday, and we both were at New Farm Platform in the morning doing observations with our scope! It was a really good session again, Rachaels favourite were the two Red and Green Macaws that flew over a couple of times, these are the large, classic parrots. Walking back to the lodge we were really lucky to see 4 South American Coati´s, racoon type mammals. They were climbing a tree, pulling all the bark off.
After breakfast Lee was strimming grass around the lodge and Rachael was clearing trails and was lucky enough to see the Coati´s again, including one which burst out of the undergrowth in front of us, ran along the trail a short way before disappearing once again.
That afternoon Lee went on an herpetology walk, and unfortunately caught nothing. Rachael went to New Farm to cut flowers, this is quite time consuming work as all the leaves need to be trimmed off and there are lots of flowers, but as we were doing this we saw an Agouti - a large rodent, which calmly walked between us and the river bank, picked up a piece of fruit and calmly walked off. Quite a day for mammals!
Back into Peurto this weekend, and its heaving with people. Its the local elections and everyone from the surrounding area has to come to town to vote, one positive is that all the main bars and clubs are shut (Peruvian law so people should be sober when they vote) which meant the very loud kareoke bar next to our hostel was quiet for once!
We had quite a busy weekend popping all over Peurto, booking our flights to Lima for the end of our stay and we even went up the Obelisk - a observation tower which gives great views of the whole of Peurto and the surrounding jungle. We are now off for a refreshing icecream - at 1 soles (about 17p) for two huge scoops who can argue with that!
posted by Lee Barber at
9:20 AM
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