Our first stop-off today was at a local nature reserve. Here they look after animals that have been rescued from poachers and from illegal pets. It also serves as a good place for local birds to be fed. This is exactly what we saw first - four macaws. Three were red and one was green. They started at a tree a hundred metres away before swooping to get food. Also in the nature reserves were a few kinds of monkey that were allowed to roam free. A few of them even jumped on people and chilled. However, the best animal they had there was the two-toed sloth. I never thought that a sloth would be that entertaining but this sloth truly was. You could pick him up and he would use you as a tree to hold onto. When you put him back on the tree he would bend backwards and thurst his arms in a slow manner towards you, trying to grab hold. The monkey then came and started tormenting the sloth with it's greater agility.
After sadly leaving the friendly sloth we arrived at the port. Here we were to take a boat with a new tour guide. We even managed to see a spaniel! In the middle of the rainforest! We waited a while as they changed over belongings with a departing tourgroup. Some of the locals were farming bananas, they cut sometimes 15 bananas in one go from a branch.
Our tour guide seemingly joked around and asked us if we had bathing costumes on... when we asked if this was a joke he said we had about ten minutes and there was a toilet to change in. After tentatively putting on some swimming shorts we boarded the boat and departed off along the river. The guide pointed out a waterfall before asking whether we wanted to jump into the river from a rock or from the boat. We opted for the rock before seeing how high it was... We couldn't back down now, the guide had promised to film us jumping off. This was an opportunity we couldn't turn down after not having filmed the previous two river jumps.
We climbed up to the top of the rock and peered down precariously. It did seem very high... We were assured that the river was of sufficient depth. How they know how deep it is, I will never know. But I decided to test the depth of the river for Emma by jumping in. I can confirm it is of sufficient depth due to my still being here. Emma swiftly followed with a large splash. We were told to do it again, although this time we were to just continue floating down the river with the current instead of swimming to shore. Sounds... interesting.
We did the dive again, it was a little easier this time thankfully and then carried on down the river. I thought we'd only have to go down the river for less than 100m or so. The thoughts of caimans and piranhas kept entering my head as we floated peacefully down the river for over five minutes. Eventually the boat picked us up. This did seem deliberate however so no need to fret. After our daring idea of the day had been completed it was time to get to our next accommodation in the heart of the jungle. The boat journey was pleasant as we drifted along with the current until mooring up on the beach. A short walk later and we were in the lodge that would harbour us for two nights. Our guide informed us that due to the good weather we would visit the lake today. Any idea sounded good to me. Any opportunity to explore the jungle. Another short boat journey along the river and we moored up yet again. Within two minutes of walking along the path we were halted by our guide. He had seen monkey activity! We stood silently for over a minute, looking at our guide for any indication that we would see the monkey. I noticed a branch bouncing up and down, sure enough a squirrel monkey then appeared walking along the branch. There's something extra about knowing that the animal is wild. We took a shortcut and ended up on the side of a small river. Once again we waited patiently until we saw the same squirrel monkeys cross the river by tree branches.
After the joy of seeing some wildlife had slightly subsided, we continued on the path until our guide stopped us again. He had spotted more activity. This time, it was the supposedly rarely spotted night monkey. Slightly bigger than the squirrel monkey, this was a great spot.
We took a boat made from several logs tied together that only just seemed to float on the lake. Here we saw many birds, there were mostly just two types but there were over fifty of them in total. Upon destroying a great lomo saltado for dinner we headed out into the night to search for activity. We saw many frogs and toads, along with many threatening spiders before we hit the jackpot. With many insects swarming our heads we braved the swamplike area in search for bigger animals. Our guide put his light over one of the stretches of water and in return was greeted with two gleaming red eyes! We ventured closer and closer. The guide appeared madder and madder as he entered the same stretch of water as the red eyes, armed only with a stick and a torch. He prodded the animal with the stick and dragged it out of the reeds by the side. It was a 3-4ft caiman! Absolutely amazing. We took our photos of the caiman before one prod too many and it swished it's tail and disappeared once more into the night. Another caiman was seen but left to it's peace. The swamp was too big to dare trying to cross it without knowing how deep the combination of water and mud was. That concluded a thrilling day. Another Amazon day ahead tomorrow that hopefully will include more animals.
