It was a very early wake up today - 5am, to see the "clay lick". Every morning, as long as it's not raining, a lot of birds including macaws, parrots and parakeets descend upon a rock on which they eat the clay. I was still half asleep when we got onto the boat and headed downstream in search of birds. In total, 10 others had gathered from other lodges in search of the same wonders. For the first hour we didn't do anything as there was too much fog. Thankfully we were able to view the clay lick through our guide's telescope for about ten minutes before they all jetted off at once for seemingly no reason, as if a bell had gone off and they had finished their breakfast. I was so tired I even fell asleep on the boat journey home before conking out in bed for three hours. The experiences of Machu Picchu must have been starting to take it's toll on me. Our afternoon activity was thankfully changed from climbing up the large hill in which the group yesterday saw no animals, to an activity which involved looking for toucans after I casually mentioned how much i wanted to find one. The guide claimed he knew a spot where they would go every afternoon pretty much. Why not trust the man?
Once again we headed into the boat. This time it was just to cross the river. Whilst still on the beach the guide set up his telescope and started searching for birds sat on the treeline. Within seconds he had found two green macaws like this morning. This time we were able to get a better view of them to our delight. It turns out I actually quite like the macaws. We saw several other birds of names I can't remember before we started to walk further away from the river.
It wasn't long before we struck gold, not the toucan, but an animal I had never seen before. We were just heading around a corner when the guide used hand signals to tell us to be quiet and move slowly. As we rounded, a shocked large weasel, must have been a similar size to a cocker spaniel, turned around and saw us. He must have been no more than 10 foot away from us. He ran slightly, before turning to look at us one last time. We tried to reach for our cameras but to no avail. After that one look the large weasel was gone. I couldn't believe what i had seen. More walking occurred, this time with a giant grin on my face before we reached a lake area. This was not before Emma decided to have two minor mares. With her first one she almost got herself stuck in the mud, I had to almost drag her out before she started panicking. The second had a moment of worry however after she started shaking her hand swiftly. She had been bitten by something, she looked down and at the guide before he reassured her that it was only a red fire ant. Her bite would sting for five minutes, but no more and there were no lasting effects thankfully.
Immediately in the lake area we started to see more birds and wildlife. This is more of what I had signed up for! Two more macaws were just the start of the viewing we were treated to. Several more nameless (to me) birds were spotted before once again the jackpot was hit (not a toucan through), six monkeys were spotted from afar at the top of a very tall tree. Easily viewable from the telescope. They were red howler monkeys, apparently they aren't that common to spot. They kept hanging on from their tails and eating fruit from the leaves. This was great entertainment for ten minutes until they decided to go and forage from another tree.
I was starting to become slightly restless as we stood in water and mud not far underneath the top of our wellies when the mission was accomplished. The guide had spotted some toucans! Toucans are hilarious due entirely to the nose/beak to body ratio. These toucans were great, using their large beak to pick up nuts and berries and drop them into it's mouth. The colours on their chest were phenomenal, a mixture of red, yellow, black and white. With our success we were able to leave the lake and return home. On the way home I was shocked and jumped when I saw a black worm-like creature slither towards me at speed. It came to a halt and allowed me to inspect it further. It was a small snake of no more than six inches long. Harmless according to our guide.
This discovery was seconded just after dinner when yet another snake was discovered on a path. This time the snake had killed or stunned a frog not far from the kitchen area. This snake didn't hang around and exited the scene of the crime before we had good chance to photograph it. No day in the rainforest is complete without a night walk for discovery. Countless spiders and frogs were sighted before we found another snake - a tree snake! A snake quite small and apparently harmless once more, it was about 60-80cm in length but wrapped in a branch around head height. No doubt in search of doing evil deeds. Not long after heading onto the riverside beach and we found another caiman. It quickly disappeared under a rock to escape harassment unfortunately. More toads, frogs and fish were spotted before the highlight of the day. The guide shone his light into the grassy area when a reflection was spotted. This reflection was from the eyes of a large member of the cat family. It quickly ran away before we could identify it as either a puma or a jaguar. Most likely a jaguar. We tried for ten minutes to find where it had gone to no avail. This must have been no more than a couple of hundred metres from our camp as we soon returned back to camp. With that, our final full day in the jungle was complete.
