Amazon Day 3
This snake was next to the path to our hut. I didn’t even notice it but then suddenly behind me, the SO screamed. I turned around wondering what it was, not thinking it was necessarily anything nasty, as I’d learnt a scream can mean anything from mild surprise to major shock. Well as it happened there was a two metre snake scuttling off the path, but also coiled up, with its head in the air. I agree that definitely merited a scream!
We saw four snakes in total during our time there. This is the only one we managed to get much of a photo of.
The previous night we went out on the lake at night and looked for Caimans with our flashlights. Their eyes reflect the light from hundreds of metres away. We saw a couple of dozen, such as this. Most of them relatively small, but some can get to four metres.
The official sign for Chalalan at the river.
It was a very interesting place to stay, and I enjoyed experiencing the Amazon. It is worth nothing that the facilities are, as expected, basic. There is no power at all, except some lights and a power lug from 6.30 pm to 10 pm from solar panels. No fans in rooms. No communications. The shower is not heated (but the water is moderately warm).
I wouldn’t let that put you off. Just to be aware of what your expectations are.
The guiding was great, and the food also very good. And it wasn’t as hot as I thought it would be, due to our time of year.
This is Kermit. He decided to move into our hut.
The inside of the hut.
We went out for a three hour way in the morning, and saw another deer.
Part of the trail. At times it could look like NZ rainforest.
Not sure what this was!
Trying out my climbing skills!
An interesting looking bug.
A butterfly that landed on Fabian’s shoe. Fabian is a Swiss meteorologist who was there for the same time as us. We were lucky that the three of us had a guide to ourselves. In fact we were the only three people in camp the first night. But a dozen Americans turned up the second day.
These berries were delicious. Most you were told not to eat, but these ones were okay and superb.
Another butterfly!
Not sure which bird this came from.
I love these natural spikes on a tree, designed to stop them being climbed. Of course, the monkeys swing onto them from other trees.
More of the trail.
Not sure what type of plant or fruit this was, hanging down.
An unusually shaped tree.
On the way back, some of the locals were dragging a new canoe along the two kilometre trail from the river to the lake.
This squirrel monkey doing gymnastics for us.
In the afternoon we went down river around six kms.
A small farm was there, including pineapple trees.
Those shapes hanging down are nests. Not only do they have eggs in there, the birds can fly in and out of them also.
An agouti.
A mango tree.
An unusually coloured bird. Not yet identified it.
This is the Santa Rose lake, which is much larger than Chalalan. They are the only two lakes in the area.
We then went fishing for piranhas in the lake. The only thing that went wrong is I fell into the lake off the log, while casting my line. It is bad enough falling into a lake, but worse when you are deliberately trying to attract piranhas.
Some monkeys turned up to shake fruit down on us as we fished.
A total of seven piranhas were caught. This is our guide, Obi.
You can see here the teeth in the piranha. That is why they can be a menace to humans.
And we had the piranhas for dinner that night. They tasted really really nice.