BTW, there's a short slideshow (photos and clips), maybe 3 minutes, of our group on instagram at:
https://www.instagram.com/tamanduaexpeditions/
Just click the "Jan 2019" button.
Recap: We lost our checked luggage, reclaimed it, were abandoned by hired driver but walked to dock, boated to destination, went for a river swim, and I nearly finished my trip there.
2018-12-28: Part 3
With the approach of dusk, we hear various jungle sounds. Most are exotic bird calls, but then a sound like "a millstone grinding grain," as Mohsin puts it, which keeps waxing and waning. These are howler monkeys. Then comes several harsh huffs, very abrupt, coming from two spots. Mohsin says two jaguars across the river are communicating. "They're planning out the night," he says. "Hey, you wanna get together, or just hunt?" I'm amazed there are jaguars so close. On our 2006 trip to another part of the Amazon, our guide told us there were no jaguars nearby, that the last one was heard 30 years ago. This area is definitely more remote.
Once it's dark, we don headlamps and go for a night walk in the jungle. This is mostly just to get us used to walking a path at night. It's tricky, as you want to look around but you also have to keep an eye on the trail, as it's ever unpredictable with roots, limbs, depressions, and other hazards. There's also ants, lots of them in places, some harmless, some biting, and then there are the bullet ants. Bullet ants will bite you and hold on, using this leverage to sting you again and again. They are called bullet ants because their sting feels like getting hit with a bullet.
Stewart (a real estate developer by profession) wears a brilliant white dress shirt, which will become standard attire for him. It is blinding in the night when a headlamp hits it. He seems very proud of this idiosyncrasy. He also talks a great deal, and loudly. He's funny, but with a savage sense of humor. Mohsin leads the way with a machete. Though we follow a trail, the jungle ever encroaches with tangles of brush and vines or even fallen trees requiring clearing or circumnavigation. We hear a great deal on this walk, but see little wildlife, just some tiny frogs and lizards. Most notable is a fat pigeonlike bird sitting on a branch directly above us that we later identify as a tinamou.
We go to bed, finding it hard to believe it is our first night here. It seems we've been here several days already. It's pitchdark, and very awkward doing or finding anything in our room with headlamps. A burlap flap serves as door, though it hangs only to knee height. Similarly, the back wall is only chest high, open to the elements. LC and I have two cots with mosquito netting. We decide to share one, but it's so uncomfortably hot, especially with the netting holding in the heat, that on subsequent nights we sleep in separate cots, and I decide to stop using the netting.
https://www.instagram.com/tamanduaexpeditions/
Just click the "Jan 2019" button.
Recap: We lost our checked luggage, reclaimed it, were abandoned by hired driver but walked to dock, boated to destination, went for a river swim, and I nearly finished my trip there.
2018-12-28: Part 3
With the approach of dusk, we hear various jungle sounds. Most are exotic bird calls, but then a sound like "a millstone grinding grain," as Mohsin puts it, which keeps waxing and waning. These are howler monkeys. Then comes several harsh huffs, very abrupt, coming from two spots. Mohsin says two jaguars across the river are communicating. "They're planning out the night," he says. "Hey, you wanna get together, or just hunt?" I'm amazed there are jaguars so close. On our 2006 trip to another part of the Amazon, our guide told us there were no jaguars nearby, that the last one was heard 30 years ago. This area is definitely more remote.
Once it's dark, we don headlamps and go for a night walk in the jungle. This is mostly just to get us used to walking a path at night. It's tricky, as you want to look around but you also have to keep an eye on the trail, as it's ever unpredictable with roots, limbs, depressions, and other hazards. There's also ants, lots of them in places, some harmless, some biting, and then there are the bullet ants. Bullet ants will bite you and hold on, using this leverage to sting you again and again. They are called bullet ants because their sting feels like getting hit with a bullet.
Stewart (a real estate developer by profession) wears a brilliant white dress shirt, which will become standard attire for him. It is blinding in the night when a headlamp hits it. He seems very proud of this idiosyncrasy. He also talks a great deal, and loudly. He's funny, but with a savage sense of humor. Mohsin leads the way with a machete. Though we follow a trail, the jungle ever encroaches with tangles of brush and vines or even fallen trees requiring clearing or circumnavigation. We hear a great deal on this walk, but see little wildlife, just some tiny frogs and lizards. Most notable is a fat pigeonlike bird sitting on a branch directly above us that we later identify as a tinamou.
We go to bed, finding it hard to believe it is our first night here. It seems we've been here several days already. It's pitchdark, and very awkward doing or finding anything in our room with headlamps. A burlap flap serves as door, though it hangs only to knee height. Similarly, the back wall is only chest high, open to the elements. LC and I have two cots with mosquito netting. We decide to share one, but it's so uncomfortably hot, especially with the netting holding in the heat, that on subsequent nights we sleep in separate cots, and I decide to stop using the netting.
I'm nobody's pony.