Album: destinations:Ecuador:Cuyabeno:20041221 | |||
I woke up twice last night. The first wsa when something that looked like a big tan rat knocked Rhona's clock off the shelf. Then again later when she heard something running around at the foot of the bed. I don't know what that was because all I could see sere a few beetles scurrying about. Mice maybe? We left a little early to float downstream in search of sloths. We were unsuccessful but did see many more birds: parrots, pigeons, kingfishers, a small raptor, and got a poor movie of a big, iridescent blue butterfly. After returning to a delicious egg and sausage breakfast, I discovered that I have a serious battery problem. The 3 batteries that I carry in the camera and case are exhausted and the fourth I thought I brought, I cannot find anywhere. Right now I am squeezing a little more juice out of the first battery that I swapped out. As I was writing this days's entry most of the others left. They had arrived earlier than us and their trip is over. All who remain are Sara and Dan unless new people arrive. They all seemed to like their stay here as have we. At this time I am not sure what is on the schedule for this afternoon.
::later that night::
That afternoon we went out to the big lagoon again, but for an hour's hike to see more land based flora and fauna. There were a couple big termite and paper ant nests, more leaf cutter ant highways, and a bird mating area with the males all calling out. The guide talked about a number of plants and showed us examples of plants used to make blowgun darts (carved out with cayman teeth). The day was hot and muggy so we returned to the laguna for a quick swim and to visit the anaconda again. We stuck our heads in a different part of the log and got an even closer view. I saw it sniffing the air with its tongue and it turned its head toward me. It's eyes were milky white so it must be getting ready to shed its skin. I got a real good picture with Rhona's camera. My batteries are all dead. We were treated to an excellent showing by three river dolphins too. By then it was getting pretty dark and we motored down the river in a flock of bats skimming the water trying to snatch small fish from just below the surface. We finished the night with a 40 minute night hike after dinner to see insects and spiders that did not turn up anything except perhaps a tiny red tick that I found on my left forearm the next morning. There was a lot more bugs in our cabaña. We should have invited the group inside. The Climbing Rat from the previous night didn't return as far as we know. |
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