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Day 60

4th November – Jungle trek and the lost Cocha

On day two of our Amazon tour we went to the Cocha Perdida or (lost Lake) we had breakfast and got on the boat for a short ride into the jungle, we trekked for a short way until we found some still water with a couple of row boats moored, jumped into one of the boats and took it in turns to row. As we went some macaws flew above and we saw yellow vultures, the wildlife was around but not really on show most animals would see us coming from a mile off and be well out of our way before we could identify let alone photograph them, however one heron stood very still and let us take pics as it was hunting a fish. We rowed for about an hour through this beautiful still lake until we got to a dock and climbed off, we trekked through the jungle some more spotting squirrel monkeys, the guide stopped short in his tracks and said he’d spotted a tarantula’s hole. We all stopped and crowded round while he got a small stick and removed the leaves then proceeded to poke it down the spiders mini cave entrance tricking the spider into thinking something tasty had stumbled into its reach and the spider went nuts for it trying to take the stick away and bite it, the guide pulled the stick out slowly and the spider came with it the thing was as big as my hand... bigger in fact.
Once we had all got pictures of the tarantula we continued along our trek until we came to a clearing with a tall viewing tower, the tower was constructed of metal and was about one story higher than the canopy, we stopped for a loo break, as we were sitting there I noticed some bees and wasps buzzing around me, un-phased by these and more worried by the prospect of climbing the viewing tower I took a pic of one of the wasps on my boot, went to the loo and found a giant roach beheaded by ants then proceeded to climb the tower, unfortunately the tower was a little disappointing, the view was very nice but we didn’t see any wildlife of note.

We stayed on the tower for twenty or so minutes then came back down and headed on back into the jungle, we got to what can only be described as a bog, travelling in silent single file over the thick sinking mud on walking platforms with many frogs around us making a lot of noise, I really like frogs but could only hear them I couldn’t see any. We came to the lost lagoon and got into another boat in complete silence and rowed out, we saw some turtles and then the guide went all twitchy and pulled us over to a small bit of land, Liz and I couldn’t see what he was looking at but he was getting the passengers of the boat to get up and look one by one, he eventually turned the boat around sand it was our turn to finally see what all the fuss was about. I stood up with the camera at the ready and he pointed it out what we were looking at was a six meter anaconda curled up, apparently its head was out but the commotion had made him shy and curl up.

We went around the lagoon for a little while longer spotting more turtles, some very pretty flowers and some bizarre spider webs, just before we got out of the boat Liz whispered and pointed out some baby caiman so the boat stopped came back and we watched them for a few minutes (nice spot baby!).

On our way back we saw a very big wasps nest, some paloma eggs (paloma is a kind of pigeon) and most fascinating of all some leaf cutter ants, unfortunately I think a great many were squished before I noticed them and pointed them out to the guide, after we’d spent a little while observing them we carried on our way fighting off the millions of mozzies following us around and the guide spotted a frog on a leaf, he picked it up and bent it over showing us fake eyes on its flanks that it uses for defence, nice for me to finally get a picture of a frog but I didn’t think he was very gentle with it. We carried on again a little way further and spotted more squirrel monkeys as well as another one of those frogs, and the biggest tree in the reserve the walk took a good few hours, the bugs really bugged us and we were pretty shattered so opted out of visiting the botanical gardens and instead took an early night.

Ellz xx

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