Day Two In the Jungle

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Our early start took us down river for about 20 minutes and then a 30-40 minute walk through the jungle to the Tres Chimbadas Lake before it got too hot. Here our catamaran took us on a cruise of the small lake for a couple of hours. It was very beautiful and peaceful, with a variety of birds and even a caiman. The lake was formed when the river decided to take a short cut and the bend in it turned into the lake. Over time it will become a swamp and then be consumed by the jungle and disappear. One of our elderly schoolteacher companions asked if the animals, fish and birds would realise in time and be able to get away. Our extremely patient guide explained this process would take 50-100 years.

The absolutely highlight was seeing a family of otters, mother and four babies of different ages. This is quite uncommon so we were very lucky to see them so close. They are much larger than I thought, up to 2m in length and not really like cute and cuddly Disney characters. They are rated as 1 of the 5 top predators along with the anaconda, condor and puma.

We didn’t see a puma or jaguar unfortunately but did see a cute little jungle cat.

Back to the Explorers Inn for a quick swim which was really more of a mud bath and then lunch. After lunch I found we had a new roommate, a hand sized grey tarantula had taken residence in our curtains. A couple of the staff armed with a broom nervously removed it.

Later in the day, I went for a walk to Le Torre, a 42m disused telco tower to get a view above the jungle. I got about 3/4 of the way up before deciding enough was enough. However on the way we saw Capuchin monkeys, a Toucan and other interesting jungly things.

Before dinner we went out in the dark to the river to spot more caiman. We saw several but they were pretty hard to photograph so you will just have to trust me on this.

Thankfully the busy day meant I slept well under my mosquito net and didn’t dream too much of big hairy spiders falling on me.

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