Quite a lot actually :)
During the days we usually did three or four "activities" and interspersed them with meals and afternoon siestas... And the activities were for the most part, drifting or motoring quietly along the river and side lagoons looking for wildlife...
(We did a couple of other things too but they will be covered in separate posts)
And we saw quite a lot...
... Note here that Im gonna use a few pictures from the net that I did not take so you can see the critters Im talking about...
There were far too many birds to identify let alone name...
Some of the more interesting ones were the Hoatzin, which is like a chicken or turkey but when they are chicks, they have finger claws on their wings and they clamber about the trees using all four limbs (like prehistoric birds).
(not my picture... from the web)And there was a large King Vulture which as far as "birds of prey" go is probably the most colourful as well as being in my oppinion, a contender for being the ugliest!
(not my picture... from the web)There were several pairs of the big blue and yellow Macaws (they are monogamous) and one big red Macaw.
There were four or five varieties of Toucans (in assorted colours and sizes) with their huge beaks, and several sorts of smaller and usually mostly green parrots/lorikeets. And there were a couple of kinds of swallows, and a couple of king fishers and an almost infinite supply of slightly different types of fly-catchers and ant-birds etc.
The birds were mostly too far away for pictures, but having been an avid bird-watcher as a kid, I enjoyed seeing them all and was pretty good at identifying their families and types even after all the years since I was "into" watching them :)
Mammals wise, there were a couple of three toed sloths way up in the tops of trees... It was good to see them through the binoculars but my camera couldnt do anything with them :)
There were a couple of species of bats, and there were both grey and pink river dolphins too (Though glimpses only and no pictures).
Cant see the bats on this log...
Take a closer look!But by far the most diverse, common and interesting ones that we saw were the primates... There were seven different primate species (of the nine that are found in the area) including :- Squirrel, White Faced Capuccin, TeeTee, Sakki, Wooly, and Red Howler monkeys, and lastly, the little Black Mantled Tamarinds.
It was very interesting seeing all the different types of monkeys and we could see them carrying their babies and jumping big distances between trees etc, but it was a different story when it came to trying to take pictures of them... Very difficult! (especially with my little point-and-shoot)... They almost always just look like small blurry black silhouette blobs, so not much in the way of pictures Im afraid (Only got good pictures of three out of the seven).... But I sure enjoyed just seeing them all :))
Squirrel monkey
White Faced Capuccin monkey
TeeTee monkey
... The silhouette pictures!And we did a couple of walks in the jungle as well and we got to see some more of the smaller critters...
There were of course, plenty of bity mosquitoes (and they could bite you through your clothes too), and there were a couple of leaf camouflaged frogs as well quite a few tortoises resting on logs in the river.
Camouflage is pretty effective!
And there was a very pretty but very small green snake (Id have liked to see more reptiles I admit)
Insects wise (well, the larger types anyway), there were quite a few different grasshoppers, and spiders sitting in their webs as well.
But the most "interesting" spiders were of course the huge black velvety Tarantulas that only came out at night (They lived in either burrows on the jungle floor or in the loose dead leaves on the bannana palms ... Though one did wander into the kitchen one night... I guess he was feeling a bit peckish! :) )... Honestly, they were the size of your face !... Which is not the most pleasant concept for a scale of reference I admit! :)))
Ohh, and of course, I cant fail to mention that there were miriad amazing buterflies...
... And of course more of my favourite iridescent blue Morpho butterflies...I saw at least three different species and again, the largest was the size of napkin... Like a bright blue handkerchief flapping through the jungle :)))
But, again they are almost impossible to get pictures of... Low light, maximum zoom, fast moving target, and a tiny little point and shoot camera!
So, another picture from the net (just so you know what Im talking about)
(not my picture... from the web)... And finally, what about the plant life?...
Well, what can I say... It was the Amazon jungle!...
Yes, there were more plants than I could "poke my trusty stick at"!
... And the vermilion jungle went monotonously on for many many miles in every direction... With more variety and diversity than any of us can scarcely imagine :)!!
And it was good ...... Apart from those damn insect bites!
Did I mention that they were itchy?... Well, they were in fact VERY VERY itchy... And they were in places were one should not have to scratch too!.
Honestly!... There should be laws prohibiting insects from biting you in some places!!
But it was still good... Very good. :)))
And after four days of this, the canoe headed back along the river at high speed the way it had come in, and it took all day to "quickly" extract myself from the clutches of that primitive world of green !
