Ecuador: Day 6 - NWC

Today was composed of several parts: the creek to the river, the parrot clay lick, the Napo River walk, and the return to the lodge. 

I actually slept until my 4:45 alarm this morning. Got up, had some coffee, a shower, and then a very light breakfast of two small pieces of toast, half a glass of orange juice, and I got a good fulfilling whiff of a plate of dragon fruit (Gary's given both Dad and I an eye-opening look at our eating habits on this trip). From there, we gathered our gear and loaded into the canoe (ow! My butt!) and proceeded to work our way down the stream. We saw and stopped for plenty of birds along the way, making the 7km trip in a leisurely 3.75 hours (ow! My butt!!). 

From there we hiked to a parrot clay lick, where birds eat dirt and people watch. I'd like to think there's a place on this planet where those roles are reversed. Anyway, after about a 30 minute wait, the birds did come in and there sure were a lot of them. 

Before they dropped down to the clay lick though, I wandered around the park a bit. I got some pictures of a spider, some other bugs, and the like. While I was trying to take a picture of a grasshopper jumping (it didn't work of course) I heard a buzzing around my left ear. I figured it was a wasp or a bee or perhaps a curious beetle, as they'd been buzzing around all week.  I looked up to find a giant bug the size of my nose heading right at me, clearly intending to see first hand if it was as big as my nose, and while it was at it, it might as well see what my nose tastes like too. 

Would not hop on command

Have you ever tried to swat a bug, and have the bug deflect the swat and laugh at you? Becuase I'm pretty sure that happened to me. Fortunately the bug decided to leave me alone, either due to my startled scream or because it saw I'd had such a light breakfast and was hardly worth eating. 

Turns out, the thing is called an assassin bug, which only confirms my long-held belief that one of you is trying to kill me and has hired this bug to do your dirty work for you. Well, nyah-nyah to you! I lived.

 Assassin bug: "I was born in the shadows...."

After the clay lick we got in a boat and took a quick ride to the same community center where we'd had lunch before. We were served talapia whole, with a side of cucumber salad. Everything was delicious but I kept hearing Gary telling me I was fat, so I only ate 3 bites of fish and half a slice of cucumber.  

After lunch, we walked a trail through the local community along the Napo.  From the boats going up and down the busy river, you'd never know there was a whole village back there. It was really interesting to get to see how the folks there get along in life. At one point, we passed a group of people - four or five adults, three teenagers, and two little kids - running a kind of open kiln and drying and knocking corn kernels off of the cobs. It was a big operation and all manual labor, but many hands make light work. 

Village solar

Village mill

We saw a lot of birds, including several kites, a Rufus (sp?) Headed woodpecker, jacamars, a ferruginous owl, and some other things that I don't remember. Also, I kinda hit my limit with the birding thing.  The others got very excited trying to get to some bird, but it was not cooperating, and it was down in some bushes where you can hardly see it. Now don't get me wrong - I like birds. I even like birding.  But I really prefer photography. So I'm more of an opportunist when it comes to birding. I'll take pictures of what I can see. That said, the idea of spending two hours in ankle deep mud playing the same recording over and over again and having the same nondescript small brown bird on a brown background with brown reeds in front of it make the same call back from the same place in the hopes that said bird might shift position enough for someone to get a photo of 19% of that bird so they can in later years show that picture to someone and say "See that slightly darker smudge of brown there in between all that other brown stuff? That's the tail feathers of a Brown Crested Wandering Pygmy Shrike Heron. Or it might be its wing. Either way, pretty cool, yeah?" has no appeal for me.  So I wandered around instead. 

Birders birding

Some other sort of butterfly

They finally gave up on the bird and we contained our hike along the river. I'm pretty sure some more stuff happened, but I was feeling cry faint due to only consuming 545 calories in two days (thanks Gary), but somehow we made it out of the woods.  At the mouth of the stream. Where a canoe was waiting for us. Ow.  My butt.  

Escargot avec kite

Fortunately, we saw nothing of interest on the way back, and the guys paddled the whole way in an hour and fifteen minutes. Afterwards, a tasty dinner of 3 pieces of white rice washed down with a refreshing glass of particularly humid air. 

When I passed out on the way back to the room, I was told by the lodge doctor that I needed to eat something and should stop listening to this Gary guy. I was prescribed some cake, ice cream, waffles, eggs, and bacon, to be taken daily with a meal. 

Once feeling myself again, back to bed. Out like a light. 

Ecuador: Day 5 - NWC

(Photos to come soon)

We got to sleep in this morning, with a 5:30 breakfast. So of course I woke up at 4. Ha!

I had tried to update the blog last night, but the internet went down around 9:00, so I guess I subconsciously woke up early to finish posting. Sadly, the interwebs were still unavailable.  A bonus over the last place is that coffee is available early.  So at 5 I went to the main lodge and had a nice cup.  At 5:30 we had breakfast (a light one this time, since Gary is making me food-conscious) and met with Andrew and Jorge, our new local guide, at the docks at 6:00. We then got in a canoe and crossed the lake and paddled to a trailhead. 

From there we hiked about 600 yards when Jorge decided it was too wet and we needed rubber boots after all. He radioed in our shoe sizes and went to meet the canoe with our boots. Twenty minutes later he was back with our boots, a half size small for Andrew and myself as that was all they had on hand, but they fit fine. From there we tromped off into the woods in search of fame and fortune, or if lacking those, birds. 

Jorge is a workhorse. He's got a gold tooth and tattoos and is as old as dirt (I can say that because I'm old now - just kidding - he's probably in his 50's), but he's a great guide. He speaks about as much English as I do Spanish, and this guy sees everything. 

About 30 minutes into our hike, it started raining. We carried on for a while, then stopped under a huge tree near where a Black-necked Red Cotinga lived to wait out the rain. While the three of us talked about weather and shot videos of weather, Jorge went out and FOUND THE COTINGA. Despite the heavy drizzle and complete lack of avian activity, Jorge would not be denied. The rain let up and we went and saw the cotinga. Very cool. 

**rain video here later**

After finding a few other birds around, it started raining again, this time with more purpose. So we decided to put on ponchos. Then we decided to head back to the lodge early. Then we decided to trudged at a quick pace in concentrated silence all the way back to the canoe. Which is where we met the poor guy who was bringing us our picnic lunch we'd decided to cancel without telling anyone. Fortunately, he had our canoe with him and headed back to the lodge arriving around noon. 

A few words on rubber boots: they're really great until they're really not. We slogged through mud, puddles, small streams, etc. without a single drop or smudge of water or dirt getting on our feet. Although they don't offer much in the way of comfort or padding, I assume this is so you're very conscious of every rock or branch upon which one might step. Sadly, they do have one major design issue: water - especially rain - can get in the top. About 20 minutes into our ~2.5 mile (~2200 JLs) march, my right foot started to squish. 10 minutes later, my left foot joined the party. By the time we took our boots off at our luxury cabaña, Dad and I both had to dump out boots out on the walk by the patio and it raised the level of the lake by at least 0.000002 JLs (~.00014 inches) - but to be fair, it's a big lake. Our socks from that day have been hung out on the railing ever since, and may never be dry again. Dad has decided that unless some laundry related miracle happens before we leave, he'd rather throw them away than risk contaminating his suitcase with his. I, of course, am far more environmentally conscious and will bring mine home, wet or not, carefully hidden in Dad's suitcase. 

Anyway, we had a tasty lunch and then a shower and a nap. By 3:30 the rain had let up, so we met Andrew and Jorge at the dock. 

And here are a few words on canoes: They're great. Very simple, quiet, easy travel, and one of the best ways to get around here. I dig canoes. But - and I mean butt - my butt is killing me. I sat on a crappy plane seat from Denver to Dallas. Then sat on a crappy airport seat until I sat on a crappy plane seat again to Quito. Then a pleasant car seat for 20 minutes to the hotel. Then at last a few hours of respite. Then wooden seat at breakfast followed by nice car seat to airport then crappy airport - you get the idea. It feels like 90% of my time here has been sitting on my butt on some crappy wooden seat or another. Sure, they put foam pads down, and that's great for 45 minutes until all the foam is compressed. After that though, it's rough sailing, me mateys. Oh, and did I mention that the canoe ride to and from the main river is two hours long? Each way?? Yes, my butt is sore. 

So we took the canoe out for a look down the creek. Three and a half butt aching hours later, we'd found some cool birds like the zig zag heron, the tawny something screech owl, and that other one with the wings and eyes. I'm pretty sure it was brown. Maybe gray. You know the one... The dawn treader. No! The sun grebe. I guess I can remember some of these names. 

Anyway, a delicious (light) dinner later, then I was off to wrestle with the Internet while Dad reviewed his photos for a while before I fell asleep.