3rd November – a storming good day..........      

Dusky headed Parakeets

The day started beautifully – slightly cool and sunny with clear skies. The plan was to head back to the Napo river and pick up a motorised canoe, go to the local tribe’s (the Añangu tribe) interpretation centre, visit a clay/salt lick, have lunch and come back. As we headed out on the motorised canoes we suddenly turned around and headed back up stream. The reason became clear very quickly. One of the licks is right beside the river and it and the area around it was packed with parakeets and parrots. These, we were informed, were the Dusky Headed Parakeet, Blue Headed Parrot, the Yellow Crowned Amazon Parrot and the Mealy Parrot. These were taking turns to eat some of the mineral rich clay that comes out of the river bank. They need this to help metabolise some of the toxins that they eat with some of the fruits in the forest. The smallest of these birds go first as they are usually the bravest. What they’re afraid of is the local raptors as this lick is exposed. We sat observing this from the canoe until the larger birds started to fly off, presumably to another better sheltered lick.

The dancers......

We turned around and headed to the centre. On arrival we entered a large open building with a roof made from palm leaves. We were introduced to the women who run the centre and to Media, in particular, who seemed to be the spokeswoman for the village women, and entertained with some music, song and dancing which we were also invited to join in. Only Gill was game from our group (no surprise). We were told what the words to the song meant by the singer. She did this whilst breast feeding her baby – that’s a first for all of us! After this we moved to another hut. This one was round whereas the other was oblong. The oblong one we were told was for visitors, meetings and ceremonies and the round was for families. We were shown where the kitchen was and some of the utensils. At this point we were ushered out rapidly as news had come in that birds were at the second lick and we needed to get going. This involved going back up stream and a walk through the forest. 

Orange cheeked parrots and the cobalt winged parakeets

On arrival at the “hide” we saw a water lick this time. Again the same idea as the previous one in that the water has minerals that the birds need. Drinking in these pools were three types of bird; the Cobalt Winged Parakeet, the Scarlet Shouldered Parrotlet and the Orange Cheeked Parrot. This was quite a spectacle as birds flew in and out all the time and made it difficult to get any good photos. After a period of time we went back to the Centre and picked up where we left off.

Between Media and Delfin (a local guide who is tri-lingual – Kichwa, Spanish and English) we learnt about life in the Añangu tribe and how they used the forest. We also got to taste some of the drinks that they make using roots, leaves etc. Some were not unlike a strong coloured tea and others reminded me of the ginger beer I made as a child (& some were plain disgusting – TV edit!). After this we were invited to buy something from their shop and along the way we took photos of some the many colourful butterflies and moths that were flying around us.

Just a few of the butterflies we saw......

The owl butterfly

The next stop was lunch back where we changed canoes. After a delightful lunch we headed back and along the way stopped to look at some Woolly Monkeys high in the trees, a beautiful Owl Butterfly that looks like a snake head when its wings are closed and has two eyes in flight, all to keep predators (i.e. birds) away.

A rare woolly monkey

Squirrel monkey mother with her baby clinging on for dear life!

As we paddled along we could hear the rumble of thunder in the distance, but thought no more about it as it happens all the time here. Just after we had enjoyed seeing some Squirrel Monkeys with their young, we had just started looking at a Boa Constrictor in the trees when the heavens opened. Quickly we put on ponchos and the guides and back paddler started paddling in earnest for the camp. The rain intensified and came down harder and the lightning and thunder started to become as one as the storm raged overhead. We had noticed that the rain was beginning fill up the canoe at around the same point Jiaro asked the back paddler for a bailer. I shouted that I would do it and he continued paddling. At this point I gave up any pretence of staying dry and started bailing with gusto. We passed another canoe with a large group of 11 people in it and they were very low in the water and using their wellington boots to bail! Taking that cue we also started using wellys to bail. The only good news now on the weather front was that the rain was warm. A short while later, although it seemed to have taken forever, we entered the lake with the camp. What a welcome sight it was.

My camera now doesn’t work and my binos have steamed up. I’ll try to dry both as I want them for the Galapagos.  Mind you, it’s hard to dry stuff here as it’s so humid.