Manu Biosphere Reserve: definitely not Sasquatch.

Sunday morning we slept in until 6am, admired Vanessa the Tapir for a while...

I did not take this photo, part III

Vanessa was about 4' tall (which gives you an idea of how ginormous this tree was)

... and after breakfast we went to Tambo Blanquillo for another canopy view/lake tour.

{insert Neo "woah"}

tree: ~500 years old ... canopy: ~120 feet

Took lots of pictures of a beautiful great snoozing potoo owl among other birds...

not really giving a hoot

who knew birdwatching could be so much fun?

... then descended and walked to the oxbow for a lake tour where we saw many more neat and oh-so-tiny birds...

another lifer for the guide - pied water tyrant (I did not take this photo, part IV)

... and a brown-throated three toed sloth, also snoozing.

FUNemployment: you're doing it right

On the way to lunch we saw a jaguar.

Lunch was good as usual and then... I'm just kidding. WE SAW A FRAKKING JAGUAR.

We were all half asleep on the boat ride back to the lodge when suddenly the guide went a little nuts, gesturing and whipping out his camera and giving instructions where to look. The cat was on the riverbank about 50m away, just sitting calmly, eyeing us.

I did not take this photo, part V

I heard everyone else's camera clicks so I just sat with my binocs and enjoyed the view. After a minute or two the cat moved around a little and disappeared into the jungle.

I did not take this photo, part VI (a.k.a. the end of this series)

As we motored up and moved along I found myself choking up. I am not sure if it was a combination of exhaustion, humidity, intense nature exposure AND seeing the jaguar, or if it was just seeing the jaguar. That cat triggered something in me though, that still gets to me up when I picture it sitting on the riverbank, and may have actually trumped some of the penguins. (Jury still deliberating. Story at 11.) None of us had any expectations of seeing a jaguar and we were all a bit moved by the experience.

Okay. So after a celebratory lunch and a short solo observatory walk (spotted: funky orange spikey caterpillar, Amazon racerunner) we took a longer walk in the forest to see some stunning trees and beautiful mushrooms, among other things.

One strangler fig tree had a cave inside that we were able to investigate.

looking up from inside the strangler fig tree

One of the trails was called "The Grid" because it marked the path of a troupe of intermixed bird species and a group of monkeys some researchers were studying back in the day.

walking off "The Grid" amused me greatly...

...as did this enormous stilt-rooted tree

Before dinner our guide had some news about the flight the next morning, which he delivered very gravely: "The plane is in Lima so they are sending a helicopter. It's a 90 minute ride. Is that OK?"

Monkeys, tapirs, jaguars, a new found appreciation for teeny birds and now a helicopter. I couldn't stop grinning. Physically, just couldn't. Everything happens for a reason.