Photo of the day, 5/11/2010: hasta, Manu.

Manu River from above

Manu Biosphere Reserve: final count.

Not including what was heard but not seen, the count of species is as follows:

127 birds
5 monkeys
5 mammals
3 frogs
5 spiders
2 caimen
1 blue morpho butterfly

And a partridge in a pear tree. (A rescue partridge, of course.)

... In essentially three and a half days. Well done, Manu Biosphere Reserve.

Photo of the day, 5/10/2010: platform aht.

near the Manu "airport"

Manu Biosphere Reserve: anti-planning pays off... sort of.

I had planned to figure out how to get to Salta when I got back from Manu. I would have about three days which gave me several options. That was the extent of my plan, and it was a good thing... Because of bad weather the 90 minute helicopter ride Monday turned into a 5 hour wait followed by a cancelled helicopter, a 4 hour boat ride, a 45 minute dirt-road-shockless-truck ride, 10 minute pitch-black boat ride across a river with rapids, 2 hour van ride on a paved road, a night in a hotel in Puerto Maldonado and a short flight to Cusco in the afternoon.

Aventura!!

grasshopper in the airport "waiting area"

baby chick at Boca Manu port (where we killed a few hours waiting for news on the flight)

killing more time at Boca Manu port

seeing how the boats are made from reclaimed wood at Boca Manu

Having no set plans for Tuesday this was all fine with me. I felt a little bad for the folks missing a day on the Inca Trail because of the delay, but they do warn you many times to leave a travel buffer of 1-3 days when leaving Manu for this reason.

I have no idea how or when I will get to Salta to meet Kim. I know my options give the shortened timeframe but none of them are appealing. At least I have a hell of a story to share if and when I do finally see her...

Photo of the day, 5/9/2010: tree aht.

jungle forest - Manu

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.

Photo of the day, 5/8/2010: froggie fiesta!

disclaimer: I did not get drunk with frogs in the jungle...

Manu Biosphere Reserve: when the guide says "we don't know WHAT that is," you're most likely in for a treat.

Saturday morning we tried the macaw clay lick again. But first, a really nice sunrise:

The weather was beautiful and the clay lick was quite a different scene from just 24 hours earlier, but the birds were not interested in descending. Well, those birds weren't, anyway.

the Nescafe sucked as usual but the morning view wasn't too shabby

The list of new bird sighting continued to grow, some folks spotted a golden tegu lizard and we all saw what was possibly an olive whip snake. (It was definitely not the elusive Amazonian stick snake.) Heard but not seen: dusky titi monkeys.

green macaws

short crested flycatcher (I think?? darned cute, whatever it was)

I *did* take this one

It was tapir watch night so after lunch and a siesta we went for an hours' walk through the jungle to the mammal clay lick. Interesting sightings along the way included...

the jungle hellmouth

a cicada tunnel built over nine years by an insect that lives approximately one week

a cool monkey ladder

a "pregnant" palm tree

And ants. Tons and tons of bullet, army and leaf cutter ants.

leaf cutters - possibly the only ant species I could watch for hours and hours

The lodge has built a platform and laid out mosquito-net-tented mattresses above the clay lick, and the idea is that you lay there, wait for the tapir, pull up the net, lean out to take photos (flash is okay as tapirs are color blind) and head back to the lodge.

the long walk to the platform

inside the mosquito net

All this happens after dark. Of course there is no guarantee that the tapir will actually come and they certainly aren't on your clock so we were prepared to wait hours. The tapir's sense of smell is sensitive so bug spray and food were off limits after dark. People doze off waiting, but snoring is discouraged because it sounds like the tapir's only predator - the jaguar. All in all quite a unique experience.

A dwarf caimen greeted us from the pond under the clay lick and scurried away, returning again once we settled in. After about ten minutes under the net I couldn't take it so I opted to sit a ways down the platform where it was quiet and out in the open. The bugs were hardly biting thanks to the fruit-eating bats swooping around the platform (several times I felt the wind from their wings on my face - chevere). The stars were visible through the tree canopy and as it got darker and darker I practiced some seated yoga and enjoyed the fact that only these 10 people on the platform knew where I was at that very moment. Presence. It was nice.

About 90 minutes later I started to hear breathing from the forest, two loud breaths at a time followed by a few moments or minutes of silence, then two loud breaths again. The guide had said we would hear the tapir enter the water under the clay lick but he hadn't said anthing about heavy breathing... But figuring, "it sounds big and it's near the lick, what else could it be?", and hearing some whispers between the guides, I started to inch my way in the dark toward them to see what I could see.

This is when our guide said he didn't know what it was... And here's where it gets a bit surreal. They also said that they thought it could be a jaguar. It definitely wasn't a tapir, which left very few alternatives. They moved quietly around the platform with flashlights trying to find the source through the trees, while I stood there marvelling at the fact that now 10 people and maybe a jaguar knew where I was at that moment.

Rain loomed (and the guides appeared a bit concerned about the mystery animal - they didn't buy my Sasquatch suggestion either) so we moved out and hiked back to the lodge. On the way back we saw rain frogs (Amazonian and Peruvian) and pale striped poison dart frogs; orb weaver, wandering and wolf spiders; and Amazonian tarantulas and black scorpions.

Peruvian rain frog (a.k.a. foreshadowing)

wandering spider (as big as my hand, if not my foot - I didn't really get too close)

pale-striped poison dart frog

No tapirs, alas, but still quite an intense and amazing experience... I have not captured it well in words but it was a rush that made it definitely difficult to sleep that night. Perhaps a haiku is in order. I'll work on that.

The rain frogs predicted right - it did start to rain as we headed back to the lodge. And natch, the next morning Vanessa, the area's rescue tapir, "unexpectedly" wandered into the lodge garden around 6am... so we did see a tapir after all!

Photo of the day, 5/7/2010: slowly drifting.

an oxbow lake near Manu

Manu Biosphere Reserve: birds, monkeys and the elusive "Amazonian stick snake."

It rained most of Thursday night. We got up early Friday to spend the morning at the macaw clay lick, the first salt lick studied by biologists in South America. It continued to rain. (And rain and rain. And rain.)

ladies and gentlemen, your 30 seconds of zen

The macaws and parrots stayed away. Many cute little and big giant birds were spotted, though, and it was a very relaxing morning.

great egret

great kiskadee

roadside hawk

On the way back we saw a laughing gull - a coastal bird that doesn't really belong on the river. He looked just as confused about being there as the guide did about him being there.

"donde estoy?"

Red howler monkeys, spider monkeys and a capybara were also spotted along the river.

howler monkey hanging around

Lunch was delayed by four rescued macaws causing a ruckus outside the lodge. Biologists rescued them from a harsher fate and they are fed around the lodge so they're very accustomed to people.

mirror images

I did not take this photo, part I

I did not take this photo, part II

After not seeing any at the clay lick we enjoyed their proximity and poses for a while. "Rescue [insert animal]" would become a running joke amongst our group for reasons that will be obvious later.

The weather cleared after lunch and we watched saddleback tamarind monkeys swinging above the gardens at the lodge...

... then headed to an oxbow for wildlife viewing. From the dock we (and a flock of long nosed bats hanging from the canopy rafters) watched a family of baby otters float across the lake, chattering the whole time.

there were probably a hundred of these guys overhead

romping baby otters

A catamaran took us on a lake tour where we saw another bazillion birds large and small, including a weird prehistoric one (hoaxin), and one of my favorites (purus jacama - aka the "Jesus Christ bird," so named because it walks on lily pads as though it's walking on water).

the truly prehistoric hoaxin

I could get used to this...

PDXers will be interested to note that swifts are here in Manu as well. Different breed, but my ears perked up when I heard the species.

On the way back we saw squirrel monkeys romping in the trees...

... and the tail of an endangered black caimen as it disappeared into the water. One of our group even saw the elusive "Amazonian stick snake" (soooo not a snake, which also became a running joke).

Even with the morning rain, all in all not a bad day in the jungle.