PERU & BOLIVIA Day 20 - Puerto Maldonado (The Amazon)

Final guest post from Peter:

Another early start this morning (we have had a lot of these the last 2 weeks), this time for a trip to Lago Sandavol, an oxbow lake just off of the Madre de Dios river. I suspected this was probably one of our best chance to see wildlife of our time in the jungle, but this was only based on the fact that the lake is mentioned in each of our guide books. The excursion started well, a brown agouti, a rodent capable of breaking Brazil nuts with its teeth was spotted on the 5 minute walk to the dock.

Following a 5/10 minute boat ride downstream we arrived at the start of the trail to Lago Sandavol. During the 45 minute hike to the Lago we stopped to look at a cotton tree, which apparently in the right season has many pink flowers that can be seen via aeroplane, a series of ground based termite nests (these are unusual in this region as most termite nests here are based in the trees with tiny mud (or more likely poo) tunnels running up the sides of trees to reach them), and some Guayaquil squirrels (Red Amazonian Squirrels). The walk took us through the Tambopata national park buffer zone and into the national park proper where the lake is located.

Arriving at the edge of a creek we were greated by 10 or so canoes, we hopped into one of the canoes and our guide took us down the narrow creek, eyes scanning every bit of river bank alongside the narrow channel, trying to catch a glimpse of Annocondas, which apparently like this kind of area of the lake. No luck on this occasion however.

After 15 minutes silently paddling down the narrow channel it opened out into a huge Lago. We stayed close to the bank still scanning the banks and now the Lago as well for birds, giant otters, black caiman, etc. The first thing we spotted was a group of Hoatzin sitting in the trees, low on the bank. Fri, our guide explained that these are more commonly called the stinky bird, due to the way they make use of fermentation and bacteria in their gut.

We then heard that the resident and very rare family of giant otters had been spotted in the middle of the lake, so we headed over to see about 8 of them playing and swimming along. We were careful to keep our distance (70m is recommended) so as not to cause them stress. Subsequently we headed back to the shore where we spotted various different types of birds included numerous herons (I think one was a Rusfescent tiger heron), a pair of red capped cardinals, and in the water a couple of snake birds, so called because when they are in the water all you can see is its long neck and streamlined head which look and moves very much like a snake would.

We also saw a group of monkeys along the lake side. The majority were Capuchin monkeys, with a couple of common squirrel monkeys tagging along (including a mother and a baby). We watched these for a bit, in fact they were causing a bit of trouble for the stinky birds nesting nearby as we suspect the Capuchin monkeys were trying to steal the eggs.

Returning to the lodge for lunch we again spotted the red howler monkeys in the trees outside the lodge. This time I was quick enough to get the camera and get some pictures. Good good.

Following lunch we headed 25 minutes downriver by boat to do a canopy walk. This is a series of 6 rope bridges in the tree tops some 100 feet above the ground. Unfortunately for us it had rained about an hour before the visit, so our chances of seeing any of the birds were wiped out to zero. Still the rope bridges provided entertainment, particularly for Tasha who enjoyed striding across them, and also enjoyed watching my nervous face (I didn't enjoy go ape in the UK, and this was a lot lot higher, even if the bridges were more substantial (but still very wobbled!)

The final activity of the day was a night time walk around the grounds of the lodge, flashlights to hand. I was expecting to see various insects, but we actually say a lot lot more. The first sighting was a pair of porcupines hanging about in the tree, unfortunately there are no good pictures of these as one was amongst  the leaves and the other was pointing its backside directly as us most of the time, which doesn't make for the best picture! We also found various insects as expected, a stick insect, a weaver spider, a crab spider, and a huge tarantula (a chicken tarantula I think). This would easily be bigger them my spread hand with its spread legs, huge! Also spotted were a blunt headed snake resting on a large leaf and a night monkey (possibly also called an owl monkey) very near to the lodge. I was amazed to see so much so close to where we were staying (all within 5 minutes walk of the main lodge building), and it makes you realise how much more you must just walk straight past because they are so week camouflaged unless they move.

Fingers crossed for some more luck tomorrow!