Birds and bugs

 Canoe Ride * Herbal Garden Walk * Clay Lick

We didn’t have to start our day as early today, only 8:00 am. The first activity was a canoe ride through a nearby lagoon. We feel a bit like we are attending adult summer camp. Our lodge has an “eco center” where we meet our guides each day. It’s full of strange bugs and snakes stored in jars of formaldehyde and skulls of local mammals. Our guides carry backpacks with first aid kits and binoculars.

The lagoon we visited was full of Hoatzin birds (aka “chicken bird”). They have a crown on their head and colorful feathers. They’re big and rather loud. They were everywhere and we enjoyed watching them awkwardly fly from bush to bush. We didn’t see any caimans or anaconda this morning - although our guide told us that a 15 ft anaconda had been hanging around this lake for a couple of weeks just a while back. We did see an interesting bat though. This little bat was the color of tree bark and well camouflaged. It almost looked like a little knot on the tree. Interestingly enough, there were 8 of these bats all in a perfectly straight line. We enjoyed the narrow passages of the lagoon and might have been secretly grateful we didn’t run into an anaconda.

After our visit to the lagoon, we visited the lodge’s botanical garden and explored several herbs from coca leaves to lemon grass to turmeric root. Our guide even cut open a larve egg to show us the live weevil larva inside. Another member of our group (we secretly refer to as “The American Pickle”) didn’t hesitate to eat the larva. The rest of us took a hard pass!

After the larva we learned how Brazil Nuts are harvested from the jungle. This was particularly interesting because our guide’s family does this for a family business. We were able to taste fresh Brazil nuts which were so yummy, much softer and sweeter than those we buy at the stores.

Leon was unable to join us for our final tour, which worked out - because it was just a simple walk to a local clay like for mammals where we waited and watched quietly for 40 minutes, but no animals showed up.