Sunrise & Hiking in the Amazon Jungle

January 14^th, 2022

Theresa, Segundo and I woke up bright and ugly at 4:45 am to hop in a canoe and paddle out to the Amazon River to watch sunrise.  The lodge has a dog named Crash and he ran along the bank of the creek trying to keep up with us.  He lived up to his name as he busted his was through some dense bush and tall grass.  He was having a good time for sure. 

A water taxi passing by.

It was lovely on the Amazon River at that time of day.  We paddled about 300 meters upstream and then just drifted back towards the head of the creek.  Poor Crash was sometimes 8-10 inches deep in mud, so much so that he looked like he was wearing brown socks!  There were some clouds in the east but eventually the sun popped through, and I was glad that we were up early to catch it.

Chase with his muddy socks.

It looked better with the naked eye.

Looking back from the creek.

Listening to the morning cacophony from the birds.

Some local ducks.

Back on land.

Returning to the lodge, we ate some breakfast before heading out for another hike in the jungle, a longer one than yesterday as the plan was to make our way to two of the largest trees in the nearby area.  We found another tarantula den and Segundo coaxed it out briefly with a small stick.  This time I did get some footage of the arachnid.

Some bug.

A troop of squirrel monkeys moving along their "high"-way.

Some people just like to be different.

A dead moth I found.

The tarantula:

The two big ficus trees were quite impressive.  So tall that you couldn’t even see the tops of them and they looked like they had their own little forest of plants nestled among the branches in the crown, high up the tree.

The first of the big trees.

Looks like a leaf within a leaf.

The tarantula.

I went on a bit of a mushroom trip.

Theresa and Segundo are walking across a root from a big ficus tree.

It's a big ass tree!

So this was interesting.  It's a bunch of caterpillars grouped together but Segundo said that it is considered a bad omen, that someone you know might day soon...because it looks a bit like a coffin...

Do you like my hat?

Segundo did a great job on this hike with his guiding.  Along with the tarantula, we found a few different frogs, including the tiny black and red-backed poison frog (pretty descriptive name)  that the natives use for poisoning their blow darts.  Near the poisonous frog was a tree with a hollowed-out trunk which makes for a great home for bats.  As we approached it, we could hear this strange kind of thumping sound.  We got our flashlights out and peered up the centre of the tree, causing a few startled bats to fly out, which in turn startled us!  Many bats stayed inside though, and it was cool to look up and see them all nestled together, hanging upside down.  I looked for a few minutes and then realized that it was a bit hazardous, who wants bat guano in the face?!?

The red-backed poison frog:

The bat tree.

Returning back to the lodge, we had lunch and then Theresa, Segundo and Bree grabbed a river taxi to head back to Iquitos.  Theresa was only at the lodge for 26 hours, but boy did Segundo pack in a lot for her to see.  I had a few hours to relax before Linder and I would set off for a night camping in the jungle.

It's supposed to be the rainy season but they haven't seen rain in over a week.  So the kids at the lodge, Lessandro and his little sister Angelica took it upon their selves to get the deed done with an impressive and lengthy rain dance!