On the boat at 5:45am to buzz downriver in hopes of seeing parrots, macaws, and parakeets at the clay lick. Our chances of seeing them were slim because the weather was threatening rain, which came in abundance after about an hour.
Birdwatching...
A quick change into dry clothes then digging in to breakfast--a huge bowl of fruit, yogurt and granola, the nutrition needed for the upcoming ziplining.
The ziplining entailed a rigorous hike, 3 "zips" and culminated in a rappel thanks to a mudslide that washed out the ability to use the 4th line.
Late afternoon, Jose took us on another jungle trail where we saw lots of monkeys, some very beautiful birds, a cool plant that closed its leaves when touched. Unfortunately, we don't have any shots of this incredible excursion because...
When we came upon the monkeys, Jose said, "get your cameras! There's monkeys!" We all stared at one another. Jose said, "What? You don't have cameras?" We all looked at the ground in shame as Jose shook his head. "Do you have your flashlights? Binoculars?" Again, silence and shame. "Well, we'd better walk quickly then."
Without recording devices we were unencumbered and able to live in the moment. After 30 minutes of walking in the steamy jungle, we reached a small oxbow lake, climbed onto balsa wood rafts and slowly, quietly roamed the lake and its environs. We saw many beautiful birds but the highlight was seeing a capybara. As CJ describes it: "It looks like a miniature hippo."
UPDATE:
CJ had a camera. Here are a few shots of our boat outing in the oxbow lake.
ox·bow lake: noun
- a curved lake formed at a former oxbow where the main stream of the river has cut across the narrow end and no longer flows around the loop of the bend.
