The next morning, we woke up early to hike to Cocho Otorongo, a nearby lake. This was our first real opportunity to trek through the rainforest and see the flora up close.
We were also able to spot several species of monkeys, like the loud-mouthed howler monkey, spider monkey, and the dusky titi monkey, and track them as they swung under the canopy. We had seen a few peccary (wild pigs) the day before, but in the forest our guides were able to tell us where they had been just 20 minutes ahead of us (hint: it stunk there).
In the afternoon, we hiked to Cocha (Lake) Salvador. This one had a communal catamaran that we could paddle to quietly move closer to wildlife.
This lake was also home to a family of giant river otter, an endangered species that we had to be very careful not to stress with our approach.
We saw hundreds of birds, including several beautiful varieties of macaws on their way home from the clay licks. We also got to encounter caymans up close...close enough that we were nervous when they disappeared underwater! We saw all of these things while scanning the water for the tell-tale ripples created by the otters. Eventually, we spotted the family and moved slowly closer to observe their playful behavior. Our guides spotted one of their dens on the lake shore and we hung around to watch them swim to their den and then pull themselves out of the water as they entered the den.
We returned at dusk to find another group (including an American biologist) waiting for the catamaran. As we hiked back to our under flashlight, Mitchel asked rhetorically, wasn't it curious that a group would set out across the lake after dark when all they might be able to see are caymans (whose eyes shine red under flashlight)? And hadn't we seen plenty of caymans during the day?
It turned out that some of the less ecology-minded groups operating in the area used the cover of night to actually catch the caymans, look at them up close and then release them into the water. Besides being an all-around unclassy thing to do, it is also illegal. It stresses out the caymans, can cause them to change mating behaviors, or cause them to leave the area altogether. And despite all of this, there is apparently little the small staff of forest rangers can do to curb this practice across such an expansive area.
After dinner, Mitchel took Dixie and I on a private night walk --something we had really enjoyed doing in the jungle in Kerala last year. Somehow, we were both much more comfortable seeing things like spiders, crickets and cockroaches in their natural habitat, than in New York (their adopted habitat). Sometimes we'd walk into a web or be inches from the critter before catching it with out flashlights. We saw many wolf spiders and champion spiders (a variety that probably won it's title unopposed through sheer intimidation). We rounded out our hike by spying some frogs and a small snake in the viper family.
The next morning we woke up at 4am to begin retracing our steps down the Manu River and the Madre de Dios --quicker this time because we were moving with the current. We made it to the Boca Manu airstrip (more like grass strip) around 10am and boarded the small propeller plane that would take us back to Cusco.
Flying under the clouds, the green blanket below us, cut by the occasional river, was beautiful in its area and uniformity. We really lucked out with perfect weather: it wasn't cloudy in the cloud forest on the second day, and it never really rained in the rainforest. We already know that the five days we spent in the Amazon basin will stand out as the highlight of our trip...but we're open to being proven wrong!
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