Amazon Day 3

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This snake was next to the path to our hut. I didn’t even notice it but then suddenly behind me, the SO screamed.  I turned around wondering what it was, not thinking it was necessarily anything nasty, as I’d learnt a scream can mean anything from mild surprise to major shock. Well as it happened there was a two metre snake scuttling off the path, but also coiled up, with its head in the air.  I agree that definitely merited a scream!

We saw four snakes in total during our time there. This is the only one we managed to get much of a photo of.

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The previous night we went out on the lake at night and looked for Caimans with our flashlights. Their eyes reflect the light from hundreds of metres away. We saw a couple of dozen, such as this. Most of them relatively small, but some can get to four metres.

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The official sign for Chalalan at the river.

It was a very interesting place to stay, and I enjoyed experiencing the Amazon. It is worth nothing that the facilities are, as expected, basic. There is no power at all, except some lights and a power lug from 6.30 pm to 10 pm from solar panels. No fans in rooms. No communications. The shower is not heated (but the water is moderately warm).

I wouldn’t let that put you off. Just to be aware of what your expectations are.

The guiding was great, and the food also very good. And it wasn’t as hot as I thought it would be, due to our time of year.

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This is Kermit. He decided to move into our hut.

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The inside of the hut.

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We went out for a three hour way in the morning, and saw another deer.

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Part of the trail. At times it could look like NZ rainforest.

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Not sure what this was!

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Trying out my climbing skills!

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An interesting looking bug.

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A butterfly that landed on Fabian’s shoe. Fabian is a Swiss meteorologist who was there for the same time as us. We were lucky that the three of us had a guide to ourselves. In fact we were the only three people in camp the first night. But a dozen Americans turned up the second day.

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These berries were delicious. Most you were told not to eat, but these ones were okay and superb.

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Another butterfly!

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Not sure which bird this came from.

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I love these natural spikes on a tree, designed to stop them being climbed. Of course, the monkeys swing onto them from other trees.

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More of the trail.

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Not sure what type of plant or fruit this was, hanging down.

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An unusually shaped tree.

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On the way back, some of the locals were dragging a new canoe along the two kilometre trail from the river to the lake.

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This squirrel monkey doing gymnastics for us.
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In the afternoon we went down river around six kms.

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A small farm was there, including pineapple trees.

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Those shapes hanging down are nests. Not only do they have eggs in there, the birds can fly in and out of them also.

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An agouti.

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A mango tree.

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An unusually coloured bird. Not yet identified it.

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This is the Santa Rose lake, which is much larger than Chalalan. They are the only two lakes in the area.

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We then went fishing for piranhas in the lake. The only thing that went wrong is I fell into the lake off the log, while casting my line. It is bad enough falling into a lake, but worse when you are deliberately trying to attract piranhas.

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Some monkeys turned up to shake fruit down on us as we fished.

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A total of seven piranhas were caught. This is our guide, Obi.

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You can see here the teeth in the piranha. That is why they can be a menace to humans.

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And we had the piranhas for dinner that night. They tasted really really nice.

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