Ecuador's Amazon Basin Adventure Dispatch

December 18, 2008 – Some Highlights of Our Day

I have mentioned routine here in the jungle. One of our routines is to wake up very early each morning. Today the staff gave us a wake up knock on the door of our hut at 5:00 AM. We went to the open dining room for breakfast and by 6:00 AM we were paddling in our canoe back out toward the Napo river.

It is pleasant to be on the water early in the morning, cool and relaxing with vibrant colors all around and with a multitude of bird and animal noises all about. We reached the big river after about 1 ¾ hour and the first thing we saw was a Peregrine Falcon killing an Oreo for breakfast. We circled the sandbar where this drama was occurring, it was not long before the falcon flew off with this “breakfast to go”. The Oreo was quite large so the predator could not fly far above the river as it went off to enjoy breakfast in peace.

This morning is our “parrot day” and the action began even before we’d planned. We immediately saw hundreds of parrots of at least three different varieties feeding at a “clay lick” on the banks of the river. All parrots in the Amazon take clay mud into their stomachs for the minerals and to settle their stomachs from the acidic fruits and plants that they eat.

Later in the morning we got out of our boat and spent a lot of time at each of two different “clay licks’ frequented by parrots. Before the morning was over we’d seen 8 different varieties of parrots, and some giant red macaws as well.

The color and activity of the parrots frenzied movement at the clay was spellbinding. After some time one group would abruptly leave and the area would be silent for a while, then a new group of hundreds of parrots would arrive and the action would begin again.

We had lunch prepared by a crew of locals after we’d watched the parrots for some hours. After lunch we watched a Kichwa medicine man practicing some healing procedures. It was fascinating, almost scary to listen to him breath, chant and move with jerky trance like movements as he exercised techniques from the unknowable past of the Amazon.

It was a longer day today and we were not back to the lodge until around 3:00 pm, right in the heat of the day. Cool refreshing dips into the cold lagoon felt great, and the warm showers in our rooms just as good.

Now I am sitting on the porch of our hut watching the sun go down over the lagoon. It is always noisy in the Amazon! Birds sing, chirp and crash through the trees. The symphony of all jungle sounds is relaxing however. This is an amazing place.