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June 18, 2005

The Mighty Jungle - Day 5

We enjoyed a leisurely morning before packing up camp and setting off upriver to find our next one. I guess we were out at a good time of day, as we happened upon a large family of monkeys playing around in the trees at the bank of the river. They were tiny and light brown- smaller than cats - and many of them had babies clinging cutely onto their backs, born just a month or two earlier. Around 20-30 of them passed by on their way to somewhere (probably the supermarket) and the really curious ones stopped to gawk at us, climbing as close as they could get without breaking a branch. Some tried to chat with us, but not even Andres spoke their language.

We sat in the canoa for an eternity watching them play, jump from branch to branch, and generally wonder who we were, until the last ones had passed and we reluctantly moved on hoping that at least one of us had managed to snap a decent picture or two.

Not long after seeing the monkeys we got really close to a small Caiman chilling on the river bank and, as usual, we were also entertained by colorful birds and butterflies. The most beautiful butterfly was around 20cm (8") wide, bright blue with a black "border" around the wings, fluttering randomly around teasing those who contemplated trying to photograph it. Even Max with his skills and equipment could not get a photo during our 7 days in the jungle, though photos might not be needed as I doubt any of us will ever forget...

After setting up camp we took a well deserved bath, and the boys made a swing out of the canoa`s mooring rope tied to a tree at the water`s edge. Andres was playing monkey as a good 17-year-old, climbing out onto the thinnest branches and dangling from all four limbs until he fell into the river with a huge splash and an even bigger grin. The less "brave" of us passed the time swinging and jumping from the rope, or trying various dives from the rope (Jhon and Andres mostly...). Everyone seemed to forget about their age as the games got more and more childish, and Silje and Max started posing for "killing" pictures with Jhon`s machete stuck through their torn clothes and various hilarious expressions of death and agony on their faces. I really need to find an Internet cafe with a CD drive so I can post the pictures...

When darkness fell we headed out in the canoa with our flashlights to go Caiman-spotting, the boys hoping to catch one with their hands to impress the girls... We spotted quite a lot of caimans, recognizable by the bright & scary light in their eyes reflected from our headlamps. Time after time we tried to sneak up on the poor ugly things with the canoa, so one of the guys could jump out and grab it. Unfortunately, our landings were far from quiet enough and the surprisingly quick caimans won the race every time. For their pride`s sake, I was rooting for the boys to catch one, but I didn`t really care that we didn`t get to pet a caiman. I had just as great a time watching the attempts ;-)

Posted by kvabo on June 18, 2005 11:54 AM
Category: Ecuador
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