Madidi National Park Day 3

Today we had our longest hike of the trip so far, and it was also the hottest day as well.

We had another lovely breakfast before we embarked on our walk. The walk was a combination of 4 different trails: Biwa, Tareche, Siringuero and our return via Mapajo. Along the path we saw many of the same things most trails had like mushrooms, butterflies and a myriad of insects. On the Tareche Trail we stopped at a beautiful viewpoint overlooking a river with more jungle on the other side. It was very peaceful here. We did see some birds flying overhead and along the river. We also had a little lizard friend at the viewpoint. It was a tan lizard with yellow and red stripes on its back.

During our morning walk we stopped at a strangler fig that was so far progressed, the host tree inside has completely disappeared. It made for a very interesting looking plant/tree, huge and majestic, but also has nothing inside of it. When we were just about back to the lodge, we came across a large group of capuchin and yellow squirrel monkeys looking for food together. It was really cool to see them both together and the yellow squirrel monkeys were actually pretty yellow!

Because our walk in the morning was longer, we had quick showers before lunch. After lunch, we got our couple of hours of downtime, part of which was spent trying to kill a gigantic wasp (I certainly will not miss all of the insects when we leave the jungle). Then, it was time to go out on our last afternoon jungle walk. The main goal of this walk was to see some of the biggest and oldest trees nearby.

Straight out from the path when we started Alejandro quickly stopped us and pointed out a toucan! I felt like that was one of the things I really wanted to see in the Amazon, and we did! It flew away before I could get a picture, but it was still really cool to see one. We continued our walk spotting some more birds along the way. We also saw a super spiky papaya tree. It looked like something out of Super Mario Bros. We also saw some absolutely huge trees that were probably near 1,000 years old. We also saw a very clever strangler fig that grew an extra limb turned root when its host tree started leaning and threatening to fall down. Nature is so cool (and scary) sometimes.

The highlight of the afternoon walk, was running into a massive group of yellow squirrel monkeys. They were everywhere! I even got hit in the face by a falling branch when one jumped over me! It was really amazing to see so many all at once travelling together. We also saw some capuchins a little while later in some very high trees. They didn't seem to be travelling anywhere like the yellow squirrel monkeys though. There has also been a small black hummingbird and we have passed it twice now. Today, it wasn't in its near so we had a little peek inside and saw a teeny tiny hummingbird. It was so cute! Our walk finished back at the lodge, but we sat at the lodge viewpoint and bird watched for a bit. We saw some black birds and some white eyed parakeets, but unfortunately no flying macaws or toucans.

We had our last dinner at the lodge, private dining too as we are the only guests still here out of the 6 that were here when we arrived. The food has been incredible, and I'll miss it when we leave tomorrow.Leggi altro