Southern Hemisphere Travels

Today we went for a hike through the jungle in search of the elusive poison dart frogs.
We started out the day by waking up to the wonderful sounds of the jungle at about 5:30, after a very long and much needed sleep. You wouldn't think you could sleep with the deafening noise of the jungle that erupts after sun down, but it is strangely tranquil and seems to be the perfect white noise. The day started with an incredibly colourful and varied breakfast buffet (the fruit here is so sweet and juicy it might as well be a different species to the fruit we buy in the UK) to set us up for the day. This was followed by a two-hour boat ride to the hiking destination of the day. The boat ride took us a short way along the Tahuyaou River and then on to the Rio Blanca for the rest. It is a small river that may not be there tomorrow, it fluctuates hugely and quickly with the rain. You really notice the density and height of trees changing as you head up this river and towards terra firma (where it doesn't flood). Newly sprung (but pretty big) bushes, small trees and grasses are replaced by towering trees and much more of them. The view was just amazing and it is hard to put into words the feeling of lazing in a small boat, gliding through the jungle amongst the trees, the birds, the sounds. It is just incredible and humbling.

It felt a little like a scene from the jungle book "look for the bare necessities!"

We passed an Amazonian village on route and saw plenty of birds, including a kingfisher!

Eventually, we arrived for the trek and set off through the jungle in search of poison dart frogs. We traversed a precariously placed log that was waaaay to narrow for my liking. About the width of a persons foot, with nothing to hold on to and a lovely little drop below. Rich and Rob passed with ease...I took my time.

Next up, Rambo style vine swinging over another little crevasse. I found myself a large log to cross over instead (I value my life and had hands far too sweaty to hold a vine) but Rich and Rob made it over in style. We will edit out the first attempt fail by Rob on the video (update: we lost this video so Rob can breathe a sigh of relief - except that he totally missed the landing and ended up swinging and dangling on the vine for a while before being assisted and trying again!).

So, on to the wildlife...we were so lucky to find three species of poison dart frog, an Amazonicus Poison Dart Frog, a Yellow Spotted Poison Dart Frog and one of the rarest, a Uakari Poison Dart Frog. Beautiful colours and so incredibly small, we owe some much deserved thanks to our guide as there was no way we would have spotted most of them without him (although I did spot one of them chilling on a log!).

We also saw some amazing leaf-like frogs, and I will never understand how Andy spotted these whilst walking over the forest floor, some were only the size of your little finger nail, and they really did blend in so well with the leafy forest floor!

We also spotted a cuckoo, a centipede, some cool looking and large ladybugs and a tourist killer bee! - Andy may have been playing tricks with that one. Oh and we also saw some bullet ants (after our guide prodded a nest and they swarmed out!!).

Just before lunch we headed to a massive fallen tree, its trunk is now hollowed out and it is big enough to crawl through and long enough to call a tunnel. Even better...it has bats living in it!! We were up for the challenge and turned on our torches. Rob was first and I can't say I'm not glad. The first step he made toward the entrance and out flew a few bats right towards him! After a little fright, we all headed through, adopting a crawling squat through the guano beneath, with bats whizzing past just inches away from our faces, you could feel them fluttering by your ears. They were False Vampire Bats and Short Fruit Bats and they were awesome. Loved it...except for the guano. Jess and Anthony, the Australian couple who joined us on most excursions, decided to give it a miss.

Lunch was amazing, like all the food here, and where better to be eating than in the middle of the rainforest, under a canopy of wooden poles and banana leaves. Our guides cooked up a treat and we ate a wonderfully delicious pot of pork, spiced in delicious juices with some yuka, a potato-like food that was yummy! During lunch, we were also joined by some curious butterflies with beautiful colours and big enough and fast enough to make you jump when they dart past. There was an electric blue and black one that took a particular liking to Rob (a.k.a the butterfly whisperer) but remained elusive to the camera for ages (got him eventually though!).

On the way back we saw a Sloth up high in a tree, which mainly looked like a big ball of something undefined, but it definitely moved so our eyes weren't deceiving us.

And then, as if it couldn't get any better, the guides began to shout and it turns out there was a monkey in the trees on the bank. He was a beautiful Woolly Monkey named Coby who had once been a pet, but now lived in the wild. We pulled to the side and he climbed down the branches until he was right above our heads! We fed him bananas and apple and he took them right from our hands, dangling by his tail from the branches. It was incredible and I think the smiles and disbelief on our faces said it all. Such an amazing experience to top off an awesome excursion. Still can't quite believe it actually happened.

And then... as if we hadn't had a good enough day already, once again we returned to our room, heard the rustle of branches and ran out to find more monkeys!!! We shouted to the couple next door, Anthony and Jess, and we stood and watched as over 20 monkeys made their way through the trees behind the lodge, a never-ending line of swinging monkeys seeming to just fly through the trees. You really can't appreciate their strength and agility anywhere else but the wild, it really is something else and we just stood there transfixed until they were gone.

After the monkeys passed we stayed out a little longer and Rob spotted a toucan on the tree just outside. We took some great pictures and showed them to our guide Andy, who of course then informed us it was not a Toucan, but a bird that looked a lot like one. Poor Rob was not impressed...however it was still a really beautiful bird.Read more