Day 10: Blackwater Birding and Presentations

I went birding this morning since I had only gone once before and it was not successful. This morning was gorgeous with no clouds or fog. We saw hummingbirds, Euphonias, Paradise jacamars, and I even heard macaws squawking about. Don Percy got a great shot of a Jacamar eating a dragonfly! Everyone was super jealous of how great our birding expedition was!

This morning we went on a boat out to blackwater after breakfast. The goal was to see Hoatzin’s, a type of bird that loves the swampy areas. We were also promised birds called the Potoo, that have amazing camouflage and blend into the branches seamlessly.

Carissa has such a good eye. She was able to quickly see things and point them out to me. I could barely keep up with her! I was able to see four Hoatzins. Carissa helped me spot the Great Potoo in the dead branches of the tree. She was really sweet in letting me borrow her binoculars to see all of the organisms much better. But as the pescadores say, I have my “manzanita” (Apple) phone and that is just as good as any pair of binoculars lol. We saw two “iguana-like” reptiles, one perched in a tree and the other swimming across the water.

After our blackwater adventure, we buckled down and finalized our presentations. Marie showed us how to make an origami fish and we decided to include that in our presentation. 😊

We presented second after the butterfly group. Unfortunately, the videos I had put into the slides did not work thanks to the “enhance the slide feature,” which was a bummer since there were really cool. While we presented, Marie almost fell through the floor as a floorboard cracked underneath her feet! Yikes!!! 😬

The presentations lasted a long time, but it was interesting to hear from all of the groups. The catchiest group was the frog group, they had us do some frog karaoke at the end that was cute. Amanda led us in some reflection work and we got to send ourselves a postcard.

After reflecting, it was time for dinner! After dinner it was fiesta time! 🎉🥳 Ro led the group in thanking the guides. After clapping it up and tearing up for a minute, Cesar and other employees from Explorama formed a band with a “cajón” (box drum), guitar, and maracas. Don Luis played and sang beautifully. We heard some American classics, like Hotel California and the Beetles. My favorites were the Peruvian cumbias and the Latin classics, such as La Bamba (Ritchie Valens) and La Billirubina (Juan Luis Guerra). There was some crazy dancing going on by lots of folks, a limbo competition, which Erland dominated, and some pair dancing. Rachel G. is very talented at Latin dancing thanks to her upbringing in a Mexican-American community. We danced a few songs together! I taught Leovie how to dance salsa. Erland and I danced cumbia together. It was a fun-filled night and I stayed up until midnight partying until I tapped out.Read more