Chuncho Collpa

I woke up to the calls of macaws. A mist was rising from the Tambopata river as we waited for a boat to take us a half a mile upstream to the biggest clay lick in this area. As the guides put it, the traffic on the site was really good - hundreds of parrots were taking turns on the wall of clay or sitting in the trees of the jungle behind it. Paul directed us to keep a large distance so as not to disturb the birds until most of them would have fed. Then, we approached a bit closer, but still not quite close enough for my 100-400mm lens. Nevertheless, it was an unforgettable experience in an great setting - the river behind us and a pristine jungle of the Bahuaja-Sonene National Park park stretching for miles on all sides. The rising sun brought out all the saturation of the colors of scarlet macaws, yellow-blue macaws, green macaws, and a number of other parrot species that we got to see and hear that day.

The ride back down the river to the Wasai Tambopata Lodge took about an hour and a half. We saw a toucan up in a tree on the river banks, but it was hard to concentrate after the early morning spectacle.

Paul gave a choice of activities for the afternoon. It had been a busy number of days since we arrived in Peru, including getting up before dawn several times, so we opted for a leisurly walk through the jungle and a bit of fishing rather than a pecarie chase this time. Paul was the only one to catch a small fish. Two of mine escaped narrowly letting go just as I was pulling them out. The hook was a bit too large for their size... After a while, I started entertaining myself by photographing our pond and its surroundings

We spent the evening by the bar. They have satelite Internet in the bar area. The connection was slow and I competed for bandwidth even with the bartender himself who was busy chatting on Facebook pages. Can one get away from it all anywhere anymore?