I am finding it very hard to sum up 14 days where every day had so many Wow moments. One of those many moments was comprised of all the big birds. You've already seen pictures of the largest, the Jabiru--huge birds that don't even look real.
I was quite enamored of the Horned Screamer. About 35 inches tall, it is particularly interesting because of the single white feather on the top of the head and the claw on the wing joint.
Look closely at the next photo and you can see the claw. I like to think this is a direct descendant of a pterodactyl.
Loved the Hoatzin! These two-foot long birds are just wondrously silly. Wild head feathers and clumsy. Usually found in noisy groups at the top of trees. They are leaf eaters and tend to thrash their way through the trees.
The Black Curassow also has great head feathers, this time, curly.
We also saw many chachalacas and guans, both quite a bit larger than our pheasants. Here's a Speckled chachalaca.
and a Band-tailed guan
I was disappointed not to get a good photo of the Umbrellabird's headdress. Their fancy head feathers grow forward like Elvis's pompadour.
Many kinds of herons: Rufescent tiger-heron
Cocoi heron
Striated heron
Little blue heron
Capped heron
Everything seemed so exotic. Even woodpeckers.
Lineated woodpecker --14 inches tall.
Yellow tufted woodpecker
Cream-colored woodpecker
Spot-breasted woodpecker
Here is one of our paths through the jungle, barely wide enough for one person. Quite a ways down this path we found a couple houses up on stilts. January, is the dry season. The owner of one home told us that come the rainy season, the path we were on could be 5 to 10 feet underwater.
Aha! So that explains the boats.
Another day, we were able to take a boat down the Rio Guaviare and were lucky enough to see the pink river dolphins. What a treat! The boat we were in was at least 30 feet long and carved out of a single tree. It took the owner/maker (below) three months just to hollow the tree out.
The long one on the right is his boat.
Many of the places we went required that we have an indigenous guide as well as our trip guide. I think 12 of us were on this boat and it held us all with plenty of room.
Even though this is considered the dry season, the river was huge, deep and lined with rock walls. It does make you wonder about what it looks like in the wet season.
Our days started very early so we were usually peckish by mid-morning. If we were on a road going through a town, there would be a block or two lined with shops practically on the road. We would stop and get fruit, sweet bread and other goodies.
Some of the places we went were very far off the beaten path, so a van full of Caucasians was quite a novelty. We stopped for ice cream at a tiny shop in a small village. Two teenage girls working there wanted to get their picture taken with all of us. Of course, we obliged. They planned to get it printed and hang it on the wall of their shop.
In the small villages you were just as likely to see horses laden with produce. Horses with carts were a major mode of transportation, after motorcycles.
An interesting event with cicadas had us captivated. We had gotten back to our hotel quite late. The cicadas were singing so loudly you could barely talk across the table. The cicadas were huge, at least four inches long. But here is the interesting part. We learned that little geckos somehow manage to eat these monster insects. Above my room door a drama was playing out with a cicada and several geckos. Life and death in the jungle.
Here is a little gecko chowing down on some sort of insect...the size I would expect them to hunt for dinner.
Yet somehow they kill and eat the cicadas.
Amazing stuff.
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