Our day as planned:
Pre-breakfast walk to a nearby spot in the Cloud Forest where the strange and beautiful Cocks-of-the-Rock display at dawn. This is a wonderful sight, as up to 25 bright red-orange males dance and sing, attempting to attract the favors of the duller, burgundy colored females. After visiting this lek we return to the Lodge for a leisurely breakfast and continue in our all terrain bus to the Madre de Dios River and our motorized dugouts and we begin our journey down the river, past the last folds of the Andes, to it’s confluence with the Manu River. We’ll pass settlements and native communities during the trip. Just before we get to the village of Boca Manu we pass the native community of Diamante. Their culture is Piro and this is the largest settlement in the area. Passing the village of Boca Manu we arrive at tonights destination -a small, locally built and managed lodge. The lodge is across the river from the tiny airstrip of Boca Manu. The two species of Tamarin monkeys are here -the Saddleback and Emperor. The latter with their long, white moustaches are a rare and precious sight. There is a trail system we can explore if time permits. Night at Boca Manu Lodge.
As accomplished: Except for staying in a different lodge and an accidental fully-clothed “shower”, this day went as planned.
Klaus woke us at 5; we had 10 minutes to get ready to walk to the Cock of the Rock blind. Several people thought it was still raining and went back to sleep; in actuality, there was just a lot of dripping as the foliage shed last night’s precipitation. I was the only one ready on time, so Klaus and I left for the blind which was a 10-minute stroll up the road. Elaine caught up with us, and Amy and Larry arrived about the time the birds began their display. Felicia and Isabelle were heading up the road as we were returning to the lodge. (Note: most of the bird pictures I will be posting come from the internet; I only took a small elph camera which is not capable of capturing good shots of moving targets in low light. If the source or photographer did not transfer with the photo, my apologies.)
Cock-of-the-Rock
The forest dripped from the previous night’s rain, but there was a very nice thatch-roofed blind for viewing the birds. In the early morning twilight, first one male arrived, then another, and soon there were four to six of the noisy birds at the lek. Each was vying for some unseen female’s attention, both vocally and with wing-flapping and a curious bobbing motion. Follow these links for more images of Cock-of-the-Rock, a video with sound, and a video with two birds competing.
Breakfast was at 7—pancakes. There were several feeders outside the dining hall and lots of hummingbirds, including a Booted Racket-tail, Long-tailed Sylph, White-bellied Woodstar, Giant Hummingbird, Many-spotted Hummingbird, and Violet-fronted Brilliant.
Booted Racket-tail
Long-tailed Sylph
White-bellied Woodstar
Giant Hummingbird
Many-spotted Hummingbird
Violet-fronted Brilliant
Sometime in the past someone’s brown capuchin monkey-pets had escaped or been freed, and they had taken up residence near the lodge. Normally they are found at lower elevations. Everyone wished we had had more time to bird and see the wildlife, but since we had arrived late, we had lost our viewing time.
Brown capuchin monkey
The van left at 8, and we got to the village where we would transfer to a boat a little after 10. Most of that time we had been continuing our descent of almost 10,000 feet, primarily along a winding road in a narrow canyon. All at once we had emerged from the canyon and the dense forest to find a broad, swampy river plain.
Madre de Dios River
We made one stop in a town where Klaus made a call and Fortunato bought bread and other fresh supplies. Our driver was more laid back now that he wasn’t trying to make up for lost time and get to the lodge before dark and dinner was over.
While we waited for all our stuff to be loaded onto the boat at Atalaya, Felicia bought bananas and we all paid for our use of the facilities.
The trash & recycling bins reminded me of Eva in Wall-E
We finally set off around 10:45. In this boat, we always wore our life jackets. The river was latte-colored, fast-moving, filled with floating logs and other debris, and tricky to navigate.
Manu Expeditions boat at Atalays from steveandramonaboone.com
Within 10 minutes of leaving the dock, Jesus (our boatman) turned into a wave or wake and I got swamped. I ended up sitting in a puddle. Larry had been sitting with his leg on the side wale and a bunch of water went way up his leg. At least is was warm and the wind from the moving boat helped dry our clothes, except for our seats.
When I looked back towards the mountains from whence we had come, they were shrouded by clouds.
From River to Mountains
There were a few scattered settlements along the river, and we occasionally saw a fisherman or passed a lone river traveler.
Along the Madre de Dios
Fishing by net
Note the muddy, choppy water
It was hard to see birds very well as we were speeding along, but we saw Neotropic Cormorant, Fasciated Tiger-Heron, Cocoi Heron, Great Egret, Capped Heron, Snowy Egret, Little Blue Heron, Andean Gull, Yellow-billed Tern, Large-billed Tern, Red-and-green Macaw, Chestnut-fronted Macaw, plus others. At 12:30 we stopped on a sand bar for a lunch of stuffed chicken roll and veggies. (The food was good, but the menu was getting pretty repetitive.)
While the following picture isn’t very pleasing to the eye, it illustrates how dense the vegetation is along the banks of the river and how the river constantly eats away at the land. Chunks of the bank, along with whatever is growing in the mud, are swept away by the river. Some of the trees and debris float beneath the river’s surface, so the boatman must be ever vigilant. Although the bank isn’t very high here, on the slower-moving Manu River they were usually much higher.
Madre de Dios river banks
We got to Boca Manu about 3:30 p.m. There weren’t many birds after lunch, so some of us nodded off. The sunshine in these photos was a rarity as it generally was very overcast and quite cool on the boat due to the wind. I only used the boat poncho to break the wind, but others were really bundled up.
Kapok Trees along Madre de Dios
We stopped at Boca Manu Lodge for a walk, on which we saw saddleback tamarin.
Saddleback Tamarin by Rebecca Hausman
This was our first opportunity to walk in the jungle. While we saw all sorts of interesting plants and some birds, it was so dark under the canopy that I only managed a couple of usable photos.
After the walk, we motored to Yine Lodge where we had very nice wooden cabins and a communal toilet/shower facility. The lodge is a joint venture between an eco-tourism company and the Yine Indians. Started in 2001, the plan calls for the facilities to be turned over completely to the Yine in 2011.
Cabin at Yine Lodge
Elaine and I made the mistake of walking to the nearby airfield in short sleeves; it was swarming with mosquitos.
After we showered, we gathered to drink beer and go over our bird list. This lodge had a nice, roomy dining and lounging area. Dinner was served at 7; a curry-like beef dish. At some point while we were in the lodge it started to rain.
