Monday 12 March 2012

We were told the previous night that we would be meet at the observatory tower at 6:30 am for our early birdwatching session, with breakfast at the usual time and then we would leave at 9:30 am. Unless it rained. Which, of course, this being the Amazon rainforest, it did from the evening, and pretty much through the night to the morning. I still got up early in the hopes that it might die down early enough for a chance at seeing some birds, but no such luck.

So, it was a very leisurely morning until it was time to leave, which we did at 9:45 (having had to wait for the return of the motorised canoe which went out early for some errand or so). We pretty much zoomed through the river network and which included navigating down some smaller channels, as well as manoeuvring around trees that had fallen and taken up three-quarters of the river channel. It was quite exhilarating, especially as we had to duck overhanging vines and branches a number of times (no machete work, this time). Of course, now that it was obvious we weren't stopping but speeding past them, some of the birds, such as what I think is the Greater Ani, stayed on their perches and didn't move, just when we were travelling too fast to get any decent pictures!

Despite the faster pace, it seemed to take longer to get back to El Puente than to get to the lodge, but we were back at the lodge approximately 11:30 and had to wait for Willan with the minibus to get us back to Lago Agrio. Whilst waiting, I saw someone trying to coax something under the table in the kitchens, and soon realised that it was a tiny tamarind monkey.

I got up, and instead of trying to stroke it, I laid my palm up in front of it and it hopped onto my palm and then clambered up onto my forearm, without any hesitation, and started to fall asleep! It was absolutely adorable and so cute: I fell in love with it. If there had been any way to keep it morally, etc, I think I would have seriously considered it (maybe, although it's also someone's pet, I gathered). Everyone wanted a photo of it on my arm and trying to stroke it, disturbing it resting. I, therefore, tried not to stroke it very much myself but couldn't resist trying to get a photograph of it and just the occasional very light stroke. It was a bit of a task, trying to virtually empty my daypack to get to my camera one-handed, without jostling it too much, but I managed. However, I did have to take a couple of photographs with flash, but at least it wasn't as bright as some others, so the photos of the little cutie could have been much better (or possibly not, bearing in mind, I was took them one-handed) but hopefully, you can see how adorable it was.

It was quite a wrench to take him off my forearm when it was time to leave in the minibus, and he resisted being taken off, too! The last I saw of him, he was running under cover of one of the dining tables.

It was a very tedious 2 hour minibus trip back to Lago Agrio where we bought our bus tickets back to Quito, Quitumbe bus terminal, leaving at 2pm. We were stopped twice by customs and had to disembark, show our ID, give our names, passport numbers, destination, employment and the second time, had our daypacks searched. Unlike the previous (daytime) bus journeys I have had, there were no vendors that came aboard to sell food or drink. Just as well then that the driver had to take a break because after 4 hours, we stopped for about 15 minutes at a roadside restaurant where you could buy food and drink, as well as use the bathroom - and stretch your legs.

We made it back to Quitumbe just before 10, and thought I had been lucky enough to get the last Ecovia bus back but it then stopped at a bus terminal where I changed onto the Trole (2 carriage electric bus/tram) but this wasn't my night. Although the Trole is a 24 hour service, we then had to get off that and get on a replacement bus at Santo Domingo Plaza, Old Town, which in turn terminated at El Ejido. I knew that we were several blocks away from my usual hostels and hailed a taxi and eventually got to the hostel at 11pm.