We were awake early listening to the howler monkeys in the distance followed by a range of different bird calls. It is no good getting up until day dawns properly and there is enough natural light or the generator comes on and the eco lights in the cabins can be switched on. The candles are an option but with all the wood and palm thatch around not the best when time is on your side and you can just lie and listen!
5.45 arrives and it is light enough to use the outside shower .......breakfast is at 0630 on picnic tables over looking the Rewa river.....as we finish we see and hear a blue crowned motmot in a tree close to the landing. Also close by were blue throated guan. At 7.00 we head off down the river to a trail so we can walk and look for wildlife. En route we finally get to see howler monkeys in the trees - a small family group are visible of approximately 4 together with a small black youngster who is yet to have the red and golden colours of its parents which look particularly impressive in the sunlight. We also see a roadside hawk flying above the river - with no road anywhere near! Next is a really impressive view of a pair of blue and yellow macaws in a dead tree close to the bank - we have now seen all the macaw species in Guyana. As we approach the landing there is a black vulture on the ground drinking and a new bird - a sunbittern walking along the waters edge. As we walk to the trail we pass a farming area and see different types of cassava that have been planted - Ken explains how they remove the bitter elements of this staple crop and how the women have modernised and made safer the grating process - no more stones which were dangerous now metal grills powered by an upside down bicycle which makes the process speedier!
As we were walking along the path after spotting and watching some spider monkeys in the trees above I looked down to see Ken almost stand on a green snake - fortunately for both he didn't but it was a non venomous common whip snake.
We add to our list of birds - quite considerably but the really memorable ones were a beautiful green tailed jacamar which I was able to photograph, a channel billed toucan which I finally got a really good look at and a black curassow which was sitting, really well hidden, on a nest - she had been found by our erstwhile new friend - the other guest at the lodge - a Russian lepidopterist who was out with guide, nets and fruit baited traps catching butterflies. He had left Russia, lived in the USA but was now living in Switzerland where he was a university lecturer in physics. Over lunch he explained that many people criticise butterfly collectors - which used to be a big craze in Russia in the 60s - and others consider it geeky - but he was quick to point out that one bird would eat more than he collects in day .....similarly he scrapes more off his windshield than he collects. An understandable and fair perspective but it did seem strange to watch as a live butterfly was removed from a net and placed in an individual see through paper pouch then put in a box alongside others collected so far today.....presumably it suffocated!
The other birds we saw were on this trip were:-
Muskovey duck
Scarlet macaw
White banded swallow
Black tailed titra
Striated flycatcher
Yellow green grosbeak
White flanked antbird
Warbling antbird
Grey antbird
Blue and grey tanager
Violacious euphonia
House wren
Buff breasted wren
Red necked woodpecker
Green ibis
Straight billed woodcreeper
Screaming piha
Eastern longtailed hermit hummingbird
Blue tailed emerald hummingbird
When we got back to the boat we had some very welcome orange juice made up by the lodge - very light and full of flavour. Ken then said that while waiting for us Levi had heard otters - yippee- so we would go and look for them along the edge of the oxbow as they were likely to be in the mangroves ......we slowly motored round the edge then cut the engine and drifted - you could first hear them (an occasional barking noise and a splash) but they were in an inaccessible backwater and we could not see them ......Ken continually made a call which made the dog otter curious and eventually he popped up in clear view by some mangrove roots and looked at us.....I looked at him through my binoculars - a giant river otter - brilliant but I was so in awe by the the time I picked up my camera he was gone not to return despite a further call from Ken - he had clearly seen us and was no longer interested - his curiosity satiated! So no photograph only memories - the black spot on his white chest meant it was a male we saw. Contented we made our way back for lunch.
Over lunch I could hear hear a bird continually calling - an undulated tinamous - according to Ken.
Baked macaroni cheese and salad was on the menu for the vegetarians - it was so good we had to have seconds - not often John has seconds so it must have been good.
A rest and lie in the hammock until our next trip to grass pond at 4pm beckoned. I caught up with some emails - yes they have internet - very slow but the email works well- we truly are a connected world! During siesta time the skies opened for about 45 minutes as they did for a further 10 minutes as we arrived at grass pond but we remained dry throughout - lucky!
We arrived at grass pond via a boat trip up the Rewa river and a short hike through the forest. This brought us to some dugout canoes - after water from the rains was bailed out we jumped in and had a leisurely tour around the lake with Ken paddling - no need for John to do anything - he still has his healing blister after his last escapade in a dugout at Surama!
We saw the giant Amazonian lilies ( national flower of Guyana), the giant arapaima fish were splashing now and again and we saw one black caiman but were told that there were many. We also saw several different species of birds along the pond edges i.e.
Lineated woodpecker
Red capped cardinal
Ringe kingfisher
Amazonian kingfisher
Green kingfisher
Striated heron
Rufous tiger heron
Great egret
Great black hawk
Pale breasted spinetail
Wattled jacana - with beautiful golden wings in flight.
Swallow winged puff bird
Scaled pigeon
Ruddy ground dove
Blue ground dove
Greater ani
Turquoise tanager
Great kiskadee
Painted tody-flycatcher
Squirrel cuckoo
Caica parrot
Painted parakeet
Brown throated parakeet
Crane hawk

On the way back the sky had a beautiful reddish tinge and mist was appearing over the trees .....we also saw a bird we had not seen before the capped heron-white with a yellowish neck and a very clear black cap.
We arrived back just after 6pm and after a quick shower we were summoned to dinner at 6.45pm - I think the chef got her timings a little out of cinque but better a hot meal than waiting until 7pm and getting a cool or spoilt one! After dinner we recapped on what we had seen with Ken - he went off to email his friends before going home to the village and we headed off to our cabin.