Day 21: Sacha Lodge - Sunday 11th February 2018
Naturetrek had given us a choice between 'hardcore birding' and a 'general rainforest experience'. Naturally we opted for the former - along with Peter and David. Our guides Shanshu and Miguel were excellent. Shanshu spoke good English, both were very good at identifying and locating birds. Shanshu is the native name for Hoatzin - one of the most extraordinary birds to be found here - or anywhere in the world actually (it has a whole Order all to itself - the only monospecific Order in Class: Aves) - his real name was Wilma, but he preferred his trade name, unsurprisingly.
The Kapok Tower is an observation platform 43m up in the canopy of a giant kapok tree, accessed by a metal stairway. Alison's acrophobia was in full force by the time we got to the top - but this soon settled and we all enjoyed 3 hours of early morning birding. After descent we spent 2 hours or so looking for antbirds, manakins and other species of the lower levels of the forest. Regrettably, I had a brain/technology malfunction - I had taken the battery out of my camera to recharge overnight and omitted to replace it before we set off - so no wildlife photos from this morning.
During a short break before lunch and a longer 'siesta-break' after lunch I had a wander around the lodge and found a few things to satisfy my itchy trigger finger once my camera had been reunited with its power source. There was a large troop of Squirrel Monkeys and a few Tamarins (I think Graells's Tamarin) and a few fairly common bird species.
Later we set off for another walk through the forest, from ~3pm until after dark and saw some more birds as well some education about the medicinal properties of some of the plants.
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After dark we had an unsuccessful search for owls - but we did see a rather large tarantula