Friday, January 29, 2010 -- ON THE RIO SAN JUAN

Awake at 6 to the sounds of birds and howler monkeys. Birding and coffee right from our riverside hut! We borrowed a bird and reptile book from the collection at the main desk. Here’s the considerable list of birds and animals that we could see from our hut, either front on the river or rear in the trees near a pasture: Belted Kingfisher, (1) Violaceous Trogan (two in same tree), (2) Common Tody Flycatcher (tiny bird), Tri-colored Heron, (3) Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, (4) Variable Seedeater, (5) Grey-headed Tanager, (6) Great Kiskadee, (7) Blue-grey Tanager, Female Blue Ground Dove, Yellow Warbler, Chestnut-headed Oropendola, Great Tailed Grackle, Groove-billed Ani,  Great Blue Heron,  Mangrove Swallows, Anhingas, Neotropical Cormorants, Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets, Little Green Heron, Little Blue Heron, Green Kingfisher, Amazon Kingfisher. We also saw caimen, a basilisk lizard (Jesus Christ lizard), river otter family, giant frogs, geckos, turtles, and howler monkeys

Surprisingly there were very few insects, certainly none of the cockroaches, mosquitoes, spiders, beetles, and other creepy crawlies that I found in both the Ecuador and Peru jungle. The lodge operated primarily on solar power. Small insects fluttered about our lights if we left them on, but Yaro told us not to leave them on after 10 pm or we would be inundated with millions of insects that hatch from the river. I wondered whether these insects were mayflies or something similar. We never saw any signs of them, and we needed our mosquito net only for no-seeums, a tiny dark moth pest, and a June bug-type small beetle . . . and to catch the debris and frass that fell from the thatch above.

Some of the wonderful flowering plants around Jaguar

Jess wanted to go to El Castillo, about an hour downstream, to check out the lodging there and to buy a bottle of rum and some snacks. My feet were still bothering me and my hip would grab me occasionally, plus we needed some time to ourselves, so she went while I stayed and birded and lounged and photographed. She caught the 10 o’clock boat to El Castillo and planned to catch the 3:30 boat back.

Flock of Mangrove Swallows

Green Kingfisher

Anhinga drying its wings

I organized my gear, enjoyed a cold drink from the cooler near the front desk area, took photos, birded, wrote in this journal, and enjoyed my “time off,” as I am sure Jess did also.

About 11 am the Sábalos Lodge girls came to clean the cabin and exchange the towels. One was wearing a shocking tee that read in varied colored letters: FUCK REHAB. We decided that she had no idea what the tee meant. They changed the linens and towels, swept and mopped the wood plank floors, watered the plants, and emptied the lidded bathroom basket, which contained all the toilet paper used. One never throws anything in the toilets of Nicaragua, Ecuador, and Peru.

One of the girls stepped to the balcony rail and told me that there was a crocodile (crock-a-deel) down there. I looked, and sure enough, there lounged a small caiman, just its nose and eyes above water, resting near some tree snags before the hut. After the girls left, I walked down to the river’s edge to see the caiman better and frightened a Jesus Christ Lizard from the bank. It ran comically across the top of the water to the log drift. It was green and only about a foot long. When I got my binocs on it, I could see that it was shedding its skin.

[Photo at left from the Internet.]

At dinner that evening we met Suzan & Lars, a German couple, and Gabby & John, two young physicians from Great Britain—she a pediatrician and he a G.P. We made arrangements with the four of them to join us for a rainforest tour—which actually made it less expensive.

Jess worked hard with Yaro to set up the tour. Yaro had flatly told me that with my hip, I could not do the longer tour, but then he and Jess worked hard to find us two English speaking guides so that I could take a shorter tour and they a longer one.

Eventually it worked out that the five young people were going to Reserva Biológica Indio-Maíz, Aguas Frescas, which required a 4-hour hike out after being dropped off by boat, and I and my guide were going to Reserva Biólogica Indio-Maíz, Río Bartola and a much shorter 3 km hike through the jungle and along the river.