October 28, 2007
From SATA-Peru-2007
Today early in the morning hours, specifically 430 AM, we rolled out of our mosquito nets when we heared Waldo (of the children's book series "Where's Waldo) telling us, "it is time to wake up in the moment, lets gooo." We pulled on dull gray and brown colored clothing, per Leo's advice and piled into the boats. Thanks to Waldo's tremendous skills as a guide we were on our way to visit the bird claylick as planned.
"Tsame Niaaku" - Matsigenka for lets go to the water's edge.
We peki-pekied our way up the river to our spectating island, a sliver of rock and sand in the middle of the river, 200 yards away from a shear clay cliff where the birds would soon congregate. Armed with spotting scopes and high powered Swakovski binos (the best according to Manuel) we sloshed onto the beach. We weren't the only bird watchers this morning, 3 other pretty little gringos were already perched on a log awaiting the birds arrival. And then the birds came...
They were mostly macaws, tropical parrots reminiscent of Long John Silver's pet in Treasure Island, of all different sizes and coloring along with a couple of turkey vultures and a roadside hawk that were off to one side away from the hordes of parrots. When the birds first started to arrive they preformed flashes to scout the area for predators, before settling down to eat. The clay here provides needed minerals to the birds that serve to neutralize the toxins contained in the fruits they eat. I hope Manuel and others snapped some good pics of this event because I have recently lost my damned camera.
Moving on, later in the afternoon we went on a tour with Kathy (Varun's would be lover) to learn about what different uses the MLC land had been put to back in the days when it was a hacienda plantation. As wild as the forest seemed to us we learned that it was actually still undergoing a process of regrowth and recovery. The time when this land was being used as a sugar cane plantation is still fresh in the local villagers' memory as are the abuses they suffered working these lands.
In addition we learned to recognize the plant families indicative of secondary forests that are in recovery; Melastomataceae, cecropiaceae and arecaceae among others. I followed closely on Varun's heels both to learn something about the plants and also about his way with the ladies, he was never far from Kathy's side.
We returned for a shower in the waterfall that is only a couple minutes away from the podges and beats a conventional shower by a mile. Here I had my first experience with Dr. Bronners minty fresh soap, provided by Erich in mass, it was refreshing especially on the nether regions. We returned for dinner some songs around the camp fire by Varun the Swamy and fell asleep to Rick reciting 3 full Unforgivable videos line for line without missing a word.
