Wooley monkeys, stinky turkeys

This week I am out in the wilds of the Amazon jungle.  It was an adventure getting here; overnight bus from Quito, then another 2 hour bus, followed by a 2 hour canoe ride in the rain.  The accommodation is small huts on the river, built on stilts and connected by small wooden platforms.  There is no power, so it's dinner by candlelight, but the showers are warm - for a minute at least :(  It reminds me of when Stilly and I went to Kinabatangan River in Borneo.  Except here we get to go Piranha fishing!

The first day was pretty good.  We saw caiman crocodiles, wooley monkeys, stinky turkeys and sloths in the wild.  The sloths are much more fun in the sanctuary; in the wild they are just a big ball of hair in a tree.  The stinky turkey is a funny looking bird with a mo-hawk. The reason it's called stinky is because when you cut them open they reek because of some bacteria in one of their stomachs. That's right.  One of their stomachs.  Like cows and sloths, stinky turkeys have four stomachs.

We also went to a large lagoon where our guide Jairo informed us that the caimans, electric eels, piranhas and all other nasties like to hang out by the riverbanks so it was perfectly safe to swim.  I'm not exactly sure this is 100% true, but the water was warm so I jumped in anyway.

After our swim we went looking for caimans.  We found one pretty quick and boy was he a big one!  I, for some reason, thought caimans only grew to a metre or so, this guy was at least two metres and when the guide fed him and I got to see his big crocodile smile, he looked even bigger.  Still, it hasn't been enough to put our group off swimming.

I like the nightime here.  You can hear the forest animals.  The beds are clean and comfortable, the nights are cool enough that you can cuddle up in a blanket.  This may be a false sense of security but, with the mosquito net down and the ambience created by a single candle, I feel like I'm in a cocoon, all cosy and safe from all those nasty nighttime bugs, cockroaches and arachnids.

Caiman crocodile

Wooley monkey

Stinky turkey