My first two weeks here Jan 30th – Feb 13th
First river trip – sorry no pics it was last minute, there is space wanna go, jump in the boat kind of moment haha. I saw black caiman (only heads and tails though), a massive jabiru, all sorts of fishing birds and herons, an otter holt (pretty cool!) and the river itself. Being out on it was amazing, just cruising along in the boat so close to the water with the jungle and savannah moving by with all the sounds and smells. Love being out there.
We were dropping visitors off at a village south of us called Yupukari. A research station come lodge called Caiman House is there and each night (I think) they go out to catch, tag, weigh, monitor black caiman. The visitors get to go along and watch – I’ll definitely have to get in on some of those trips!
First time seeing Giant Otters in person and then touching, feeding and swimming with them! Obvious but pretty damn exciting.
First bites by Philip. I have been bitten about 5 times but only 3 have left marks, 1 of those drawing blood and the other 2 leaving bruises.
I also busted my pinky open when trying to sneak out of Buddys enclosure after putting him to sleep. The latch catches and then it suddenly slid out and my pinky got caught and just split open. That was on the 3rd Feb it is now the 13th and still not quite healed.
First swim with Buddy and towing him around my fingers in his maw!
Vid?
Also first time with Buddy deciding to follow a boat that was heading out fishing, which took him at least 300m away – a long way for a blind otter to swim, which then left us stranded on the bank calling for him for about 5-10minutes with practically no replies. In the end we were lucky enough one of the guys was around to grab a boat and take us to go pick him up so he could follow us home. He called so much following us on the way home that he attracted the attention of a singleton (lone otter, suspected male) who 5 minutes after we arrived back on the sandbank safely popped up about 20m away giving us quite a surprise! Buddy was completely oblivious as he was busy playing with a fish and couldn’t see him anyway. The singleton then swam off once we stood up and made some noise. Thus I saw my first Wild giant otter! He has been dubbed Buddys “Friend” because well there is the chance that they would interact happily enough but there is also the distinct possibility that the other otter if a male could take him as a threat and give him a good thrashing (at least). Ah the excitement…
He periscoped beautifully when he first appeared so we were able to see his bib. All giant otters have a white throat with individual markings – like a finger print, this is how they are individually identified. There are exceptions however, some otters have no white at all – Ana has spotted two youngsters nicknames the Twins with no white bibs amongst a family down river. There are also otters like Bel who have all white bibs with no brown markings in them, the shape of the bib is still individual though.
First time picking mangoes (a different variety from any I have ever had) directly from a tree and then immediately peeling it with my teeth and eating it :D.
This one's a keeper aye :P
There was a birthday here the other night that also happened to fall on the first day of Carnivale so Stefi cooked a massive Italian feast of pizza, pasta, bruschetta and then cake made by the kitchen staff. All of it was amazingly delicious, especially the pizza – can’t beat handmade, fresh bases with homemade sauce etc, and the icing on the cake was superb – we all know how important good icing is!
We also decided to dress up like we were at Carnivale so we made impromptu costumes, Rupununi style haha. Ana: LeafCutter Ant, Stefi: Raccoon, Diane: Queen Alien, Pat: Bat (because she loves them so much…not!), Jerry: King (it was his birthday) and I was a Red-Bellied Piranha!
Cardboard, aluminium foil and dental floss…yes dental floss!
Ana has taught me a life changing lesson that I would like to share with everyone.
>Always travel with dental floss, it is amazing, tough and can fix just about anything.<
She once sowed up a pair of pants whilst she was in the Galapagos with dental floss and they survived and did their duty very well.
My forearms, legs and feet are fast getting very, very brown. I am wearing a lot of sunscreen, so much so that only 2 weeks in Im almost out of my roll-on, I will have to ask them to get more. I think it’s the combination of two antibiotics that both make the skin sensitive to sun, that is getting me burnt even through layers of sunscreen, I always have my hat on during the day now too.
I apologise if these blog updates include hideous grammar and dodgy spelling. I can’t really be bothered to proofread, I would rather spend the time in a hammock if there is spare time!
Next update - better photos of the kids, a trip on the river and my first Giant Anteater!
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