Lake Salvador: Manu Park Day 3

Today we entered the depths of the jungle, we head up river towards Cocha Salvador. Numerous reptiles ie. caiman and tortoises and birds are spotted along the way.

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The water was chocolate brown, as the river bed is composed largely of alluvial soil instead of rock  that we started on.  The river animal life life turned up a notch with caiman and tortoises abound.

Pretty birds also abound. I’m no  twitcher,  but I do enjoy their beauty and song.  I wish I had one of their cameras though, with the boat and river flow a stabilized high speed zoom camera would do the photos better justice.

The day started a bit wet, but cleared to overcast later on.  On the river banks we spotted some very small squirrel monkeys. Difficult to photograph and spot due to their size and speed at which they hide in the bamboo forest. I have to be satisfied with the my memory of our first monkey spotting.  

The birds. tortoise and caiman however are easy prey for our camera lens.

We also get to taste some of the tropical fruits – cherimoya and foods – yucca (cassava).  Cherimoya is quite an ugly looking fruit, looking rotten  brown and is quite soft, but it its looks are deceiving; its taste is delicious. It is similar to custard-apple fruit back home. (picture below is from Wikipedia)

I was introduced to the the drink chicha morada made from purple corn, and frequently drank it in commercial form after the trip . This is one drink I like to see exported to Australia, but then again maybe keep it local, as I need a reason to come back and visit South America again.

We stopped at Boca Manu for our last minute commerce needs, no more from now on it. I bought a bottle of Pisco for a paltry sum of $13US, a liqueur distilled from grape juice, to share with my new found friends. Pisco is the primary ingredient of the famed Pisco Sour – which is now up there in my list of favourite cocktails.

We arrive at our next residence, which was to be accommodation for the next couple of days at 3pm. There is no power for the next few days, we are entering the jungle proper.

None too soon as I was getting restless with 6 or so hours of boating, there is only so much one can take. Rest didn’t last long as we were due to be off for a night walk at 4pm, no complaints here as it was good to get the blood moving again. I was a bit naughty however, as I strolled off for a pre-emptive investigation. 

I wanted to be alone to absorb the sounds and sights without disruption from fellow travellers. The staff were not overly bothered as they gathered that I was competent in navigation etc. I joined the group out on the way back for a second outing, and gained knowledge of the various jungle sound origins – howler monkeys, peccary and birds that I soon forget the names of.

Dinner as usual was good, tonight we had yucca chips and some fresh corn. The corn/maize is quite different to our sweet corn at home, it has a much larger kernel and is harder, I quite like it. The yucca chips went down a treat. Later drinks were shared with the group - beer and pisco, it was also the Romanian lady’s birthday so a cake was provided for dessert.

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