Camping in the Amazon

It's glamping!

After a HUGE lunch, we ran back to our rooms and excitedly grabbed our bags for our overnight stay in the heart of Tambopata nature preserve. 

An hour and a half by boat later, we reached a check point. We had 45 minutes more to go and began avidly watching for wildlife shortly after leaving the farmlands behind. Another capybara family was followed by an extremely rare sighting - an ocelot! 

 

 

Our eagle-eyed guide spotted the jungle cat basking in the sun on in grass on top of the bank of the river. What an amazing way to start the wildlife expedition!

Okay, this camp is fancy. It's fancy though. The numerous staff set up a covered cooking area, covered dining table, our waterproofed tent, a separate toilet tent, and two hammocks.

 

 

While this hive of activity was going on, we and our guide put our rubber boots back in and went slogging to check out the surrounding area. 

 

A troop of squirrel monkeys soon stirred up the canopy, alerting us to their presence. We watched them fling from tree to tree, getting closer until right above our heads.

 

 

 

Closely behind were two brown capuchin monkeys. Spiders and capuchins often join troops for safety in numbers. 

 

 

We watched them so long my neck hurt from craning up at the canopy!

Before dinner we spent a little time goofing around in the hammocks and watching the silhouettes of bats in the clear, night sky. 

 

Then it was back into the thick of things to spot caimans and frogs. Firstly, we almosted stomped this beautiful specimen. 

 

We did spot a mamma caiman and her three young in the flood water trapped in a small valley. Caiman usually have about 40 offspring and only five per cent survive, so this little mom was ahead of the curve with at least three remaining. 

 

Baby caiman poking his head out. 

It was a cacophony of frogs. Super loud as everyone joined in on the croaking. 

 

The camp staff were calling us for dinner as we stood in the darkest night, listening to the chorus of frogs. 

Dinner was again huge and fancy! A hot, gourmet meal prepared by an onsite chef. Way fancier than a can of beans or hot dog on a stick. We stayed up until the crack of 8:30 chatting and sharing stories with our guide before turning in - we have to be up before 5 am. 

Okay, right before we went to sleep our guide showed us a track in the mud in the outskirts of the camp site. He said it belongs to a tapir! Furthermore, they're not uncommon to the area and are nocturnal. He said their footsteps are quite loud and they've been through camp before. Well, that was just too much excitement for me. All through the night, when I heard a branch fall or tree creak I jumped up thinking "tapir"! A few times I peeked out of the tent to see if our guest had arrived. 

It was not a very restful night and despite my diligence, no tapir.