Dusk in the Rainforest

On March 13, 2018 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Photo Challenge, South America5 Comments

The time just before or after the sun sets or rises is known in photography as the golden hour. It has this almost magical quality where things glow slightly and take on a different appearance from how they are viewed when in full sunlight. In the rainforest, it has another effect as the temperature cools and the dense moisture creates clouds that slowly descend onto the canopy of the jungle. When we were driving back to Cochabamba from our stay in the Amazon, we were fascinated by the combination of the sunset in the clouds overhead while the clouds of the rainforest were below us. We captured as many pictures from our moving van as we could. We always enjoy taking photos of sunsets, but this particular sunset will always have a special place in our memories. Have you ever seen a sunset while a passenger in a vehicle that was so amazing that you just had to try and capture it?

Visiting an Indigenous Amazonian Village

On February 23, 2018 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn South America3 Comments

The Napo Wildlife Center in the Yasuni National Park in Ecuador is actually owned and operated by a local Amazonian tribe. As part of the experience of staying at the eco lodge, you get to visit the village where the tribe lives, see how they prepare their meals, participate in a ritual dance, and have the opportunity to buy locally made art and jewelry. The tribe is dedicated to making sure that their traditions and culture remain in tact despite the increased influence of the modern world, which certainly must be difficult to do.

Despite being deep in the Amazon Jungle, the village generates its own power and has a school with computers. Meals, however, are still cooked over an open fire and prepared by the women of the village. The majority of what the villagers eat is fish caught from the river as well as fruit and vegetables grown nearby the village. We did see them preparing some sort of snail-like insect, but we didn’t end up trying that. The fish was wrapped in banana leaves and smoked over the fire and they shared some of their meal with us before we left.

The highlight of the visit is watching the villagers perform a ritual dance. The women disappeared for a while shortly after we arrived and then returned wearing vibrant pink shirts and skirts. They sang and danced to music played on a drum and a turtle shell with a piece of metal attached that made a unique sound when snapped. It didn’t take long before they pulled our guide up to join in the dancing, but when they asked all of us to join, the real fun began. It was surprising difficult to keep up with their foot movements and we were out of breath by the time we finished. Fortunately, since we both danced, there are no embarrassing photos of us dancing, so you will just have to use your imagination.

We bought a pair of kissing parrots made out of wood as well as a few bracelets and necklaces before leaving to help support the efforts of the village. The people who live at the village were the same people who were cooking our meals and cleaning our rooms at the lodge, so we were very appreciative of the service that they provided to us during our stay. Visiting the village was certainly one of the highlights of our time in the Amazon. The people of the village were extremely friendly, proud of their culture, and made us feel very welcome in their homes.

Birds of the Amazon Rainforest

On February 20, 2018 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn South America19 Comments

We saw over 55 types of birds during our time in the Amazon Jungle. We purchased a bird and mammal spotting book at the wildlife center where we were staying and at the end of every day our nature guide would mark all of the different birds and animals that we saw during our tours. We didn’t get photographs of everything that we saw, either because the canopy was too thick to get a good picture or because we saw them so quickly that we couldn’t get our camera out and focus in time. Capturing images of the wildlife was certainly a highlight of our time in rainforest.

Hoatzin (Stinky Turkey) in a Tree above the River

The colorful macaws certainly enjoyed showing off and we were lucky enough to see four different types of macaws including the scarlet and blue and yellow macaws. We also captured a photo of a white throated toucan, but it is hard to see off in the distance. Our guides had powerful binoculars and when they found a bird, they would sometimes take a photo from our phone through the eye-piece, capturing them up close. We also used our telephoto lens, but certainly could have used a more powerful lens.

Toucan Barely Visible (Black and White in the Center of the Photo)

One of the most common birds was called the stinky turkey by the locals and we saw them all along the river. Another common, and noisy, bird was the yellow-rumped cacique, which nested all around the grounds of the eco-lodge. Not all of the birds were colorful and some of them camouflaged themselves to blend in with the trees around them. It was quite common to see vultures circling in the sky at various times and they looked like giant black birds from the distance. There were also a lot of river birds, like the king fishers and swifts that were very graceful to watch as they surveyed the water for food. One of the special trips that we took was to a salt lick where the parrots and parakeets would gather at dawn to eat the nutrients from the muddy cliff.

If you plan a trip into the Amazon Rainforest, be sure to pack your camera and binoculars along with your jungle clothes. If you are willing to get up before the sun rises and stay out until the sun sets, you should be fortunate enough to see a wide variety of wildlife. With over 600 species of birds to see in the biodiverse Yasuni National Park in Ecuador, the opportunities to see unique birds can be found around almost every bend in the river.