August 26, 2006 - Ecuador, Day 4
The first morning, we head to an island in the river for some bird watching.
Two yellow orioles hang out on a twig.
Some of the flora around the lodge.
Scary turkey. (Actually, it is a 'guan' that ocassionally hung out and slept in the tree outside our room.)
Another resident of the lodge - an Amazon green parrot.
The closest civilization - a market that opens each Saturday morning.
Mmm... hanging meats. Tasty.
The local pool hall.
Cockfighting 'arena.'
Mom and I pose in front of the market.
We took a canoe downstream to a nice, big path through the jungle.
Gecko.
Bats.
Cool canopy.
Soon, we realize we're walking into someone's back yard.
Cacao pods.
Our jungle guide, Hector, passes out cacao beans from a pod he cut open. Yes, it was from someone's back yard...
Lady finger bananas.
Plantains.
crab claws.
Pot.
(Just kidding; it just looks like it.)
swallow-tailed kites.
Behind a few houses, we found a school house.
Being summer, the kids were out.
(Other room in the school.)
Naked-neck chickens. Freaky.
Butterfly.
Wild coffee beans.
Wild ginger.
Vanilla.
Plantain fisherman.
Back to Yachana for lunch, we stop by the butterfly house - an extension of their school.
Hector Owl's head butterfly.
Other butterfly.
Other butterfly.
We walk down another trail towards the home of a local medicine man.
Aunt Caroline traverses the bamboo bridge.
Mom does the same.
Whoa. Scary.
The shaman blows smoke all over the Ayers as a part of their cleansing ceremony.
This is not our place, but it may as well be. The banks of the river all look like this.
Jungle sunset.