Day 3 -- Trip Upriver to Tambopata Research Station

At 5:30am, before we left for the rest of our boat trip upriver to the Tambopata Research Center, our guides took us to Posada’s 30-meter (ca 100 ft) Observation Tower. Though I have a fear of heights that makes my knees go weak and my stomach rebel, I was determined to climb this tower. But, just looking up to the top of it made me woozy. I managed to get up two flights but then had to back down. The following are some photos Alice took from the top of the observation tower.

Our Posada Amazonas tower experience was very early in the morning, so Alice was able to get some shots of the sun rising above the Tambopata River and the morning mist as it filtered from the river through the canopy. The tree directly above is a cecropia

While everyone else was up in the tower, Jhin took me on a solo nature walk. He was very knowledgeable of plants and insects, so I really enjoyed this one-on-one. He and I saw brown capuchin monkeys, squirrel monkeys, and dusky titi monkeys. The dusky titi monkeys were my favorites.

Jhin told me about the chickenfoot tree, named because it is orange striped and puts out three surface roots and a smaller root at the back similar to a chicken’s foot. We also saw a White-fronted Nunbird, a Blue-crowned Trogan, and a Blue-crowned Motmot among other birds.

Dusky titi monkey mother and babe (Alan Lee’s photo); Chicken foot tree

L - Brown Capuchin monkey (Alan Lee’s photo);  R- Squirrel monkey—they would clamber through the treetops in large groups

White-fronted Nunbird, Blue-crowned Motmot with ratchet tail; Blue- crowned Trogon

After our tower experience and my solo nature hike with Jhin, we ate a hardy breakfast (mine was yogurt on very crunchy rainforest granola, plus coffee, juice, and a fresh, homemade roll I couldn’t resist). We then packed up our things and gathered in the “lobby” at 9:30am for our trip to the Tambopata Research Center (TRC), which was another 5+ hours upriver in the protected Tambopata Wildlife Refuge.

Those who had not brought their own boots (including me) selected a well-fitting pair from the boot rack. These boots were then ours for the duration. I chose the same ones I’d worn from the river to the lodge and on our nature hikes. We all donned our boots to hike back to the river.

This boat was much more comfortable than the one we’d come from Puerto Maldonado on. Whereas the P.M. one had wooden benches along the sides, this one had backed, cushioned, single seats along each side facing forward. Even so—and even with many wildlife sightings and three checkpoints where we could get out and go to the bathroom and stretch—we were all very glad to see the TRC landing nearly 6 hours later.

Capped Egret; Oropendola nests 

Capybara with Giant Cowbird; the cowbird picks parasites off the backs of herbivorous animals;  Oropendola, builder of the pendulous nests above

Oronoco Goose—several small groups of these on the islands; R- White-throated Toucan 

White-wiinged Swallow; Drab Water Tyrant —these little birds were plentiful and would flit from branch to branch near  the waterline

Ringed Kingfisher nest burrows in side of bank

Male (left) and female Amazon Kingfishers; R: the Ringed Kingfisher, builder of the nest burrows above

Chestnut-eared Aracari

Pair of Tropical Kingbirds; Great Black Hawk

Crimson-crested Woodpecker; Great Kiskadee

Gold mining on the Tambopata; nearly two-thirds of Peru's rivers have higher amounts of mercury than is allowed by the EPA in the USA. There was no mining in the reserve, fortunately, but we saw many such makshift operations on the way  upriver.

It took a bit of extra time because of the recent rains. The river was at flood height, and the current our 20-foot canoe with its peque-peque (16HP Briggs & Stratton lawnmower engine with a 6- foot propeller shaft coaxial with the flywheel) had to push against was running at 9 or 10 knots.One of the Earthwatch staff sat in the front of the boat and kept an eye out for driftwood and other dangers.

Broad-billed Motmot (We saw the bbmm at the river boot racks before we left Posada Amazonas and the Rufous Motmot on our walk that morning); Rufous Motmot 

Greater yellow-headed vulture 

Turtles at riverside

Our first comfort stop was at Heath, a checkpoint at the confluence of the La Torre and Tambopata Rivers — the entrance to the 274,390-hecacre Tambopata National Reserve on which TRC was located.

Our second comfort stop was at the World Wildlife Federation (WWF) Research Center. Many of its researchers were doing radio-collar studies of the area’s fauna. WWF had a small explanatory museum. I took some pix of the skulls in it (below).

Left: Roadside Hawk (more appropriately riverside hawk in this instance)

L - WWF Research Center on the Tambopata; R- Malinowski River

Our last checkpoint was P.C. Malinowski. Here we climbed up the muddy bank on a series of backward facing stairs (one had to walk on the edges of the steps rather than the steps themselves) to a couple of buildings. The two bathrooms had regular toilets but flushed with buckets of river water. There were many Amazon racerunner lizards at Malinowski.

Amazon racerunner (Ameiva ameiva) lizard