The Giant Otters

Trip Start Jun 13, 2007
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Trip End Jun 26, 2007


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Saturday, June 16, 2007

I drifted off to sleep and was woken up about 7am by Pepe banging on our door telling us that the giant otters were on the lake which was just outside our room. I was starting to feel better again and we quickly got dressed and raced outside to be rewarded with a magnificent view of three giant otters, playing and swimming in the lake, literally about 75 feet from where we were standing. They had caught a huge catfish and they were taking it in turns to take bites out of it - Pepe said that it was very unusual to see them this close and that even for him it was very lucky. Mum and dad were still at the Macaw colony with the rest of the group, so they missed it. I tried to take some photos, but my hands were unsteady from being ill. We watched the giant otters for 15-20 minutes before they swam off - it was spectacular.
 
We went back to the cabin and started to discuss what we thought was making me ill and we decided that it was the malaria tablets as every morning I would recover and then go down hill after taking my malaria tablet in the afternoon before being sick in the evening. When Joselyn came back from taking the group to the Macaw colony she came to our room and had come up with the same idea, she said she had seen it many times before and was sure it was the malaria tablets, she said that western doctors always prescribe them just to be sure, but in her opinion they were not needed in that area as there is only around two deaths each year from malaria and that is people who are working in the swamps. She said that as they were making me so sick it would be best to stop taking them, make sure I smothered myself in deet and wore long trousers and long sleeved tops. I took her advice and returned to full fitness from then on in.
 
In the afternoon Joselyn and Cinka took us on the ox-bow lake Soledad to see what we could find. Cinka was paddling the boat silently up the lake in search of wildlife, this amazing little boy could mimic all the animals and in the silence of the afternoon he called out to a Spider Monkey - the monkey called back to him and we all got excited because we knew there were monkeys around and there was a chance that we would get to see them. Before long we had seen caiman, turtles, a vast array of a large colourful birds, caught another look at the giant otters, although it wasn't a patch on the view John and I had of them in the morning, and finally Cinka spotted a spider monkey up a tree for us. Just when we thought it couldn't get much better Cinka signalled to Joselyn that he had seen something and let the boat drift into the bank of the lake - moments later the bush in front of us came alive with a group of brown capuchin monkeys. Daylight turned to dusk and we started to return up the lake towards the dock - watching the sun go down from the boat was incredible, I wanted to freeze that moment in time and stay there forever - dusk turned to dark and the lake came alive with the most beautiful sparkling lights, we asked Joselyn what they were and she told us that it was a fungus that lived on the plants on the surface of the water - it was like looking into the lake and seeing another galaxy, so incredible, I didn't want it to end. By the time we got back to the dock it was pretty much time for dinner, so we joined everyone in the dinning room and there was lots of excited chatter about what everyone had seen during the day. I couldn't wait for the next day and the next adventure.
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