January 6 – Jatun Sacha, Part Dos

That construction of the international airstrip for the ‘local people’. Apparently, they quarry and sift the material for the next days’ construction during the night. Our first night in Jatun (Hot-toon) Sacha (Sah-chah) Biological Reserve, Ecuador was filled with natural night sounds of buzzes, chirps, squeaks, hoots, and the rumble of heavy equipment sorting material dredged from the Rio Napo.

Since breakfast was from 6:30-7:00am we tumbled out of bed and down to the dining area before birding the nicely paved road built by an oil company. We hiked down the road and saw quite a few birds until arriving at the Jatun Sacha, Jardin Botanical Reserve. Here we found the gate locked so we walked around the gate. We hike the loop trail taking our time looking about. Pickens were mighty slim. We then moseyed our way back. Having no bird book, we returned to the research station and keyed-out what we saw during the morning.

After lunch, Alejandro told us of a few trails that would eventually lead us to the Rio Napo. We set out on these and took our time reaching the river. At a few places along the river, people were sluicing for gold by hauling baskets of dirt from the river banks to sluice-boxes on the waters’ edge. According Alejandro, the locals have collected tidy sums of gold from this type of mining.

We sat on the river bank and watched panga-loads of tourists travel by on their way to high adventure. As the sun set low, we hiked back to the station to key-out the days haul of wildlife. Shortly after dinner, the sky was darkened with clouds and the wind was picking up. Occasionally, thunder could be heard in the distance.

Shorty after Kathleen and I returned to our cabaña, the rain came down heavily. I worked on the blog while Kathleen read. By 8:30pm we were laying in our bunks enjoying the sounds of the rain. The insect management gecko arrived on duty above my bunk. During the night, we were wise to turn on the lights when entering the bathroom. If this guy weighed 300-pounds I would be making faces much farther away.