Heading for the canoe at dawn
Entering the creek
The end of the paddle
Our group in front of a huge tree
Dragonfly
Illinois Jones?
Tower next to the Kapoc tree and platform
Robbie and Connie and telescope on platform scouting for activity
2 Toucans in the distance - trust me. Click on the image and it will enlarge!
View from the platform
Bird in the platform's tree
Mariano showing some medicinal property of a tree
Poison Dart Frog top side
Poison Dart Frog bottom side 
Along the forest trail
Nice filmy leaf canopy This morning we had some extra sleep time. We got the knock on the door at 5:30 instead of 5:00 yesterday. Another wonderful breakfast and it was into the canoes again @ 6:30. Today we paddled back across the lagoon and down another little creek. This creek got us to within about a 15 minute walk to our destination for the morning. Three years ago the NWC erected a 36 meter high observation tower/platform. The platform, which rests in the top of a Kapoc tree, has been built to the strictest safety standards and with the utmost respect for the surrounding ecology. It provides a unique opportunity to view birds and animals in their natural canopy habitat, including monkeys and sloths. Well, we did see some Howler Monkeys quite a way off in the distance, but no sloths.
We spent about 3 hours up un the forst canopy and saw Macaws, parrots hawks and many other birds in the surrounding treetops. Several of the smaller birds actually flew up into the branches of the Kapoc tree and spent some time looking at us. Robbie had brought a powerful telescope up and whenever anyone found something he zoomed in with the telescope for a better view. You could see all the way back to the lagoon and could hear boats going back and forth on the Napo River. I have some images from up there but once again they don’t do justice to the reality of what we saw. This is pretty relaxing and there are chairs and wooden benches so you can rest or watch with your binoculars from the seats.
After some time we climbed back down and hiked our way back through the forest with Robbie, Mariano and Pato once again spotting stuff that we never would have seen at all. The trail through the forest was in dappled sunlight and how they spotted these creatures is almost mystical. At one point Mariano was walking ahead fo me and leaped down on the ground and successfully captured a poison dart frog. This frog secretes a substance from glands behind their eyes which the Kichwa use for tipping their darts with for hunting. Apparently it is not dangerous to handle the frog, they said you would only suffer if you ate the frog. When you see how small this frog is in the pictures you’ll understand how difficult it is to spot one in the foliage. They have bright colors on their bodies which Mariano explained is to warn others to leave them alone. Most creatures in the forest use camouflage to hide from predators – these guys are just the opposite.
Mariano sopped at several places along the path to show us plants that are used for medicinal purposes. The native Kichwa have a complete understanding of their environment and know what to use for common ailments like stomach aches or fevers. He also showed us a palm tree leaf that is stripped into small “rope” and combined together to make hammocks and strings for their ornamental jewelry.
The expected afternoon rain kicked in but stopped after only 15 minutes or so. The final paddle of the day took us back the the lodge where we had lunch and free time! We were invited to go on a after sunset walk through the forest but no one wanted to put on the long boots and apply insecticide (it’s hot there) so we opted for a long relaxing afternoon siesta straight through till suppertime. Since this was our last dinner at the camp the chef and his helpers came out of the kitchen to receive a well deserved round of applause. We had a 5:00 wake up in the morning so it was off to sleep.
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