Today we visited a smaller clay lick in the Yasuni National Park where, if you are lucky, the scarlet macaws come down for a drink of the mineral-rich water that pools in this area. It had rained heavily the day before, so our guide warned us we might sit there for three hours with no wildlife sightings, and to bring a book to pass the time.
From the river, our guide led us through a small coffee plantation, and a narrow rainforest trail to a covered outdoor theater constructed by the park for viewing without disturbing the birds. Our small 4 person group were the first to arrive and got prime seats in the front row. Then we waited. We had to stay seated and completely silent (you know that was very hard for me) to not spook the macaws. Surprisingly, after about 10 minutes of reading our books and periodically searching the trees for macaws, we heard squawking from above and the tree tops began to move. We saw one macaw, then two, then four. Within minutes about ten huge scarlet macaws were milling about in the trees! After further squawking, the first macaw dropped to the ground and began to drink, a minute later the second, then the third. Once the fourth dropped and tried to drink, a scuffle broke out and two flew back into the trees. This continued as each bird took its turn drinking. After about 20 minutes of watching these colorful birds, a loud barking call was made off in the distance, apparently alerting the flock of a potential danger. They all took off at the same time and were gone. Our guide told us that might be all we would see for the day, but sometimes they come back, so again we waited. About an hour and a half later as more people were entering the theater, a new group of macaws began to drop in. It was an incredible sight to see. These creatures are magnificent!
Our afternoon excursion was a trek through the rainforest in search of new flora or fauna. We saw a fungi called the wine cup (our kind of fungi!) and had to escape a migrating group of army ants who were using the same narrow trail we needed to walk down. I kept seeing the scene from Indiana Jones where the ants swarm the bad guy, so I picked up my pace to a light jog and got the heck out of their way.
This was our last day in the rainforest, as all good things must come to an end. We aren’t happy we are leaving this majestic place, but we are leaving it very happy.
Our adventures aren’t over yet. We still have more of this beautiful country to explore.
Beautiful