Date: Saturday 17 September 2022

Trajectory:  Don Luis

Distance covered: ±10 km

Woken up by howler monkeys – a pleasant change (or, thinking about it, perhaps not all that pleasant) …

and presented with the best breakfast of the trip so far – scrambled eggs, orange juice, fruit, chipa and decent coffee!

We set off early for a very productive drive/walk, with caiman …

… capybara …..

and cuis (a guinea pig sort of creature) everywhere … 

… and a truly amazing collection of birds, including a huge variety of seedeaters I had never even heard of. But my bird of the day simply has to be the strange-tailed tyrant, a bird that so many people come to this part of the world to see (and often dip on).

The heat was getting up and I took some down time in my little home to try out a new [to me] kind of hammock and catch up with this diary. There’s no wifi but I’ll catch up later.

The house is called Tyto alba and has its own owl box, which I kept checking …

I finally did see the barn owl, but at night, so no photograph. But there were boxes all over the site – here’s one for the campo flicker, with occupant emerging.

And here’s one of several that Cepi, an amazingly competent carpenter/mechanic/builder sort of guy, made for the endangered red macaw, focus of the local rewilding efforts.

We then had a great lunch with Ale’s family and friends – fish (boga), meat and salad, washed down [in my case] with Fernet and Brahma beer. Then a siesta, and a second birding outing that segued into drinks and dinner.

Ale and husband Cepi like cooking with the circular ‘disk’ (top right of photo) and all their cooking is done outdoors. Good wholesome food, too. More beer, and to bed for an early start. Tomorrow we go on the water again at nearby Bahía Caraya.