Balsa floats, monkeys and papagayos

Day 2 and 3 of our time at Mashaquipe eco-lodge were filled with a long walk to look for animals, a float down the river (who knew it takes only 15 minutes to put a few logs together and get floating?), monkeys and more monkeys - all with the benefit of Eber's vast knowledge and know-how. There's nothing quite like a local guide to get to know more about a place, its culture, customs and evolution.

Best to let the pictures do the talking!

Howler monkey family

Juuuuummmmmp!!!

Eber took this pic with our camera - he had far more steady hand than I to make up for the lack of a powerful zoom :)

Tree filled with papagayos. We didn't get any good photos of them in flight, but they did put on a great show!

Day 3 we explored the other side of the river and say many more monkeys. Amazingly, Eber seems to be seeing a path here. Anyways, we got to the rendez-vous spot with our boat at 12:59 pm and the boat showed up at 1:02 pm. Folks are pretty punctual in the jungle.

We also saw these much rarer papagayos on day 3. Pretty cool!

As for that balsa tree trunk float, that was an awesome way to send a day filled with walking, seeing, admiring and, finally, relaxing.

Eber makes our float. Balsa is a local tree, a very buoyant tree.

On our just assembled balsa float. That was such fun! And, yes, you do get a bit wet, but the water is warm so who cares.

We even saw a caiman - a very large crocodile - sunning itself on the river bank as we motored by on the way back to Rurrenabaque. Impressive and fast to get into the muddy water as we approached for a somewhat closer look.