Nov 10 - Up river to visit Drusilla



Amazon Research Center

After a morning canoe ride (Orlando let me help row), we left for the Amazon Research Center. It is really cool here. You feel closer to the jungle, the river is smaller, and you are really remote. My building is one of two that overlooks the Tahuayo River. Each building has 2 rooms that share a porch and a ceiling. the ceiling is made of screen and stretches across both rooms to keep any animals in the A-shaped roof and out of one rooms. With only a thin wall dividing the two rooms, it reminds me of that Doris Day/Rock Hudson movie where they put a sheet up to split the room (pillow talk???).

Piranha

 

We went pole fishing in the afternoon. Orlando caught a piranha, I caught nothing, but still had a great time trying.





Pygmy Marmoset



On the way back, we saw some pygmy marmosets (a tiny monkey, slightly larger than a chipmunk) in a tree and got out of the boat to watch them. They were fine with us, but as soon as Bill and Dave's motorboat came around the bend, they climbed up in the trees.

Before dinner, Bill, Dave and I had a glass or two of red time before dinner. We. Sat on there porch and watched a caiman in the water below eat fish scraps from our excursions.



Drusilla



After dinner, I went on a night hike, where I saw a toad, cool grasshopper, whipped scorpion (it's a false scorpion - it's just a huge, thin spider), and best of all, a tropical screech owl. Back at the lodge, looked at the tarantula, Drusilla, who has a nest in the palm tree by the dining room (the tree's on the ground, the dining room's up high for when the river floods). Drusilla comes out whenever it's dark.