Casa Matsiguenka to Boca Manu
Although we were scheduled for another boat ride on the lake, our group wanted to get into our cabins before dark – I think everyone needed a bit more down time than we were getting.
So we took a two-hour walk on a trail that had a chance of seeing Woolly Monkeys. It was a nice walk, but we didn’t see the monkeys. We did hear Spider Monkeys making lots of noise – David said they were upset.
We headed back down the river, and arrived back in Boca Manu.
Boca Manu to Manu Wilderness Lodge
Two hours up river to the lodge. We knew it was a fancy place when we arrived – the steps leading up from the dock were wood, rather than just cut into the clay.
We wandered around our cabins saying ”look – hand towels! Hey, bath mats! Lighters — not matches!” (Matches get damp in the humidity and hard to use.) After we had explored our rooms, we went on a walk on one of the numerous trails in the area.
Later, we walked about 45 minutes to a clay blind to wait for a tapir. They are very shy relatives of rhinos. We arrives at the blind at about 5 PM.
Our guide had told us we would wait until 9 PM, or when the tapir appeared, whichever came first. We had to be very, very quiet. It was unfortunate that I had developed a cold of some sort at this point, and found it difficult to breathe without coughing. We also weren’t allowed to use flashlights, so no reading.
We settled in to wait. I took lots of cough drops.
Then, darkness fell, and we waited. Our pads were far too comfortable. At one point, I fell asleep, which was bad enough. Unfortunately, I started to snore. Sheila quickly woke me up.
It was a full moon, which I thought was good — the tapir would come to the clay lick since there was light. I had a watch. Slowly, the hours went by. Finally, it was 9 PM, and nothing had shown up. But nothing happened. The guides didn’t do anything! I wondered if they had fallen asleep also. (There were three guides, since there were three separate groups at the blind.)
Closer to 10 PM, suddenly there was a quick, loud sound to alert us. Something was happening! We could hear some animal. Then, the guides turned on a red light, which wasn’t supposed to bother the tapir. This was what we saw:
A tapir butt! It was a little anti-climatic. She finally turned around and we got a good look at her (but no picture) – very weird looking animal. As it turned out, they prefer complete darkness, so she waited until the moon set before appearing.
Later, we walked back through the jungle in the dark. We got back to our cabins and in bed by about 11:00 PM.