The next day we got up at 4am to arrive early at the Chuncho Macaw Claylick. Claylicks are points of interest for many animals of the Amazon as the minerals and salts of the clay are an important part of their diet. And the one claylick we were waiting at is the attraction point for many parrots and macaws.
First the green parrots and parakeets came and positioned themselves in the palm trees. Then the large blue-and-yellow and the Scarlet macaws made their appearance. Those birds normally don’t live in swarms but on the clay lick some social exchange could be witnessed. And after checking the area for predators they started to move down to the clay – pair by pair. But right when the wall started to fill up one of the birds panicked and everybody flew away.
We could eat our entire breakfast until the parrots and macaws found the courage to move down to the clay again. But the picture that presented itself to us was simply amazing. An entire wall was filled with parrots and macaws. The wall was so colorful that it made our minds jump out of pure joy. We returned to our jungle lodge and later to our lodge at the Tambopata river while still seeing all those marvelous colors.
When we returned to our lodge we could relax quickly before we entered Roland’s boat to explore the section of the Tambopata river close to our lodge. We so hoped to see Capybaras and our wish got fulfilled. Capybaras look a bit like guinea pigs but have the size of pigs. And as they can swim and dive we first saw one and then the other one surfaced and stepped on the river bank. And after sundown we saw an entire family of Capybaras at the riverbank. They didn’t seem to be bothered much by our presence and carried on feeding from the grass. They have sharp teeth and are fearless. When a Cayman attacks one of them, the entire group attacks the Cayman and bits him until he let go or dies. And those Cayman we saw later on the trip. But the ones we saw were so small that it would have been pure suicide for them to attack a Capybara.
Later that evening another two toed sloth made his appearance. But this time it was so close we could almost touch it. It was the perfect end to a perfect stay in the Amazon region of Peru.
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