Salt Flats Trip

     We arrived in Tupiza around midnight on Friday.  Naively, we believed the man in the bus office who told us we arrived at 9. When we stopped for a break around 7, we were laughing because we couldn't imagine why we had to stop for dinner when we would be in Tupiza in 2 hours. But we were not laughing 5 hours later when we were still on the bus. Got to the hotel without water and were offered the kitchen tap, somehow an improvement over the bathroom's tap.
     Next morning, got up and packed and went down to breakfast, which was dry bread and coffee. Glad we had our cheese and butter. Got in the 4X4 with Jōao, a man from Portugal, our driver/guide, Felipe, and our cook who couldn't stop talking, Lucia. We drove a couple blocks away to a market area and stocked up for the trip -- not us though because we couldn't find what we really wanted, chocolate or peanuts.
     The first day was long and dry and not that interesting until we got stuck in the mud. Our driver apparently did not have the car in 4 wheel drive when he went through the mud fairly slowly and following precisely the tracks of the car before us and quickly got stuck. The mud was up to the axle on one of the tires and it took an hour and a half to get out. So even though we secretly reviled the driver for getting stuck, he certainly paid for it. Stripped off his shoes and down to shorts and covered with mud before it was over. Afterwards, we saw some vicunas and an ostrich.
     It was  a  really southwestern  US landscape.  We ended up stopping early because of snow in the mountains ahead of us and the guide didn't want to drive at night in the snow.  Our hostel was really OK, with a toilet that flushed, a dorm room we shared with Jōao, and a cozy comedor. It turned out that there was electricity, but we had none in our room

     The next day was a nonstop visual experience. It's only this evening (taking notes) and I can't remember what we've seen. We started off in the freezing snow and drove to a spot above the clouds, where a cloud filled a lagoon and snow was on the mountains beyond and there were amazing colored mountains (different from the snowy ones). As we drove, we saw vicunas, llamas and their babies, andean geese, another ostrich, a bird called kiwi in quechuan, which interestingly enough is a fairly flightless bird. The entire drive today was filled with wonders but the second amazing thing was seeing a blue lagoon with the reflection of a brown mountain that became a brown lagoon as we neared it, due to the mountain looming over it--all of its color came from its reflection. Laguna Hedionda. In the lagoon were several flocks of pink flamingos. An amazing sight. The variation in color among the birds was a surprise, and we think we saw several immature that we're almost completely white, with black markings.

     We passed a lagoon that is filled with a natural detergent that is being marketing in the country and in Chile, Laguna Kollpa and a small lagoon from which borax is mined.

     At the entrance to Salar de Chalviri, we were told we had to pay a new entrance fee, 150 Bs per tourist. We got it down to 150 per car. Not far from this entrance was a pale blue and white lagoon that stretched as far as you could see. Had a nice lunch of a bit of salad.

     Drove a while further to reach the Laguna Verde, which is brown.  A bit disappointing because it was once, apparently, a vivid green but due to a lot of rain and maybe also global warming it is now a red-brown color.  So windy here we felt like we could be blown over.

      Back to the place where we had lunch to pick up Lucia, who had been washing dishes, then to the geysers.  There were dozens of steaming holes in the ground and pots of bubbling mud and crevasses releasing steam.  Also really windy here--my parents held on to me when I stood on the edge of some of them.

      After the geysers we drove to another lagoon with flamingoes.  There was a hotel there, and a whole lot of birds.  I stood with my camera on focused on a couple for a few minutes trying to get them to pose but all that happened was that my camera died.  Here there was a sign which we could quite figure out.  How effective is a sign telling the flamingoes not to fly?

     A few more hours to get to our salt hotel.  We stopped in a small town at a store, and hoped for cheese to supplement our proteinless and rather foul meals, but without gratification.  Lucia sat in the way back, so though she talked constantly to Felipe it now meant that she shouted across all of us.

      From the outside the hotel was disappointing, but on the inside it was made with salt blocks (I know, I licked one) with salt grains on the floor.  As white and sparkly as we had anticipated.  Dinner was an improvement that night, lasagna.  

     Once we were settled we drove back the way we came for about 10 minutes to reach a giant salt geode called something like the 'Galaxy Cave'.  We walked around in side, but I didn't stay long because claustrophobia was kicking in.

      At dinner Felipe opened a wine bottle with a shoe.

      In the morning we woke up at 4 to get an early start to see the sunrise.  THis was really frustrating because, though the passengers of our jeep was ready, it was time to go (4.30) and Lucia has none of her stuff packed up and starts ordering us to carry things back to the car then come back for more.  Despite leaving 15 minutes late we were the first jeep out, but made up for this by driving 20 kilometers an hour across the dead-flat salar.  Felipe wanted to take us around the back of one of the salt islands so that we could climb to the top and watch the sunrise--not as if we'd have had a better view, the salt flats were flat--but the sun was already coming up so we stopped and watched.  It was a little cloudy, but spectacular. 

     We then walked to the back of the island for breakfast.  There were chunks of salt on the 'beach' around the island, and they were formed in perfect pyramids and squares.

     Spent maybe an hour and a half walking around the island before setting off in the jeep again.  When we reached a place farther from the island we stopped to take silly pictures.  The whiteness and flatness really messes with your depth perception, so we appeared alternately tiny and giants.  However, as my camera had died the day before and was barely resuscitated for sunrise pictures so 

Jōao promised to send them to us.

     A little farther on was another salt hotel with a bunch of flags out front.  Our companions (Jōao and our friends from the jeep that had been traveling with us) signed their names on their home flags, but naturally there was no US one.

     Still a little farther there was a salt mining factory, where people raked salt up into pyramids, let it dry, then sold it.  Eventually this will be harmful to the flats, but they only do it in a tiny area.  The salt flats themselves were once part of an inland sea that probably connected to Lake Titicaca, but the water evaporated leaving 12000 square kilometers of salt going down 120 meters in three layers: salt, water, and mud then repeat.  Probably there are some huge prehistoric fish pickled in the flats.

     Stopped in a town about 20 minutes from Uyuni--our final destination--at an artisan market.  Then on to Uyuni where we had a particularly unappetizing meal.  

      Uyuni was a really ugly town, and we were glad that we chose to continue on to Tupiza rather than spend the night.  After lunch we drove a few minutes to the train graveyard, but this was just some trains left to rust a minute or two out of town, rather disappointing (we were expecting a lot of trains in the middle of the desert).  Then we said goodbye to Jōao who was talking the night-bus to La Paz, picked up a passenger going to Tupiza, and left.  

     A few hours into the drive we stopped at a tiny town for fuel, but they didn't have any.  Our only choice was to go to Tupiza on a nearly empty tank, but we made it.

     Two hours later I remembered the existent of the iPod, and preserved my sanity by trying to decipher the lyrics of 'It's the end of the world as we know it' and tuning out Lucia's constant chatter and the 4 songs which Felipe chose to play over and over and over of a CD.

      Arrived in Tupiza a little after 7 and checked back into the hotel we had stayed in before we left.  We had hoped to meet up with our companions from the second jeep, but they had gone straight to the border, though after leaving their contact information at the desk.

       A Mexican restaurant called the Alamo was open, and as it was supposed to be th best restaurant in the town we went to it.  Then to an internet cafe to confirm our reservations for Salta, then bed.  

Lagoon

Sunrise on the Salar de Uyuni

Our jeep sunk in the mud

Flamingoes, desert, mountain

The geyser field

Bubbling geyser-mud

El arbol de piedra

Saguaros on an island in the salt flats

Volcanic rock formations on our first dday

Salt flats and islands

The salt hotel

Natural-detergent lagoon

Sleeping Flamingoes

Contrasting landscapes

Good Food At Last

     Last night we hiked over to the Carrefour--the grocery store--and spent at least two hours stocking up on non-ramen products.  While we're here (and have an oven) we are making baked macaroni and cheese, cold sesami noodles, a birthday cake, and maybe some snowball cookies.
     Today both of my parents were up to walking out to the panaderia, and we got three large loaves of bread.  Not quite sure what we were thinking because, even including the breadcrumbs for the pasta, we ate all of one (delicious) loaf. 
     After breakfast we walked towards the center of town to find an ATM and an electronics store for the adapter.  The electronics store was closed, though, so we took a cab home and made the pasta.
     To keep the oven on, we needed to hold down the thingy that makes the gas come out.  It wouldn't stay lit otherwise, and was SO frustrating.  But, eventually, the pasta was finished and was amazing.  
     The three of us took another long nap this afternoon, then my parents went back out to the electronics store and managed to find an adapter.  Fortunately my father is feeling worlds better today.
     This evening we found the version of Les Miserables with Liam Neeson and watched that.  Fortunately it was subtitled not dubbed.
     Happy summer solstice!

Arriving in Salta

     After waking up at 5 yesterday, we were in a cab to the border for a little over an hour.  Stopped at a little place to exchange Bolivianos for Argentinian pesos--it's funny how the bills here are torn and dirty and crumpled and that's fine, but if you pay with a US dollar they won't except it if there's a rent a quarter of a centimeter into it.
     It took about 2.5 hours for our line to get through the border.  Once we got to the one (!) open window, all we had to do was show our passports and tell where we were going.  Luckily it was the same line to exit Bolivia and enter Argentina, but with 2 different stops (both with just one window). Wished that we had a bike, because people who lived in La Quiaqa (the border town on the Argentinian side, the frequent travellers, and the bikers all passed through in a minute or two without being checked.  But we probably couldn't have passed for locals.
     The bus terminal was not "right outside the border"--every guide book we get is plainly written by someone who has never been to the country--but was a few blocks uphill.  Not far, but considering that my bag endeavored to kill me by catching on rusted trash cans and spinning in circles into the road at every bump it was a little taxing.
     We found a non-direct bus to Salta leaving at 12.30, and decided to take it because we figured that it was good to leave as early as possible.  The restaurant in the terminal was a nice oasis in the midst of all the chaos, and we had some great salads and edable pizza.  Then my mom went for a stroll down the street to look for an internet cafe (about 11.35 according to our watches; we still had a half an hour) and came running back upstairs.  The bus was pulling out of the station--it was an hour later in Argentina.
     After some running around a little panicking we got on the bus.  It was quite warm and soporific and we dozed for a little before coming across a border check.  Everybody got of the bus and got their luggage, then the police set a drug-sniffing dog through the bus and searched people's suitcases.  Fortunately it only took about 30 minutes to get through, and my case wasn't searched (probably because I'm a minor).
     Back on the bus for a little over an hour before our second border search.  This one took longer because they had half as many people going through the luggage.  It was also less pleasant, because we were standing directly in the sun.  While we were in line another bus company pulled up (one of the ones that left at 2.30 and that we had considered going on) and they just had a couple of people who cut in front of everybody.  The search was organized so that there was a line for men and a line for women, and the lady who was checking the womens' luggage was dumping everything out onto the ground.  There were about half as many men as women, so when the mens' line was done some people, my mother and I included, switched over.  Neither of us had to do more than show our passports.
     By now the country was changing from hilly and dusty and dry to green and more rolling hills as opposed to bumpy hills and forested--refreshing to the eye.  The road, too, was different.  Instead of dirt road, curving and twisting, we got a paved, fairly flat, straight road.
     The bus arrived in the town of Jujuy arount 6.20.  The town seemed nice from what we saw of it.    Unlike Bolivia, Argentina seems to have a middle class.
     Our new bus company was called Flecha Bus, and it left at 7.  Stopped in an internet cafe in the station to confirm our reservations, then waited for a while before our bus arrived.  Somehow we got the first three seats.  This meant that we had a great view, but it also meant that the speakers for the dubbed movies were right above our heads.
     Got to Salta around 9.30, and waited for a few minutes for a cab.  Also different from Bolivia (and Peru, the countries are fairly similar) is that the cabs have meters. 
     Our friend from our driving drip in the last few days (so much to catch up on, I'll write about this tomorrow) had told us that Salta was pretty but like so many of the cities in Portugal that he wasn't really excited about it.  We liked the relative European-ness, though, the outdoor cafes and the people out late. 
     The place we are staying is nice, and so is the person who showed us our room.  My parents went out to the store less than a block away, and we had pasta for dinner before crashing.
     Today my dad is sick, and has been in bed watching TV and trying to sleep.  For what we thought was breakfast my mom and I walked to the grocery and a panaderia a little beyond it, and got some necessities like bread, cheese, milk, rice, dulce de leche (best yet) and 7-up and yogurt for my father.
      It ended up being past noon when we arrived home with our 'breakfast' (we spent the morning sleeping in and then watching the second half of 'Four Weddings and a Funeral', subtitled not dubbed) and my mother and I greatly enjoyed alternating a slice of bread with butter and dulce and a slice of bread with oil, vingar, salt and cheese.
      While my dad slept some more we watched part of a really stupid movie, then slept quite soundly for a couple of hours.
     Soon we will go out to a grocery larger than our kitchen and try to make some of our traditional holiday food--baked macaroni and cheese.  
     We are looking forward to having a week in Salta, and so far we really like Argentina.  Despite a Columbian man telling us that it is the only South American to do checks and searches.
     Speaking of the Columbian he, as well as other people who inquire after my age, are amazed that I am 13 because of my height.  I am a good deal taller than most adults.
     Also, happy birthday Madi and happy belated birthday Christi.  And I should also say that I may not be able to post for a day or two because we don't have an adapter for Argentinian plugs and so can't charge the device.

Hike to Maragua

     I have yet another gap to cover.
     On Monday we set out for what we had understood to be a 6-kilometer downhill hike.  It was about a 2.5 hour drive to reach a small church where the path started from.  From there it was about 6 kilometers downhill, but then we had another 14 kilometers to go (not so happy about learning this).  Lunch was eaten after the descent on the pre-Incan trail, in the shade of a really spiky bush that liked to stab us when we got to close.
     A bus of tourists arrived, and they explained to us that the bus company had professed to take them to the town of Maragua, but had left them there to hike the rest of the way.  They ended up hiking to a small town less than a kilometer away to get a bus back to Sucre.
     Our walking companions were our guide, Mario, and a person named William, from France.
     The rest of the day was lots and lots of walking.  There was one point where there had been a rockslide and the trail washed out so, inducing acrophobia, we inched along a sandy path about a foot wide for a ways, with a drop to the river beneath of maybe 30 feet.  At another point there was a suspension bridge that we needed to cross.  Though my mom said to me, "Isn't all you can do look at the cables and think about how rusted they are?", the bridge was a lot wider and less shaky than we had feared.
    After the bridge was when the part where we climbed constantly, as opposed to going up and down and up and down, began.  It was tempting to just push through to the end of the climb, but we had to keep stopping and waiting for William to catch up--he hiked much slower than us, and stopped every few feet to take pictures of the arid, desertlike and not-particularly-stunning landscape.
     At another point, there was a similar path to the washed-out one before, but narrower, longer, more eroded, and a much farther drop.  For some reason Mario said that there was no way around, but we ended up hiking down into the gully and up the other side, where we met up with the trail.  I will include a picture of this path later.
     We arrived in Maragua at about 6.30.  It seems a trait of the guides we meet to tell us that we will arrive in a place much sooner than we actually do, so we don't take much stock in their estimates.
     The hostel was a one-room adobe room with mattresses that gave us bruises.  I am being brief in times so that I don't complain too much--none of us thought the experience better than 'fairly awful'.
     On Tuesday, despite being awake before 6, we didn't leave until 8 in the morning and it was already very very hot.  We climbed up and up and up the hills around the town, and there were points that reminded us of the Lares trek where all we could think of was the next step and breath.
    After climbing for a few hours, we descended again and then climbed again and then ate lunch an then climbed some more.  There was a rockface with fossilized dinosaur footprints in it, and we reached this shortly after lunch.  However, the prints were neat but fairly disappointing--we spent about 10 minutes there and didn't feel shortchanged.  
     More climbing then.   Our guide kept telling us that this was the last hill, and then there kept being another hill.  Finally, around 2, we reached the point where our car picked us up.  When asked why we didn't leave earlier, Mario said that it was because the car picked us up at that time.  This seemed like poor reasoning--I would much have rathered sit an wait for the car for a little while than to have hiked in the heat of the day for most of the time.
     We made a brief stop in the town of Potolo, for no apparent reason that that the tour was supposed to stop there.  The textile musem was closed and nobody was there, but William and Mario wandered off to find braceletes to buy so we sat there for a few minutes.
     Arrived back in Sucre around 5.30--SO happy. 
      Dinner was our first night eating out since here; a cafe called joyride where we got some good food.
     Wednesday we slept in a little bit, then walked around town.  Stopped in a few textile stores, at the market, at a closed musem, then back home after a few hours.  Using our meager but serviceable kitchen we had sandwiches, then my parents napped while I practiced some.
      In the evening we went to the Recoleta area to another museum/store, and were a little put-off by the fact that, though the tags on the pieces included pictures of the artist, the same picture might appear on several different weavings with different names and locations.
     Then, in the evening, we got to skype with Lillie!  She ran away from the computer when it was tilted at her because she though people were trying to steal her toy, but she heard our voices and we saw her ears flicking around trying to figure out where we were.  She seems really happy and settled in.
     It was also really nice to see our friends who are looking after her.
     Today we got a late checkout at our hotel.  The bus to Tupiza leaves at 6.30 tonight, and will be awful (arrives at 5 in the morning, unpaved road; we don't plan on getting any sleep) and will be glad to have a last day in Sucre.
     
    

The tree in the park in Sucre

The sediment deposited by the river as it cut its way through the gorge

See that slope about halfway up, where it looks like the sand is sliding away constantly?  That's where our guide wanted us to walk.

The landscape for a huge part of our hike

The bridge we crossed

Casa Arte de Takubamba

     I will not be able to post tomorrow, and possibly not the day after either because we are going on a hike.
     This morning I was woken up by, given the altitude, a probably fictional mosquitoe buzzing in my ear, followed by a reflexive, and definitely not fictionalized, slap to the ear, serving to wake me completely at 4.15.
     Breakfast was included with out hotel, but we did not understand the people who raved about it in reviews; unremarkable eggs, unremarkable juice, unremarkable bread and margarine (we substituted the butter we had bought).
     Went for a hike to find the market (closed) and to an internet cafe where, if it hadn't cost 2 Bolivianos an hour (2/7s of a dollar) I would have griped about paying for the slowness of the computers.  After checking emails we waited with the throng of people outside the cafe for a wedding party coming from the church for about half and hour, and though we saw liberal amounts of white plastic confeti, we missed the bride.  
     Lunch was tortillas with pickled jalapenos and potatoes and beans and cheese, and while my parents napped I practiced my violin.
     My looked at some hotels for the end of January--we think we'll be on the beach in Uruguay for my birthday, and then head to the 40-day carnival--using what little wi-fi we had, and after we walked out to a large park.
     The park was filled with people and bouncy-houses and horses and go-carts and people and vendors and people, and it is so nice to have a place where everybody goes in the evening to walk and sit and watch.  It really just isn't done in America.
      We also stopped at a travel agency and made rather spur-of-the-moment plans for an overnight filled with walking on either side, the first day a stop at a weaving village and on Tuesday to see fossilized dinosaur tracks.
     If I can get the internet to work properly, I will put in some pictures of the first 2 days of our Manu treks below.  Never mind, I can't.

Sucre!

     Upon arriving at the airport at 7.50 this morning, there was a HUGE line at check-in and it took us almost 30 minutes to get through.  Since our flight left at 8.50 we were worried about getting there on time.
     Of course, that was before they told us that there was "bad weather in Sucre, information at 9.00" then, at 9, "bad weather in Sucre, information at 11" then, at 11, "flight delayed, leaving at 2" then not boarding until about quarter to 3.   It was awful waiting that long at the airport, but the flight was only about 40 minutes and even with the 6 hours of waiting it was quicker an better than taking a 14-hour night-bus.
     Sucre is not nearly as white-washed as we expected.  It is a normal red-and-brown city, but with some white buildings in the center.  We crashed a little after our plane, and this evening went out to walk around and look for some other hotel options (didn't find any, but the good thing was that, by comparison, we REALLY like ours now).  The city square was packed with people walking, and covered in Christmas decorations, the masterpiece being the huge blue tree in the center.  In Bolivia and Peru, people assume that everybody is catholic and there are nativity scenes everywhere this time of year, even in places like the bank.
      The supermarket here is BIG.  We stopped on our way back for pasta and pasta sauce, and also found some pickled jalapenos that are spicy, but really salty.
     Not much internet--enough for emails and posting, but not for pictures.  So I will add Manu pictures (see post below, this is another two-post day) and some Sucre pictures tomorrow.

Manu, First 2 Days

Sorry--no pictures today.  Hopefully internet will cooperate tomorrow...

Manu Trek Day 1:

     Got picked up around 5.45 for the trip to Manu.  Jose is our guide, and seems to know tons about the area.  A biologist who studied birds and animals.  Fellow travellers are a Swedish couple, Linda and Johanne, and a couple from Portland, Margarite and David.
     First stop at a pre-Incan ruin of a people from the Puna area, Lupakas.  They moved many times to different places so they could grow a variety of crops.  The place that we saw was called Ninamarka, because they saw fire from gold in the ground.  They built round, straw-covered structures and tombs for the important dead - round towers with a door for removing the bodies.  Apparently the Incas thought so highly of their culture that they let them retain an intact culture.  Breakfast was in a little town called Paucartambo, on the Paucar river. We tried the drink chicha and followed the sound of singing to a gorgeous church where the alter was surrounded by paintings, children played in the aisles and there was a large litter, ornately carved, which we assumed was for the parading of idols.
     Ate scrambled eggs with ahi, a green chile sause. After town, we crossed a mountain pass on a narrow, muddy, rocky road, nevertheless called the carraterra (highway).  Had to back up many times because of traffic coming uphill. After quite a few hours, when one tour bus refused to back up the 20 feet or so do get to a place to pass (we had to go at least 4 or 5 times that distance), we decided to get out and walk the rest of the way.  Took our time unloading.  Walked a ways and David spotted the Cock of the Rock, a beautiful orange bird and black bird, the national bird of Peru.  Kept walking till we got to the viewpoint for these birds, where we watched several, all male.  Gutteral, coughing call. Kept walking, passed the cock of the rock lodge and after about an hour reached our lodge in the cloud forest. It was getting dark by then.  Down a path of slippery stones to the buildings that comprised our lodge. The lodge had a generator we could use for three hours in the evening. It also had hot water and flush toilets. We were told to brush our teeth with the water they provided in big plastic containers, and we could see why: the water in the taps was river water, which got muddier the farther we went into the reserve. Lovely rectangular wooden structures topped with screen contained the separate living quarters, the bathrooms, the kitchen/dining room. We dropped our things in our separate houses (my parents shared a room and I had my own room in the other half of the house) and went to the meeting/eating room for dinner. Dinner was a carrot tortilla and rice.  Slept soundly for waking up at 4.40.
     Birds we saw this first day:
Andean cock of the rock
Blue necked tanager
Hooded Mountain Tanager
Cinnamon Flycatcher
Andean Flicker
Crimson-mantled woodpecker, male and female
Blue banded toucanet
Unidentified parrots
Highland motmot
White collared jay

Manu Trek Day 2:

     Woke up at 4.40 this morning for hike.  I slept very soundly.  We went for a hike back up the road the way we had come and saw more birds.  It started raining about three-quarters of the way into the walk.  Despite our ponchos, our knees still got soaked.

      Breakfast was bread and elderberry jam (very tasty) and french fries, at 6.30.  After breakfast we had a half an hour to get our stuff together.  We took our sheets with us, and they were one big connected thing and very difficult to fold.  Our rain ponchos were also very  hard to fold and we ended up rolling them more than anything else.

     While we were in the lodge waiting for Linda and Johanne we saw a brilliant green hummingbird by the bushes right outside the window, and it was there for some time, almost posing for us.  It was maybe the size of half my fist, and it stayed perched on the branches for us to look at it.  It was probably the best look I've ever gotten at a hummingbird.  

     The ride to the town where we took a boat took about three hours.  At one point on the trip we stopped at a coca farm, that doubled as a refuge for animals.  

     We got out twice to lighten the load of the car, and on the second time there were almost rapids going off the road, and as I stepped across my foot got stuck in the mud and floated off.  I'm sure that it was the only flip-flop from my cousin's wedding to float of in a tributary of the Rio de la Madre de Dios.  

     Soon after this we stopped at an observation point to look at the same river.  There was also a small town that we stopped in with a very old bridge that was falling apart, next to a newer bridge that three pigs walked across.  The first river that we got out for was an uneventful crossing, and there was a river that the driver needed to get out and toss some larger rocks aside from and and the last one, entering the final town, that he needed to build up a bridge of stones for the car to cross.  The driver said that the "carretera" (did NOT seem like a highway) would be impassable in a few days to a week, so I guess we were lucky to get through as easily as we did.

     When we got to the last town we put on lots of sunscreen and deet (the deet opened in the plastic bag at one point and took the label of the sunscreen, but we figured that we werre only using it for about a week).   There were some bathrooms, and we stopped in a store to look for flip-flops but found none that suited.  We also found rubber boots from the storehouse there.

      To get on the boat there was a plank of wood that we needed to walk up, and then three benches in the front followed by the luggage followed by another bench for people helping out then the driver and the motor.  Twice big waves came over the sides of the boats and soaked us, the first time when we had our food.  For lunch there was bread and a sort of boiled-vegetable salad.  For us vegetarians there was no protein, as we got the same food as the meat-eaters only without the hunk of meat that added the protein.  The ride took about five hours, and we made a couple of stops to drop of supplies and--once--pick up a passenger (and later drop her off again).  

     When we got to the shore we had the plank of wood again, but were led straight into a bunch of wet sand.

   We got to the lodge a little after five, and were shown the two different rooms for bathrooms, the dining room, and the bedrooms.  I had my own room with two beds in it, and two chairs and two desks that fold out of the wall.  The rooms have a thatched roof and screens for most of the walls.  Now it is six and the power is on, and we are going for a night-hike in a few minutes.

         Walked with flashlights around the lodge, approaching and passing the noisy 

generator. On that hike, we saw three tarantulas under a piece of i-beam, a click beetle, which has two green lights that look like eyes when it is still and a red light when it is flying, a firefly that stayed illuminated, did not blink, some frogs, stick bugs, grasshoppers, crickets, a lobster grasshopper, a giant spider web. Jose told us always to carry a flashlight with us so we could run if chased by a bushmaster, a snake which the native people say chases you.

     Birds we saw on the second day:

Hummingbird

Blue-necked tanagers

A bunch of russet-backed oropendala

Sunbittern 

Violacious jay

Sparkling violetear hummingbird

Silver-beaked tanager

Swallow tanager

Great egret

Cow egret

Snowy egret

Cocoi heron

Black vulture

Turkey vulture

Umbrella bird (exciting!)

Chestnut-faced macaw

Giant cowbird

Blue-black grassquit 

Scarlet macaws

Plum-throated cotinga

     Nonbirds:

Cows

Four peckaries

Swimming giant-anteater (we only caught a glimpse of  his nose--really rare)

     ...And, at the refuge:

Capybara (world's largest rodent)

Spider monkey

Agouti

Warthog

White-faced capuchin monkey