When we arrived at the terminal in Puerto Maldonado we immediately shed a lot of clothes. It was 30 degrees and we came from near winter weather. The town has motorcycles/motocabs everywhere. We were transferred to the river and on to a boat for an hour ride down the Madre de Dios River to our new home EcoAmazonia Lodge in the Amazon Rainforest of Peru. We saw many gold mining dredging operations on the river.
The lodge is located in the middle of 10,000 hectares (25,000 acres) of ecological reserve known as The Tambopata. The buildings are all made from local materials and fully enmeshed with insect nets. We didn't have to worry too much about insects and got bitten when we sent into the jungle.
Our bungalow was open to the outside and we could see the stars through the mesh. Being an eco lodge we had hoped to see solar power, but generators powered the place. When the generators went off at 10pm all we could hear was jungle bug noises and with no lighting at night we saw a beautiful night sky.
The approach to the lodge was a difficult set of stairs that were in the process of being washed away. Took quite a lot of energy just to climb them, but once at the top it all became worth it. The lodge was made up of a series on raised walkways connecting the bar/dining room, reception area, hammock area and the pool. In the middle were some trees full of hanging bird nests complete with birds. They said the birds were called weaver birds. They were black and yellow and hard to take a picture of. The other birds in this area were parrots and a couple of others that I will have to ask my bird expert to identify.
Obviously, I should have purchased, or taken out of the library, a bird identification guide for South America. Then it would have taken about 15 minutes instead of 2 hours to figure out what these birds are. The scarlet and the gold and yellow macaws you already knew. The bird you are feeding is a pale-winged (also known as white-winged) trumpeter. The other black bird is a curassow - I think it is the Salvin's curassow, but I can't tell from this angle. If it had a weird-looking bill, with a flat red knob on top (not a great description, sorry) it would be a razor-billed curassow. And I think the nests might belong to yellow-rumped caciques, but I am guessing because I can't find any birds in the picture. Do they have yellow rumps? This looks like a wonderful place for a bird-watcher to hang out. I am envious, again.
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