Hiking Through the Amazon Rainforest to Oxbow Lake

Our second full day in the Amazon began with a hour hike through the rainforest to an oxbow lake, a 45 minute canoe ride, and a 20 minute hike deeper into the rainforest.

We were to start our hike after our 6 am breakfast. We needlessly set our alarm clocks, not realizing that we were going to be woken up by Red Howler Monkeys having very animated and loud conversations amongst themselves.

Being woken up by nature’s alarm clock is one of my favorite memories from this trip. We all could not stop laughing. They were so loud and their calls so funny sounding that we were all disappointed when they failed to wake us up the next morning. (We still were lucky enough to hear them, we just woke up first.)

While we were eating breakfast, our guide for the day, Alfredo (fantastic guide, if you stay at Refugio Amazonas try and go on his expeditions) stopped by and told us to grab rolls to feed the piranhas. My sister and I looked at each other with a ‘Did he just say piranhas?’ look. Well, feeding piranhas was not on our bucket lists, but neither was being  woken up by Red Howler Monkeys and that was awesome, so we all grabbed rolls to feed the piranhas!

At the beginning of our hike, we were able to see who had woken us up that morning. A troop of Red Howler Monkeys were climbing around in the canopy. We watched them for quite awhile. They were working their way closer and closer to us. I had read online that you do not want to be standing underneath Red Howler Monkeys as they seem to think it is amusing to poop on people. Alfredo confirmed this for me and moved us along right before they were overhead.

There are a few monkeys in these trees, if you feel like playing I Spy.

There were termite mounds all over the place, but this was the most impressive one that we saw.

We were about half way to the lake when I began noticing that the trail we were on looked very similar to the trail the jaguar was walking on from the video we had seen during last night’s seminar. I decided that extra vigilance was required so I informed my brother in law, who was behind me, that I was pretty sure we were on the jaguar trail. He stopped, looked around and said, “Everything looks the same, how can you tell?” I said, “I really can’t, but that just means that this might be where the jaguar was.” As he walked away shaking his head and laughing I decided that he didn’t seem to be impressed with my reasoning, which meant he wasn’t going to increase his level of vigilance. So I had to wait for my husband to catch up so I could inform him of my keen observation. He responded with, “I hope so, that would be so cool!” Well, neither of them made me feel better so I decided I should try and catch up with Alfredo.

Even with the imagined death by jaguar thought floating through my head, this was one of my favorite expeditions. Our group was small, there was only one other couple with us and they were hysterical. Alfredo had spent enough time with us that he had picked up on our sense of humor and was educating and entertaining us the entire hike.

For example, he pointed out this tree to us and told us it was called a Walking Tree and explained how the roots develop. Before we moved on, he said, “It’s also called a penis tree.” We pretty much in unison said, “A what?” He said, “A penis tree, look at it.” Which led the three ladies in the group to burst out laughing. I whispered to my sister, “The penis tree obviously did not wear a condom,” which led to another round of hysterical laughing. Alfredo patiently waited while we all took our educational photos.

When we arrived at the lake, which was beautiful, I whispered to Alfredo, “Do you think we are going to see any anacondas?” He smiled and said, “If we are lucky! This is a perfect day for it. They like to lay in the grass when it’s sunny.” I thought, we do not share the same definition of the word lucky! I said, “Do they live on the land or in the water?” He answered, “Both.” I looked at the little canoe we were getting into and the murky water and reminded myself that humans are not anacondas diet of choice.

Once we were all in the canoe and starting to push off from the dock, something ran into the side of the boat. The woman behind me asked Alfredo if it was an anaconda. Alfredo laughed and said, “No,” but didn’t tell us what it might be so I wasn’t feeling relieved, in fact, I was trying to think what else could live in the lake that could hit the boat that hard. As I was trying to make sure I was centered in the boat as far away from each side as possible, Alfredo launched us onto the lake.

Alfredo told us all to keep an eye out for anacondas, as if seeing one would be the highlight of our day. I decided I would keep an eye out for butterflies instead.

The sun was intense on the lake, but there was so much to distract us that it wasn’t hard to tolerate it. We all had hats, sunglasses and sunscreen on for this excursion.

Alfredo expertly guided our canoe over to a group of noisy and entertaining Hoatzins.

As we continued to float around the lake, Alfredo became very excited when he saw a group of bats on the dead tree trunk. My first thought was, oh no, I told my sister we didn’t need the rabies vaccine. I had said I was sure we weren’t going to see bats. We were all staring at the tree but none of us could see them until Alfredo took out his laser pointer and pointed to them for us. I was hoping, maybe fervently praying, that he was not disturbing them with the light. Unfortunately, picturing a bat attack in my mind was very easy for me to do.  The bats had no interest in us and we moved on, unscathed.

There they are. Their camouflage is amazing.

We continued our trip around the lake, admiring the scenery, when Alfredo started aiming our canoe towards the clump of grass in the middle of the lake. I was thinking, what is he doing? That’s where the anacondas might be. He started picking up speed, aiming for the grass. I started praying again that I wouldn’t end up with an anaconda on my lap when he said, “We are going to park in the grass to feed the piranhas.”

Holy cow, did they come up fast for the bread. I have to admit, we were trying so hard to get pictures of them that I completely forgot that we were moored in what I call Anaconda Island. Once we ran out of bread, we moved on to the far shore of the lake, where we were to continue our hike deeper into the jungle.

When I saw where we were landing I thought, oh look, anaconda grass and a moderately foreboding looking trail into the jungle. Piranhas, anacondas and jaguars, Oh My!

We were all standing on the little dock looking for fish, when I spotted an eel. However, the idea struck me that it might actually be an anaconda tail, made to look like an eel. As I didn’t want mass panic on the dock and I was trying to plan my escape route, I whispered to Alfredo, “Is that an Anaconda?” He looked very excited, but I noticed he also unlatched the strap for his knife and had his hand hovering over it. He asked me, “Where?” I pointed to the camouflaged tail. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen anyone laugh as hard as he was laughing when he saw the eel. I said, “Is it just an eel?” As he was wiping the tears out of his eyes, he said, “Yes, but that’s really cool that you saw it.”

In case you couldn’t find my not an anaconda tail eel.

I’ll save the hike into the jungle for my next post. As always, wishing you happy travels and fantastic adventures in this thing called life.

(All pictures are available for purchase as Fine Art or Digital Downloads at full resolution through Alamy. If you see something you like, click on the link. If you are unable to find it, use the Contact Me page and I will make sure the image is available.)

More Amazon Adventures

Amazon Rainforest Hike

Canopy Tower Tour

Chuncho Macaw Clay Lick

Night Hike in the Amazon Rainforest

Getting From the U.S. to Lima to the Amazon Rainforest

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