News from San Jose

This year, I decided it was time to visit a new continent: South America. The Oceanic Society had a "natural history" trip that seemed perfect: a week on the Amazon river, then a few days in Cusco and Macchu Picchu to see the Incan ruins.

The trip was even better than I expected! There were just five tourists on the trip, and our American naturalist was female, so we were all women. We had a big boat all to ourselves, with a crew of 11 Peruvian men to take care of us.

I saw 108 species of birds alone. There were also dolphins, fish, sloths, an opossum, bats, 6 species of monkeys, caimen, a green iguana, an Amazon red tailed boa, a tegu lizard, 2 geckos, and 3 types of frogs. And that's not even counting the insects, which included some interesting katydids, butterflies, moths, and a mantis as well as swarms of mosquitos and gnats.

Here are my best human and animal pictures from the trip. (If you want to see the landscapes, you'll have to come by and see my album when it's finished.)

Giant Anteater at the butterfly reserve	Yellow-Winged Parakeets
A butterfly at the butterfly reserve	A Chestnut-Eared Aracari, a kind of toucan
Kim, Marlene, Carol and Jackie teaching the Hokey Pokey	I think this is a Festive Parrot
A Horned Screamer	A frog that looks like a leaf
Jabiru Storks	A squirrel monkey
Was this the ruddy pigeon we saw?	A Pygmy Kingfisher
Scarlet Macaws	A butterfly at the butterfly reserve
Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes	Definitely a Mealy Parrot
Carol sharing pictures with the kids she took them of.	The Amazonian Red Tailed Boa
A Yellow Headed Caracara	A Wattled Jacana
This is either a baby jacana or a Capped Heron	A katydid
Striped Catfish	Two woodpeckers and two other birds
A Llama at Macchu Picchu	A Collared Hawk
A Blue Gray Tanager	A Golden Crowned Flycatcher
Collared Inca Hummingbird	Blue Gray and Saffron Crowned Tanagers

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last updated August 30, 2005