The end of Jungle Rivers and now Asa Wright

Well, got off the Clipper Adventurer today after an awesome cruise.  We started in Belem in the Amazon, with three days there then travelled northwards spending a day each in French Guiana and Suriname, a couple of days in Guyana, a day in Tobago, and then yesterday in Port of Spain, Trinidad.  Encountered some rain, but got to see a heap of stunning places, scenery and wildlife.  Not sure what the final tally on the bird list was but probably well over 200 species for me personally with many of them new.  Also three species of monkey, a few lizards and lots of great insects.

I have posted a whole bunch of images onto my Eco-Vista facebook page and selected a few of the best for below.  I'm now staying at Asa Wright Nature Centre in Trinidad for a few days, before a few more days at another lodge.  Asa Wright is outstanding!  The staff are super friendly and knowedgeable, the dinner tonight was great, and I had probably 12 lifers just from the verandah this afternoon...that's after spending the last two weeks already in the neo-tropics!  Had both white-bearded and golden headed manakin, five species of hummingbird, and scope views of bearded bellbird, black-tailed tityra, and channel-billed toucan, and bat falcon.  Stunning!

We just did a night walk and had land crabs, lots of cool arachnids (large harvestmen, a scorpion, and several whip-scorpions) as well as my first tarantulas!!!  Super cool - Trinidad cheveron tarantula.  Also a small snake which we will ID from the books here in the morning.  It's up for coffee at 6am on the verandah again, so better get off to bed!

Our first sunrise on the Amazon!

Southern lapwing sheltering young from the rain

Scarlet ibis at a park in Belem

On the Amazon

Close up of a massive moth that came onboard

Curious black-bellied whistling duck

Brown capuchin on Devil's Island

Common squirrel monkey peering out from the shrubbery

Bat falcon with its kill

Kaieteur Falls

Cute kids at a village on the Essequibo River, Guyana

Logging camp with hardwoods, Essequibo River, Guyana

Laughing gull at sunset

Magnificent frigatebird at sunset

Red-billed tropicbird in flight

Scarlet ibis coming in to roost at Caroni Swamp, Trinidad

Scarlet ibis roosting at Caroni Swamp

Green honeycreeper at Asa Wright

Crested oropendola displaying at its nest

Whip-scorpion

Scarry if you were an inch high!

Great harvestman with super long legs

Land crab at the entrance to its burrow

Snake yet to be identified

Trinidad cheveron tarantula, my first tarantula!

Not for the faint of heart