Exploring Chuchini
When we had free time at Chuchini, we were able to go off and walk the jungle trails. There were a few different trails that loop through the jungle, but generally we either followed the ‘small loop’, or the ‘big loop’. Sometimes we just walked down the road past the fishing ponds as there were often lots of birds there.
The small loop is the trail that we went on during our guided walk with the guests – and it’s quite short – around 30 minutes if you don’t stop. But of course generally we stop a lot to look for animals and birds. 🙂
The big loop connects to the small loop – so sometimes we would wander a bit down the big loop to see if we could find anything. One day we were lucky and found a young coati in a tree 🙂 They are very good climbers.
Also on the small loop, we saw monkeys a few times – namely Red Howler Monkeys…
The road past the fishing ponds was the best for birds, as it’s quite open, has water by it, and you can see the edge of the jungle.
We also managed to find some monkeys whilst on the ‘bird spotting’ road… these ones are Capuchin monkeys…
The big loop takes at least an hour, and joins the small loop to the road past the fishing ponds – making the ‘big loop’. There are lots of small trails and turn-offs along this trail, so it’s easy to get lost…. but luckily we never got too lost 🙂
The big loop is a bit more scenic than the small loop, and it goes close to a big lagoon.
The big loop is exciting, because a jaguar lives somewhere near the big loop. There is a tree that he sleeps in, and evidence in the form of scratch marks and droppings. So the jaguar is there – but nobody has seen it….. for this reason you are not allowed to walk the big loop on your own (eg. as an individual person) (presumably jaguars are more timid if there are two or more people….)
Of course, we didn’t see a jaguar… BUT we did see what looks like some jaguar poo – which is NEARLY as exciting don’t you think? 🙂
The big loop is a lovely scenic walk, and we saw a few monkeys when we were out there – but not very close-up.
BUT, the very last time that we walked the big loop, we were SO SO LUCKY, and we came across an amazing animal that we had been wanting to see since we arrived in South America! 🙂 🙂 🙂 This animal is so cool that it needs to have its own post full of pictures 🙂 Watch this space…