13-14 june 2020

camp 13 night (incl. night walk) at Valentura reserve. Owner Rober lives here with two kids and wife; the kids (8 and 16) joined us for the night walk, and the teenage (Miguel) joined the long 6+km walk on the 14th to rio pachijal. Miguel also joined for the reserve walk on the 13th--we arrived at 730 am that date and so after coffee we checked out the camping area and then explored the trail to the big waterfall (60+m fall) which is a good forest track. The campsite has a view to the south of the Milpe Reserve. The Valentura reserve is sandwiched between the Chaguaryacu River and the Pachijal River. Sweet forest; based on what we found in two short days there must be extreme diversity. Wish Eric would have been along to find some lizards on the nightwalk; we struck out on lizards, although I did see A. frasieri on the 13th. We were all surprised (and I admit it, a little dismayed; the rainy season is great but it has been raining for 6 months) to see light rain begin in the PM of the 13th, and the 14th we saw a little bit more, and by the time we were leaving after lunch the rain began in earnest again.

Posted on June 16, 2020 01:38 PM by rudygelis