Wildlife, Wildlife and More

A little reflection on the wildlife we have encountered:

So far we have been spoilt with a myriad of exoctic creatures, creepy crawlies, big mother flying thingies and a few cutie furry type animals. As you can tell David Attenbourough has nothing to worry about on the natural world narritive front. Obvouisly we encountered loads of things in the jungle but we have also had a few surprises on the way.

In Puerto Lopez the first impression was the amount of vultures there are. They are kind of menacing in a way, but remind you more of big bruising bouncers standing in the background waiting for some trouble to kick off in order to seize their chance to pick the bones of the loser. There are hundreds of them. Walking along the beach one morning we passed a fisherman who had returned from his nights fishing with his boat up on the beach, beside a beach-hut like structure. The vultures were lined up all along the boat side and all along the roof of the hut, there must have been about 50 of them. They just stood there, waiting - for what I dont know, but I had the creepy feeling that we had slipped into Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, it was a bit spooky.

The beach in PL is really wide and has potential to be gorgeous: when walking along for the first time we were aware that the sand was all of a ripple a few yards in front. Crabs. Thousands of them all scurrying backwards and forwards, some as small as an inch wide up to some that are 5-6 inches and varying in colours from sandy to bright red: as you approach they hurtle towards their holes, in the sand, then poise with a couple of legs in the hole until they deem that you are too close then plop! they disappear. We had great fun chasing them, but never even got close.















In the mornings when the fisherman are unloading their haul there is a an orchestra of screaming squawking birds trying their luck as the poor fisherman who has drawn the short straw to unload fish, from the boat to a waiting truck, has to run the gauntlet of diving birds trying to pinch the fish from his basket. I have no idea what these birds are but they have a wingspan of at least 7 foot. Meanwhile in a scene reminiscent to the pushing shoving screaming hordes at day one of the Harrods January sale, around the boat are 30 or 40 Pelicans all vying for the best position in case a fish may drop their way. The sight was really amazing and I´m full of admiration for the fisherman who have to brave that onslaught every day.

In PL we stayed for a few nights in a cabina, which is basically a wooden hut. We returned home late one night, after a few Du Bonnet and lemonades, and had the foresight of taking a torch with us, as we had nearly broken our necks the night before half drunkenly trying to find our hut in the pitch black gardens of its location. As we turned a corner Ad shone his light right on to this big hairy thing!! It frightened the bleeding life out of us. Ad thought it was a pig and I thought it was a giant rat!!! It wasn´t scared and just tottered under a bush. Full of bravado we shone the torch in the bush and the thing just looked back at us then came out right up to us. I now know that it was a Paca, about the size of a medium-sizes dog, but fat like a piggie, brown with white stripes down it´s sides. I so wish I had my camera there as it walked straight past our legs.
















In the middle of Guayaquil is Parque Simon Bolivar. Apart from the imposing statue of Snr Bolivar, the main attraction is the resident Iguanas. Loads of the big mothers!! They wander round with a smug look on their faces, basking in the sun and I believe secretly enjoying the attention from all of the parks visitors. Some of them must be about 5 feet long from nose to tip of tail and meet your eye with a steely determination. One soon learns not to stand under the trees too long as sooner or later one will be rewarded with a nice Iguana piss shower. Why they dont leave the park is a mystery, probably because they have all their needs attended to and enjoy basking in the limelight of flashing cameras and videotapes. Their prehistoric features and dinosaur like appearance made me feel like a giant walking through Jurassic Park.

Newsflash!!! We went to a little zoo in Guayaquil and Adrian was mugged!!!...........by a squirrel!! As we are sauntering around, this cutsie little squirrel came running over to us. Aaaaah, we thought as we bent down to get a closer look. Then the little sod run up Adrian's bare leg and started chewing his leg hairs. Ad, in a very manly and butch way obviously, tried to get the squirrel off ..but he weren't having none off it. Ad gets him off and then runs away, along the path, the squirrel pursues, Ad ducks and weaves but the the squirrel is quicker... he's back on the leg again.. with a flick the squirrel is caught off balance and releases his grip ... Ad sees his chance and runs the other way.. the squirrel recovers and gives chase again.. I'm laughing... Ad is running... the squirrel is catching up.... a crowd of Ecuadorians are shrieking with laughter at the gringo being attacked by a squirrel....the squirrel sees a chance and launches himself at the leg.. mindful that the creature may disappear up his shorts, Ad stops to cut off the entrance to the forbidden nuts... the squirrel is magnanimous in victory and after a couple of minutes rest on the gringo leg sees a more enticing Ecuadorian one to chase... he's off ... leaving Ad worried he might have rabies!!!

Overall we have seen some great wildlife... parrots, monkeys, pelicans, frogs, paca, dolphins, tarantulas, cockroaches, crabs ... I wish I knew more about what I'm seeing but so far it has been really interesting, but there are still a few things on the list that we would love to see... Anaconda, giant anteater and armadillos to name but three...