Amazon picture-spam

This constitutes small-scale jungle picture-spam for severa reasons.  First, I took at least 1500 pictures in the jungle.  Second, I can't actually download all of them to this computer to check them out at the same time, because there literally isn't enough hard drive space.  Thus, the limits of time and space preclude me from properly sorting through them all and posting them prettily.  You will have to wait until we return for that.

HOWEVER!  I grabbed a few whose thumbnails looked particularly promising for your viewing pleasure, now that we're back at the Hotel of Ultimate Upload Speeds in Cusco.

I don't think I know the names of all of the animals off the top of my head, but I will do my best. 

A baby spectacled caiman, from the boat on the way to the lodge.

A family of capybaras, also seens from the boat on the way to the lodge.  The birds seemed to annoy the capybaras a bit (one capybara adorably rolled over to dislodge his rider), but the birds apparently pick parasites out of the capybaras' fur, so really they should be grateful.

I believe this is called a hoatzin.  They are very bizarre and are born with claws on their wings, pterodactyl-style.  They make strange wheezing noises and smell very bad (by all accounts; we weren't that close), and thus have few predators. 

More hoatzin.  There was a little family living by the oxbow lake we visited.  I don't know what an oxbow lake is or how it differs from a regular lake, which is what this one looked like.

These are bats, asleep under a log.  I forget which type of bat, but they are unique in their ability/willingness to sleep under logs instead of in caves/holes/whatever.

I fail to climb a vine.

Inside that giant tree behind me in the picture in which I fail to climb the vine.

Boat-based-artistic-photographer photo number one: creepy spider edition.

Boat-based-artistic-photographer photo number two: hiding butterfly edition.

Aries' relatives!  Also known as: green or Amazon parrots (according to Brady).

Termites, in the tunnel they build up to their nest.  Pedro ate one.  Although they eat dead trees, they don't kill the tree they live in, which seems sensible.

Horrible tarantula part 1.

Horrible tarantula part 2.

Out-of-focus monkeys part 1.  Emily spotted these guys.  I'm fairly confident I have better pictures of all the monkeys we sighted, to be posted later.  We also saw the kind of monkey Ross had on friends, but not until after I'd grabbed these off my camera, so you'll have to wait for that, too.  :-)

Out-of-focus monkey part 2.  A different type, obviously.

If I caption the macaws my pretty layout goes all haywire, so instead:

Top left photo: the one brave (or possibly stupid?) macaw who went down to the clay lick, taken using profound camera-fu on my part (telescope + macro lens + manual focus, oh yes).  Top right photo: the tree right above the clay lick.  Other trees contained other macaws as well, but this one had the most at once.  Bottom photo: more camera-fu.  Macaws mate for life, so you only ever see them in groups of two or three (three would be baby, which reaches full-size very quickly). 

The reason the clay lick macaw is possibly stupid is that there was a raptor presiding over the whole area, looking a bit menacing.  Personally I didn't see why they were so afraid of him, as they were each at least twice as big as him and easily could have taken him, especially if they ganged up.

In the river below the clay lick, another caiman, looking lazy.

Rio Tambopata at sunset, after we returned from the fruit farm.