Inca two step – days 23-27

Managed to get Montezuma's revenge with some sickness on this four-day foray to the blistering lowlands between Pongo de Caynarachi and Yurimaguas. Its gone now and followed by a two day diet of Oreo biscuits for breakfast and lunch and Sopa Wantan from the Chifa (one of Peru’s versions of Chinese cuisine) – salty stock with wantons, noodles and some pieces of chicken, pork, shrimp – I’m back to proper food. The butterflies were hard work again. At Alianza near Km-81 (Tarapoto-Yurimaguas) some Black-headed Parrots were found feeding in the canopy and White-beared Manakin displaying on the forest floor. Somewhere in between were Forest Elaenia, Many-banded Aracari, Blue-crowned Motmot, and White-lined Tanager. A site near Km-103 close to San Francisco held Grey-necked Wood Rail, Screaming Piha, White-flanked Antwren, Black-bellied Cuckoo, Chestnut Woodpecker, White-fronted Nunbird, Plumbeous Kite and another Many-banded Aracari. In the Munichis area, a small pool held a couple of Striated Herons in addition to the usual birds noted last time. Common birds along the main road included Wattled Jacana, Russer-backed Oropendola, Roadside Hawk , Swallow-wing and Yellow-headed Caracara, as well as a couple of Black-capped Donacobius. Two Brown-chested Martins were active around our hostal near the Rio Huallaga in Yurimaguas.