Another river trip, this time in smaller dug-out canoes (some were really dugouts, others looked similar but were made from separate pieces of wood). The seating was plastic garden chairs, with no attachments to the boat, we picked them up and moved them around in order to load the canoe. The tropical river, again the Chucunaque, was very calm, even when other boats passed in the other direction.

Most of them carried locals, who use the river as the main highway. In addition there were many canoes which were packed with adults wearing life-jackets, immigrant/refugees who had been processed further downstream, and were being transported for further processing. Apparently many of them were from Haiti, and in the short time we were on the river there were probably a couple of hundred. Probably thousands a day are arriving, on just one river.

This innovative Little Blue Heron was using a floating log as his transport.

The first stop on the journey was to a site where the scarce Dusky-backed Jacamar had been seen. Expecting to have to search for a while, we disembarked and prepared for a walk, but the bird was waiting for us about 10 m from the landing spot!

Then over to a village of the Embera People, Nuevo Vigia, and a walk to an Ox-bow lake.

And at the oxbow lake, several new species

Back to the village for lunch and a view of the “cutest” of all the birds we saw, the diminutive Spectacled Parrotlet, only 12 cm long from head to the end of the stumpy tail.