We arrived at the first location in the Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve almost at dawn. I could hear the roar of the falls and the River Santo Domingo. The force of the water in this river was quite intimidating, it was getting dark, I would find my chance to sketch next day. At night I would leave the windows open for the sounds of the river and falls lulled me to sleep. Next morning at breakfast, I sketched the view from our table.
That afternoon, we visited the River Tzendales which joins the Lacanja River. It is a beautiful river in the Lacandon jungle. It's a green paradise for watching wild life. It's narrow and windy passages require a skillful boat driver to maneuver the ride. The river is covered by vegetation so dense and high that there is no reflection of the sky in the water. The afternoons are not the perfect time to watch birds but because we had an overcast day, we could see plenty of birds that otherwise would be forced to find shelter deep in the shade in an otherwise hot sunny day, out of the view from watchers, so we were lucky. Marco was our guide/boat driver. He is a very skillful one in many ways. He spotted so many creatures from the distance, invisible to us. Picture this, a person who has to put his eyes on the river to ride the boat safely and also looking for animals for us to watch, that is impressive to me. I wish I could sketch animals, but I had an opportunity to sketch Marco in our way back to the departing location.
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| Fineliner and watercolor on Moleskine Watercolor Sketchbook 3" x 5" |
That afternoon, we visited the River Tzendales which joins the Lacanja River. It is a beautiful river in the Lacandon jungle. It's a green paradise for watching wild life. It's narrow and windy passages require a skillful boat driver to maneuver the ride. The river is covered by vegetation so dense and high that there is no reflection of the sky in the water. The afternoons are not the perfect time to watch birds but because we had an overcast day, we could see plenty of birds that otherwise would be forced to find shelter deep in the shade in an otherwise hot sunny day, out of the view from watchers, so we were lucky. Marco was our guide/boat driver. He is a very skillful one in many ways. He spotted so many creatures from the distance, invisible to us. Picture this, a person who has to put his eyes on the river to ride the boat safely and also looking for animals for us to watch, that is impressive to me. I wish I could sketch animals, but I had an opportunity to sketch Marco in our way back to the departing location.
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| Fineliner and watercolor on Moleskine Watercolor Sketchbook 3" x 5" |
This is a list of animals we watched all wild free, it's a reminder for myself really, but I'm happy to share with you if you care to keep reading: Crocodile, black hauler monkey (or Sarahuayo monkey), green parrots, the endangered specie scarlet macaw, kingfisher, spoon peak heron, hummingbird (the size of a little finger), royal or real toucan, little toucans (another specie), woodpecker, bag maker bird (named after the shape of its nest), bats, bat eater hawk, long tail cowboy cuckoo, yellow long tail and white cheeks golden oriole (oropendula), spider monkey and flora species like Ceiba and mulatto trees and eater insect plants. All of that in the course of 90 minutes!
The night of that day would be a scary one, well... just the first moment. I listened listened to the hauled of the black hauler monkey and tried to sleep for the next 3 days with this sound, I couldn’t, I was fascinated.
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