It rained in the night and the humidity this morning seems high.

We are joined by a new group of five people today. They are all from the UK and appear to be easy company. This does mean we no longer have the luxury of a canoe to ourselves. No matter, as this morning’s excursion just involves a short paddle across the lake and then a 45 minute walk to the observation tower, which is 120ft high and obviously will involve lots of steps. Something to look forward to in the heat and humidity!

You never know what treats nature has in store for you and yet again we are lucky. Firstly we encounter a tiny opossum foraging on the trail. At first glance it looks like a mouse but its forepaws show that it is no such thing as it has fingers.

We here foliage rustling and are joined by a very large troop of squirrel monkeys. It is hard to know where to look. They are not close, fast moving, highly agile, active and leap from treetop to treetop.

Whilst watching their delightful antics, we hear louder noises above with branches breaking and fruits falling. There to our delight is a troop of woolly monkeys. According to Jairo this is a rare sighting and we are incredibly fortunate. Obtaining any sort of good photo is nigh impossible but persistence (and the amazing new lens) pay off.

On one side of the track we have woolly monkeys and on the other spider monkeys. It is hard to know where to look. Eventually the woolly monkeys end up directly above us and we have to walk away to avoid debris from above landing on us. When we arrive at the tower we still have the spider monkeys in tow and watch them as we climb the never ending staircase to the top. The climb is worth it though, with far reaching views across the canopy.

Patience is the keyword here. We scan the treetops for life and mainly see various species of toucans and parrots. A pair of many-banded aracari grace us with their presence for 10 minutes or so, flying between perches and gradually coming closer to us.

We observe lots but mainly through binoculars and I did see the woolly monkeys again but very far off. I have some good video of them playing in the trees and manage a couple reasonable shots considering the distance.

We take some posing pictures before descending once more into the forest. David Attenborough makes a guest appearance!

On the return trail we concentrate on the forest floor. We spot these caterpillars eating fungus and a toad that looks like a leaf.

Our local guide also tells us about the forest. He shows us a vine that is used to extract curare, how to plait palm leaves for roofing and the stalk of a leaf made to make green dye.

The afternoon is spent in the canoe paddling around the lake and exploring a shallow channel. We see caiman, lots of birds and another master of disguise frog.

I was interested to learn about the heron that has learnt how to fish. It captures a small insect then drops it into the water, waits for a fish to take it and then “Bye-bye fish”. You can see the heron below doing exactly that.