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By Ben Box, editor of Footprint's South American Handbook
Half-past four in the morning: there is a knock at the bungalow door to rise for a 25-minute boat ride to the ccollpa (macaw clay lick). Dawn, which comes up quickly over the Madre de Dios River, is greeted by the echoing roar of the howler monkeys and the song of the Musician Wren. The ccollpa, a long brown cliff at the water's edge, is one of the highlights of the Manu National Park in Peru's southeastern jungle. Although there is no guarantee that you'll see anything, the parrots are already mustering this morning. The first shift comprises Mealy and Yellow- crowned parrots, which look like they have been lightly dusted with flour, and glossy Blue-headed and Orange-cheeked parrots. It is a riot of green, jabbering and bickering, fluttering and flying.
The parrots have had their fill. As we wait for the macaws and enjoy our pancake breakfast, a family of red howler monkeys comes to the lick. The adults stay in the bamboo thicket while the young gnaw at the clay. Dusky titi monkeys and squirrel monkeys pass by. Then Red-and-green macaws arrive, in the trees, on the vines and on the lick itself. They hang and swivel just like captive macaws, but with more joie-de-vivre. As the birds spread their wings for balance while picking off lumps of the cliff, it is clear that whoever named the species was only telling half the story. Red and green, yes, but the blue in their feathers is electric.
The best time to visit is from August to October, at the end of the dry season when the birds, which feast on toxic fruit during these months, are more likely to seek out the clay for its neutralizing alkali compounds. On a good day at the lick you can see 500 parrots and 150 macaws.
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Ben Box (Editor)
Footprint's South American Handbook
GUIDEBOOK • 2001 •
FLEXI-BOUND • 1680 PAGES
Author Ben Box visited Manu in 2001. Although he may live in Suffolk, Ben's love
is for Latin America. An editor at Footprint for many years Ben has been editor of the South
American Handbook since 1989. (SAM25, $39.95)
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