R.O.U.S's Rodents of Unusual Size in Peruvian Amazon

The Princess Bride is one of my favorite movies.  It's a classic, one that everyone should be able to quote at anytime.  If you too are a fan of The Princess Bride, you'll know all about the R.O.U.S's.   Outside of a snake slithering in the grass (it looked quite huge too), the first animal I saw in the Peruvian jungle was a rodent of unusual size aka R.O.U.S.   At first I thought it was a wild pig but hairy.  Our guide explained it was a capybara...a giant rodent.  Luckily it didn't have a giant rat tail and wasn't chasing me wearing my princess buttercup dress.

The next animal was the caiman.  Like an alligator but a lot smaller.  Now maybe this was a young one but all the ones I saw weren't that big.  Regardless, I wouldn't want to go swimming with one.

Speaking of swimming, people can swim in different areas but need to watch out for the anaconda's.  Our guide said he'd only seen one 2 or 3 times in his life and we were fortunate enough to see one on our kayak trip.  Our guides were wonderful looking for animals and spotted this little guy warming up in the tree and singing trust in me while his eyes dilated and made crazy designs.

People used to swim in Lago Condenado, also known as Oxbo Lake, but when it became a protected area people no longer swam in it.  I personally think it's because of the piraña's we saw in the water eating the crackers we were feeding them.

Around the lodge we saw monkeys jumping from tree branches and I saw a red howler monkey too.  It was sleeping in a tree by where we were eating lunch and the lodge brought out their telescope. It was amazing seeing the monkey just sleeping there.  We also saw another rodent running around the lodge grounds. It looks like a size of a squirrel here but it was the size of a small cat.  I wouldn't be surprised if these came into the room which is open to the jungle.  They are probably the reason we were told to lock our food up in the lockers.

I didn't see any animals in the room but our friends Scott and Michele were in the next room and Michele said she heard something eating in her room.  It should have been eating the termites that were building a nest in their bathroom which crashed down all on their bathroom counter leaving termites and yummy looking larva all over the counter and floor.  The termites can build a gigantic nest in a couple hours.

At Oxbo late while Jose Luis our guide was paddling us around, we also saw these little bats hanging out on a log.

One evening we took a night hike and saw creepy crawlies like the pink toed tarantula

And these very gross whipless scorpians.  Or maybe they were tail-less.  Regardless, I didn't see the appeal in them and wouldn't want them for pets.

One of my favorite things on the night hike and I don't have a picture of it the leaf cutter ants.  Just like in A Bug's Life, these 4 little ants were carrying pieces of leaves larger than them walking on a branch. I'm easy to please and these 4 little ants with 4 leafs walking with the leaves was a highlight of the jungle for me.

Tomorrow I'll share the birds I saw in the jungle.