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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Maffong" data-source="post: 3344613" data-attributes="member: 109113">Wow, some of you really have stories to tell their children and grandchildren! My story is less thrilling to tell, but I was so worried that i stopped taking pictures. In hindsight a bad idea, since I saw lots of cool birds that I have never seen again.In 2010 I lived with a host family as an exchange student in Ecuador. One of my host brothers had to install some sanitary facilities in a small village called Tigüino in the amazonian lowlands. Unfortunately it was a place where oil companies were searching for oil, so there had been some problems between workers and local indigenous people and a few years before a worker had been killed by the indigenous.To make sure I wouldn't wander into dangerous regions I accompanied two locals who were clearing some space for palm plantations (I think), but where they worked it was boring, so I wandered back towards the town, when an Ivory-billed Aracari caught my attention. When I tried to get better views I encountered a small (but clearly visible) path and had a look if something interesting lingered around. And to my astonishment I found an antswarm with dozens of good birds following it. I followed the birds, but soon realized that I wasn't on the trail anymore. When I tried to go back I just couldn't find it anymore! I had antbirds,antshrikes, manakins, woodcreepers, barbets and much more around me, but was too preoccupied with refinding the trail that couldn't be further away than 50-100m. In the end I tried to walk a small stream up and down for each about a kilometer without success (but many bats and a Buff-tailed Sicklebill), before I decided to search for the highest point I could find. When I had finally climbed a small mountain, where I wanted to climb on top of a tree I relocated another (or was it maybe the same) trail clearly made by humans. I had just been like 50m away from it all the time!When I finally made it out of the forest I had been lost for 4 hours and people were already searching for me!I never admitted to my host-brother that I'd actually been lost <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite8" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":D" />Greets Maffong</blockquote>

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