I am in the muggy outpost of Puerto Maldonado, Peru, capital of the "wild west" of South America. It's a gold rush town with a distinctly frontier feel, like Tombstone, only muddier. I, too, am on the hunt, but not for gold. I come in search of rainbows, of the feathered variety, the rowdy and regal lords of squawk. I'm talking about parrots and macaws.

This is the heart of Amazonia, perhaps the most accessible godforsaken spot on the planet. A two day journey up the Rio Madre de Dios will bring me to Tambopata, home of the world's largest known clay lick. This 100 foot wall, scoured by flood and rain, rises abruptly from the river's edge. When sunrise clears the morning mist and illuminates the great wall, it triggers one of the most dazzling avian spectacles in the world. A raucous crowd of parrots and macaws will fill the sky, then splatter their rainbow colors on the good earth, to screech, squabble, and eat clay (no one really knows why). And I have a front row seat for the show, in a strategically positioned blind, with camera, chair, and coffee, the works.