We woke to a view of fishermen’s canoes and children overseeing our ship from the riverbank. We made a dry landing at a set of wood steps to further explore a small community known as Amazonas. The locals speak Spanish as well as Cucama-Cucamillas, which is the native tongue. There is some agriculture happening here, and the community has churches and a school system. We were welcomed by a representative from our partner nonprofit, Minga Peru. This nonprofit has been helping native communities in the Amazon for over 25 years. Lindblad Expeditions and Minga Peru are celebrating ten years of partnership, working together to help small communities along the Amazon River tributaries.
Amazonas community has around 300 inhabitants. We learned about different areas of the community, such as the project where people work on fish farms; these farms are run by local teenagers. Teenagers also start their own vegetable farms. We were able to see the production of handicrafts made from the chambira palm tree.
After lunch, we visited Casual. After a dry landing, we went hiking into the jungle forest and spotted several species of amphibians and reptiles, and we were lucky enough to spot a young three-toed sloth. The rainforest is quite dense, and several species of medicinal plants were spotted along the hike. We found a small red-tailed boa hiding in the dry foliage of the forest. We were amazed by how well reptiles camouflage here; luckily, our local naturalist can spot wildlife from a mile away.
We hiked for around 1.5 miles, and at the end of the trail, we were delighted by locals selling their handicrafts. Visiting Casual Trail and the Amazonas community made for an excellent day.
