Today our activities started a bit earlier than usual. At around 6:30 we boarded our skiffs and headed out to explore the shores of the Ucayali River, looking for wildlife. After looking around forty minutes, our patience paid off, for we had wonderful sightings of a couple of chestnut-fronted macaws, green iguanas, hawks, swallows, squirrel monkey troops and more. After these sightings, we turned off of the Ucayali River and headed up a small tributary called Belluda Caño. This beautiful stream was at its best today, for it gave us wonderful personal glimpses of the rainforest and its abundant wildlife. The solitude and peacefulness of navigating along the creek, observing and listening to the forest sounds, makes you feel a real connection with nature, and makes the outside world seem so far away.
As our skiff slipped into narrower sections of the surrounding forests, we observed a dead hollow tree with several holes. In one of the holes, directly above us, several small heads with immense brilliant eyes were peeking down. We had spotted a group of noisy night monkeys, the only nocturnal monkey species in the world. These neo-tropical primates have not been widely studied and are still very mysterious, taxonomically and ecologically. The have a beautiful, round, owl-like heads with huge eyes surrounded by white fur. The latter characteristics are good indicators of the monkey’s nocturnal habits. These creatures had a very diverse diet that includes fruits, buds, insects and flower nectar. Their vocalizations are very loud, therefore its common name refers to their reputation of being noisy.
We returned to the ship for breakfast, which was followed by one of my favorite natural history talks, “Morphology, Ecology and Behavioral Notes of the Primates of the Pacaya Samiria Reserve”. After the talk, Delfin II cabin boys Jose Yaicate and Wilson Contreras taught us to fold towels into origami shapes. They are true masters in this amusing art, for they decorate cabins at a daily basis with these artistic creations.
After lunch at three o’clock, Delfin II naturalist Adonai Rodriguez delighted us with his knowledge of some of the many Amazonian fruits found in the area. We left later on at four o´clock, heading up “El Dorado” River for a long excursion, returning to the ship after dark. On this trip, we saw several three- toed sloths and some squirrel monkey troops. The transition from day to night in the neo-tropical rainforest is an amazing time to observe the wildlife transition along the river. As the light slowly faded, naturalists using strong spotlights located some few examples of nocturnal wildlife. We found some small juvenile spectacled caimans in the floating vegetation.
After a delightful dinner, some talented musician members of the ship’s crew entertained us with lively music in the dining room, putting the icing of the cake of this remarkable day of exploration.
