Early last night, the Delfin II arrived to the location of today’s early morning outing, Belluda Creek.
At daybreak we all showed up at the coffee station for a fresh cup of hot coffee and and some fruit before our pre-breakfast skiff exploration. Here in the tropics, just after dawn or just before dusk are the ideal times to go out and explore. So as soon as the sun appeared above the horizon, we loaded into the skiffs to explore the densely forested rivers edge.
It is interesting to see how alive the Amazon River is. Not only is there an incredibly high diversity of life forms that coexist here, on land and water, but the river itself also behaves like a living creature—never stopping always changing. Its waters are constantly moving, up or down, in or out of areas, and even regularly changing course as it meanders through this immensely vast land, on its way down to the Atlantic Ocean.
The site we visited this morning was an area full of dead palms—an area once away from the water, now in it. The tall stumps of the dead palms, are testimony of the only constant in nature…. Change! But nothing is wasted in nature, and the dead palms provide the perfect home for several species of birds that sleep and nest here. This is what we were searching for this morning—the loudly and actively awakening, spectacular red-bellied macaws, and blue and yellow macaws.
As usual, following the successful morning outing, we returned to our very comfortable base, the Delfin II, to eat and rest a little before exploring again later in the day. The afternoon was full of some spectacular sightings of several species of parrots and macaws, as well as monk-saki monkeys, spectacled caimans, and pink and gray river dolphins.
It was a very exciting day in the Upper Amazon!
