This morning we once again had a perfect, cool start to our day. Knock-knock on our doors came at 0530 and by 0600 we had loaded the three skiffs and, with our eagle-eyed guide/driver teams, were headed up the Marañon River to the mouth of the narrow, black water Pahuachiro Creek. We found birds, reptiles, and mammals this morning and had a delightful outing!
After a scrumptious and bountiful breakfast we slipped into boots and crossed to the Casual Community to hike their nature trail. Today locals foraged in the jungle leaf litter and streams and brought us things to see up close: a tarantula, a small green anaconda, and a couple of different species of poison arrow frogs. They found a sloth and one lucky group got to see her come down the tree to take care of her bodily needs and then very slowly crawl across the ground! We admired huge ficus trees and myriad liana vines. Back at the banks of the river we had a chance to buy handicrafts made using the chambira palm fiber and woodcarvings. As we motored back to the boat it began to pour—excellent timing!
Just before lunch, Naturalist Javier showed us many interesting rainforest fruits and we enjoyed tasting them. In competition with Javier was a continuous pink and gray dolphin show, right where we where tied to the shore at the meeting of the black waters and muddy waters. In the afternoon we explored yet another beautiful, calm, black water stream, Nauta Caño, by either kayak or skiff. Everyone was enchanted by the troops of squirrel monkeys we watched running along high branches and vines and leaping through the trees. We all also saw several handsome black collared hawks, heard toucans and tinamous, and there were wattled jacanas walking with their huge thin feet and toes on the water lettuce.
As we returned to the boat the sun set in a lovely array of pink, orange, and grey and not much later a bright full moon rose over the rainforest.
