Yesterday was an incredible day, full of activities. We visited the colonial and rainless center of the city of Lima on the Pacific coast, then travelled by plane over the Andes to the very wet lowlands of the Amazon basin, on the Atlantic slope, to the island of Iquitos. This island is surrounded by a vast sea of fresh water rivers and green jungle, one of these being the mighty Amazon, which is where embarked our home for the next week, the Delfin II.
After a good night sleep, as the ship sailed deeper into the river, we woke up early this morning to a delicious breakfast, freshly brewed coffee, eggs prepared to whatever our preference—all the usual good things, as well as many kinds of fresh local fruits of the rainforest.
Following our breakfast, we were fitted with rubber boots before disembarking for a walk in the jungle, to an area called Casual. It was indeed a great walk through the rainforest, escorted by our local naturalist that identified and explained all of the unusual and wonderful things that we encountered. We also had the added help of local people that found many interesting things in the forest to show us. We had great views of several kinds of insects, frogs, a large tarantula, an anaconda snake and a very animated boa constrictor snake.
After lunch and a relaxing afternoon back on the Delfin II, we explored the Yanayacu River by skiff. We were impressed to see how high the water level is this year. The local people are prepared for it, and build their homes on stilts, but this year the water was so high that it had already gotten inside some of the homes. Many people had no other choice but to live with it, in their flooded homes.
In the afternoon, we had some great views of the many birds of this area, such as the large and noisy horned screamer, and we were consistently escorted by very active large-billed terns, as well as gray and pink freshwater dolphins. Just a typical day on the Amazon River basin!
