Casual Park is “terra firme,” or solid ground, but most of the land is flooded, even more when rains and the level of the river comes up. After breakfast we took our skiffs to visit an islet located near the conjunction of the Ucayali and Marañon rivers, the two main tributaries of the great Amazon. Here, we had a unique opportunity to observe many animals that live in the jungle. The first encounter was a boa, a snake very common in these parts that likes to climb trees. The jungle is full of invertebrates, and insects, such as spiders and tarantulas, are found on leaves and plants. Amphibious are also very common, some of them poisonous.
At the end of our exploration on foot, we found a type of boa called an anaconda, one of the biggest snakes found in the Amazon rainforest. They prey on big animals such as armadillos or deer. They spend most part of their time in the water and the one we saw was in a very shallow creek.
Our captain motored the Delfin II to Nauta Creek, where we had a skiff ride to discover more of the wonders of these astonishing place. This place is famous for woodpeckers, parakeets, macaws, trogons, tanagers, herons, and a great biodiversity of plants. One highlight was spotting a big troop of squirrel monkeys in the company of some saddled tamarin monkeys. They like to travel together feeding on small fruits, while some birds like anis follow them to eat insects dislodged by the hopping of the monkeys.
Back onboard the ship, pleased with a memorable day of many surprises, we enjoyed refreshing pisco sours as we savored the perfect sunset.
