As the saying goes, when you’re given lemons…you make lemonade! So instead of doing Zodiac cruises in this area, our plan today was to use National Geographic Explorer as our observation platform. However, our attempt to use the ship to get in close to shore to observe wildlife was short-lived. The shallow water, steady winds, and strong river currents prevented us from staying close to shore for very long. We saw a beautiful sunrise and dense tropical rainforest vegetation, and we marveled at the abundance of Amazonian birdlife.
After breakfast, there was a showing of Rivers of the Sun, a film about the biodiversity that abounds in this region. Shortly thereafter, our Executive Chef, Ivan Bardales, offered a cooking demonstration on how to prepare Peruvian ceviche. Lunch was served as the river widened, and we motored along toward the entrance of the Amazon River. Later in the afternoon, naturalist Carlos Navarro gave a presentation on South American crocodilians. Then, afternoon tea consisted of ice cream with multiple toppings on the sundeck! To round out the afternoon presentations, National Geographic photographer Federico Pardo gave a personal account of his career journey, entitled, “From Biology to NatGeo Explorer.”
During recap and dinner, dusk fell quickly as we motored in a giant loop into the open Atlantic Ocean. After dinner, our ethnomusicologist Jacob Edgar presented an episode of his Music Voyager TV show that was filmed in the Amazon. As we headed to bed, we all thought about the wondrous sights in store for us in Belém, tomorrow’s exploration site.
