Nauta area of the Rio Marañon
In the philosophy of football fans, it is a game of two halves. Today was a day of two halves. The morning was devoted to waterborne pursuits, as we set out by skiffs and kayaks to explore Nauta Caño, a small tributary of the Rio Marañon. As our eyes and ears become attuned to the sights and sounds of the jungle, so we have a growing appreciation of what we can find during these excursions. A distant dark ball high in the branches of a cecropia tree resolves itself into the shape of a three-toed sloth. A sudden commotion in the branches that could not have been caused by the wind becomes a group of squirrel monkeys moving from branch to branch. And so the pattern continues as we find ourselves becoming more familiar with our new environment.
After lunch our attention turned to the land as we went ashore to walk in the terra firme jungle at San Francisco. The rising waters of the river are perhaps five feet below their peak, so we do not have to head far uphill in order to find forest that will never flood. The ecosystem here is quite different, in an area where the animals and plants do not have to deal with the seasonal inundation of the varzea forest.
Our attention remained on this area after dinner, when we headed back on the same trail to compare and contrast the diurnal wildlife sightings with the nocturnal. With our attention focused by the beam of a torch we discovered a wide range of weird and wonderful bugs. The night was filled with the sounds of frogs, seemingly happy amphibians at this time of year due to the rising floodwaters.
Overnight we will continue our passage down the Rio Marañon and begin our journey on the Rio Ucayali. At this point, the confluence of these two large rivers forms the start of the Rio Amazonas.
