Casual and Yanayacu-Pucate Rivers
Sunday evening, as soon as we had all boarded the Delfin II, Captain Remigio Teran navigated upriver some 10 miles and, while we had a gourmet dinner in the lovely dining room, he tied up along the southern bank of the Marañon River. We slumbered comfortably in our cool cabins and slept in a bit this morning, resting after the long day of travel yesterday. “Knock-knock” on our door was at 0630 and a bountiful breakfast buffet was enjoyed by all between 0700 and 0800. At 0830 we boarded the skiffs for a short ride across the river where we climbed up a steep muddy trail and followed our naturalists into the “terra firme” rain forest.
During an hour-and-a-half walk our team of Peruvian Amazon naturalists showed us many species of forest plants, including palms and figs, fruits, and liana vines, as they introduced us to the non-flooded or igapo habitat. We found several of the colorful poison arrow frogs of the genus Dendrobates. A few of us saw saddle-backed tamarin monkeys high up in the trees, and we all marveled at the size of a huge strangler fig. These enormous trees are home to many species of insects and epiphytic plants; this one had a couple of bee nests, ant nests and many vines and bromeliads growing upon it. We enjoyed swinging on a long liana vine that dangled from the fig tree!
Skiff driver Paul took Bill and me on a private skiff ride. We passed several fishermen and a small village and then entered and explored a small caño (creek) Our highlights were long-nosed bats lined up on a tree trunk, a yellow-headed caracara, masked crimson tanagers and the exuberant rain forest flowers and other vegetation.
When we finished the walk and skiff ride and returned to the start of the trail we found that a handicrafts market had been quickly set up for us by locals from a tiny nearby village. We enjoyed looking at their crafts and buying a few of the handmade items.
Back on the Delfin II, after showers and refreshing drinks, we had a safety drill followed by my short introductory presentation on the Amazon. Naturalist Luis oriented us with a map and told us about the Pacaya-Samiri Reserve. This protected area has been set aside by the Peruvian government to protect several species of endangered animals, notably the river turtles, the giant paiche fish, the giant river otters and the black caiman. We will spend this week exploring the rivers and caños that drain the five million acres which make up this important rainforest reserve.
During our delicious lunch we were delighted with a pink dolphin show! At least three of these wondrous and weird marine-mammals-gone-freshwater surfaced and dove just behind the boat so we could all watch them while we dined! We boarded our three skiffs in the afternoon under cloudy skies that threatened rain. Happily we only felt a very few drops; lucky for us, the thunder and black skies moved off and the storm hit elsewhere this time.
The afternoon skiff exploration up the Yanayacu-Pucate River system was both pleasant and successful. Each of the boats had different wildlife viewing: a yellow-crowned brush-tailed rat in his hole, elusive squirrel monkeys and saddle-backed tamarins, one or even two hard-to-see sloths high in the treetops, and many species of colorful birds were among the wildlife we observed.
In the evening the naturalists introduced themselves and told us of their backgrounds and families and then we went into dinner and enjoyed some excellent local fish. We were surprised when four of the crew – barman Deny, cabin boy Wilson, naturalist Adonai and paramedic Oscar – came in with musical instruments to sing and perform for us! The band calls themselves “The Teenagers” and we enjoyed hearing – and even joined them – in their lusty singing of several Latino songs.
