Zapote and Pacaya Rivers
This morning’s “knock-knock” was at 0600 and we were glad to see cool, cloudy skies but no sign of rain. Three skiffs headed out with a sharp-eyed naturalist in each and – as always – we found lots of wildlife! Everyone saw the small white-mustached saddle-backed tamarin monkeys that are locally called “bebe leche” (milk drinkers) as they ran up and down the tree trunks and vines and emitted high-pitched squeaks of excitement and alarm. The “mama vieja” (old mother) black-collared hawks were numerous and scolded us in their harsh voices, and a couple different troops of squirrel monkeys leapt and bounced among the lush green vegetation. We watched mealy parrots silhouetted against the sky, Hunter and I spotted several new birds for his list (a tiny woodpecker called a picula, a crane hawk and a pretty black, silver-beaked tanager, laughing falcon), and when we were just beginning to get hungry we tied the three skiffs together in a raft to a fallen tree and had our breakfast on the river.
Breakfast was different this morning; no three cheese omelets, sausages or pancakes. But we did have a selection of fruit on a stick and our favorite juices – camu camu and passion fruit. In addition, our chefs Raol, Renzo and Nelinho made us “jungle sandwiches” with sweet potato and yuca bread and of course coffee or tea. A cayman lizard watched us from a horizontal branch nearby as we laughed and ate, and a slate-colored hawk high in a tree above could not quite figure us out. Definitely we were an unusual sight.
We continued with our exploration and wildlife searching by skiff and were rewarded with another species of monkey that only some had thus far seen: the monk sakis. These are big handsome, furry black monkeys that hang out high up in the largest trees and we had good looks at them – they also took a good look at us! Other highlights were three more species of raptors: an elegant laughing falcon, slate-colored hawk, and several plumbeous kites circling on the thermals high in the sky.
We returned to the Delfin II and our captain headed the boat upriver towards the mouth of the Pacaya. When we tied up a couple hours later, we had travelled over 160 miles on the Ucayali and had reached our most-distant point southwest. It rained during lunch and siesta and we headed off in a light rain at 1500 to explore the Pacaya. Magically the rain eased off, then stopped completely, and the afternoon was spectacularly beautiful!
I had warned the guests that to have a good chance at seeing the larger monkeys, we would need to travel up the Pacaya beyond the lakes to the restricted areas where fisherman cannot go. Four hours in the skiff was a long time, but man-oh-man was it worth it! Two skiffs, with naturalist Luis (Primo driving) and naturalist Adonai (Paul driving), raced up the beautiful blackwater Pacaya, taking a couple short-cuts across swampy areas that we can get through because of the high water, and stopping only for the really exciting wildlife since we had a long ways to go. A dumpy and well camouflaged great potoo sleeping on a branch was one such special sighting that we all stopped to look at.
Luis’s boat – the kid’s boat (plus Lynn and Liz) - stopped to swim with four pink dolphins in Yanayacu (Blackwater) Lake. The water was a perfect temperature, the dolphins swam and snorted and surfaced around us and we had a refreshing swim. Adonai’s boat went right on past the lake and into the protected and restricted area; after our swim we too continued our exploration into pristine section of the river.
It was astounding how, as soon as we left the area that is disturbed by humans, we found many howler monkeys, and also the elusive brown capuchins! Both boats saw several troops of the large, agile reddish and black howlers. As we approached them we could see them high in the treetops and they came rushing and leaping down to get out of view as we got near. In Luis’ boat we thoroughly enjoyed watching capuchins pound cannon ball fruit on a sturdy branch to break them open and then eat the fruit. In Adonai’s they were amused by a hoatzin ménage a trois! A ferruginous pygmy owl and an eight-foot anaconda were other highlights. Oh, by the way, the anaconda sadly was dead and very smelly!
Rudy and driver Miguel left the Delfin II a little later than the rest of us, and did not stay out quite as long, and they spent their time observing and identifying birds. They too had a delightful afternoon, in the sun, on the Pacaya River and some of their best birds were: a gorgeous neon orange-backed troupial,
Tonight we have a long way to go downriver and will not tie up until between 1:00 and 2:00 in the morning. But we are going with the current and so we rush along on the flooded muddy Ucayali at speeds up to about 12 knots!
