Amazon Natural Park & Yanahurquillo Caño
Wow! What a day we had in the Peruvian Upper Amazon. This day of exploration took us to a brand new private reserve found in the outside boundaries of the Pacaya-Samiria Reserve, the Amazon Natural Park. The area that protects this reserve is so well managed and patrolled by the owner of this place that the Peruvian Government recognized its conservation value declaring it a national private protected area as recently as in June 2011.
We had several activities planned in order to explore this location. We started at around 8:00 in the morning by rowing peacefully aboard three catamarans in a paradisiacal small lagoon. Afterwards we landed on a little dock to go inside the forest where we were gratefully and positively impressed by the beauty of a primary forest. It is noticeable that the flora of the area is still practically untouched for we encountered large Ficus, Mahogany, and Rubber trees all over the trails.
The trail leads to a very long suspension bridge (approximately half-a-mile in length!) one of the largest I have seen. The bridge led us to a thrilling and exciting walk in the middle strata of the rain forest. We were several feet above the ground watching the rain forest from a completely different dimension.
The highlight of the day was the finding of a Rainbow Boa (Epicrates cenchria). This beautiful and seldom-seen snake was seen at a very close range. Its beauty and mysterious presence made our group of ladies express their admiration with many superlatives. Later on in the trail while talking to Jill Cruse, Olivia Travel Representative we concluded that sighting was very meaningful for the group for it has the proud rainbow colors of the flag that is positioned on top of the ship. After the walk we made our way back to the ship. Refreshed with a cooling shower and a delicious Amazon fruit drink we had our lunch.
In the afternoon we explored Yanayaquillo Caño. We stopped briefly to admire the handicrafts of San Regis community. We had a beautiful sunny afternoon that made us forget the strong rain we had yesterday in the morning. We truly enjoyed this outing. This narrow black waters stream locally known in Spanish as “caño” (roughly translated to English as a creek), is covered with thick vegetation where our expert naturalists spotted many species of colorful birds like tanagers, parrots and toucans as well as some Squirrel monkey troops and some sloths and iguanas.
Finally, at around 18:00 o´clock and twelve hours after our wakeup knock we came back onboard with many unforgettable feelings and memories in our hearts and minds.
