Pacaya River
When most people think of the Amazon rain forest they think of an incredible diversity and abundance of wildlife. Well today was certainly no disappointment! From the parrot flocks at sunrise to the Brown Capuchin monkeys at sunset, the Pacaya River gave us an incredible wildlife show.
The Pacaya River winds deep into the heart of the Pacaya-Samiria Reserve. With a series of ranger stations and a great program of volunteer rangers, it has some of the best protected spots around. This really showed today as we not only saw many new and exciting critters, but a great number of them as well.
In the morning we concentrated on the lower bits of the river, whereas in the afternoon it was the area near a blackwater lake known as Yanayacu. Acrobatic squirrel monkeys were nearly everywhere, and a few Monk Saki monkeys were also seen. Our first Howler monkeys of the trip were finally seen, after being heard on numerous trips. River turtles seemed to be sunbathing on nearly every other log, certainly one of the success stories of the conservation projects on this river. And of course, there were the pink river dolphins. They were feeding throughout the river, and surrounded us in the lake. We did enter the water to join them in the lake, and it was quite incredible to swim in such a spectacular place.
Today, like yesterday, some of us came upon an amazing concentration of birds all feeding on fish as the water levels are dropping. Hundreds of cormorants were pushing the fish to shore where they were being feasted on by thousands of egrets and hundreds of both wood storks and Jabiru storks.
A gorgeous fiery sunset finished our day on the Pacaya River. We were left with memories of the abundance of wildlife, the beauty of this special place, and the fun of swimming in the Yanayacu Lake.
