Yarapa & Puerto Miguel Village
Today I woke up in high spirits. I do it every day anyway, but I felt that today would be a great one for our expedition and I was not wrong. Our home away from home, the Delfin II was tied in an area very close to Yarapa Caño and Puerto Miguel Village. There were, as usual, several options and activities planned for the day and we successfully accomplished all of them.
Before breakfast, taking advantage of the relatively cool weather of the early mornings in the Amazon we had two choices to explore the area. One was by kayaking and the second was by taking a skiff ride. In both cases, we all had a great time. Kayakers had the chance to go down the stream, which today was noticeably higher than in the previous weeks. As the stream is almost at its lowest point of the season, an almost imperceptible but constant current made the kayakers drift most of the way. Skiff riders had the chance to see several beautiful bird species and to observe the creek from a different perspective. We all occasionally stopped to contemplate a bird or to observe the local inhabitants working on their daily routine.
Later on, after breakfast we went again to the narrow stream but this time with the intention to go further up searching for wildlife. Our talented naturalists were able to find more birds and sloths as well. Once back onboard and before lunch we had an extensive checking of our wildlife checklist to date.
In the afternoon, accompanied by a constant soft rain, we made our way with the skiffs to visit Puerto Miguel Village. Today has been the first time in the last almost four months that we could reach this location by skiffs. It seems that we have had strong rains that have allowed the river to increase its water levels. We walked around the whole town learning about how people live in the community. Along the way we had the opportunity to be in contact with the local inhabitants. We observed many children playing, men and women working on their daily chores. We arrived to a nearby pond located at the end of this long human settlement where we observed the Queen Victoria giant water lilies (Victoria regia). After the walk we visted the community handicrafts market as well. In this place we admired and purchased some of the beautiful handmade objects.
Late in the evening we came back on board for our dinner that was followed by live music performed by our crew band. After dinner we watched an extraordinary nature documentary entitled Rivers of the Sun, which gave us a better understanding of the complexity and changes during the wet and dry seasons in the Amazon. This film shows some interesting facts about the underwater Amazon life as well.
