Yanallpa and Dorado River
Today, the majority were up and out by 6:00a.m. Yesterday we had felt the heat of late morning, so it wasn’t hard to convince folks to get an early start today!
One small group chose to take a walk in the flood forest (that at this time of year is not flooded and therefore accessible on foot), and the other group chose to take the skiff along the river to catch the early birds (literally) and anything else that might show up. Which it did, from all reports…squirrel monkeys and pygmy marmosets! The walkers had a quiet time of it inside the cool forest with antbirds and others who only allowed us to hear their calls. One of the mind-blowing aspects of walking in a flood forest are the indications on the tree-trunks of last season’s high-water line. In my photo you can see it was well over my head! I would have been swimming had I been in that spot a few months ago.
After breakfast, however, we also went separate ways once more: a good-sized group chose to land on a sand bank to explore, do a mud treatment with fine clay, drink coconut water out of coconuts, juice or cold beers and then drift down the Ucayali River on noodles; another small group went walking down a community highway (meaning concrete sidewalk) where we spoke to people, saw their crops and homes, and looked (and successfully found), pygmy marmosets drinking from their “trap-line.” These most-primitive of the primates in the Amazon, chew out little holes in the bark of certain trees in order to let the sap accumulate over time. These “nectar traps” are visited on a regular basis, and we caught a couple doing just this, at eye-level no less! No craning of the neck and head!
JUST in time for the walkers, and five minutes late for the beach-goers, a typical Amazonian rain shower came charging up river quickly. With gusts of wind seconds before the rain, the ship’s crew battened down the hatches for the wonderful experience that lasted all of 15 minutes before once more the sun came out strong and bright.
But back on board, safe and sound, we relaxed and prepared for a naturalist’s talk on the medicinal plants of the region. All of our naturalists were born and raised in the area, and grew up in small communities. This necessitated knowledge of the local plants and their properties, if one was to survive so far from a large town or city and modern health care.
During lunch the Delfin II continued up the Ucayali River; I gave a talk on the geological history of the Amazon Basin while another brief rain passed over us; then as planned at four o’clock, we boarded the skiffs for an exploration of the Dorado River. Something very different always happens each time we depart the ship to explore a new area. Impossible to predict what it will be, in the Amazon one has to expect the unexpected, always. This time we encountered fishermen loading their floating fish pen with armoured catfish. With no refrigeration method available, the best way to get your catch to market in the freshest state possible, is to keep it alive until the sale is made in Iquitos. In order to do this, one has to float the fish-pen down river (which takes four days with outboard motor, more if floating at the river’s pace), living on board your dugout or raft, cooking with wood over a clay base, hiding under a temporary shelter if it rains.
A young women paddled nearby and we asked her if we could look at her catch, which in turn was totally different and included several red-bellied piranha! Well we had fun with that one and photography!
Just as dusk was closing down we shut down the engine to enjoy a couple minutes of total quiet. When the rosy colors of a dramatic sunset started up, and Judy glanced to her left, she spotted what looked like a blob of mud on the surface of the water. It turned out to be the head of a spectacled caiman! In good light, which is rare, we all saw the huge cat-like eye and protective armor around the face and head. Before it left with a jump and splash, startling us all.
Later we saw also the black caiman, much more rare for being intensely hunted, and out of a tiny hole in the bank, found only by the reflection of its eyes in the spotlight!
As if that wasn’t enough excitement for the night, on our way back to the ship we had fish jump into the skiff on two occasions…once hitting me on the shoulder and bouncing off Tilley, the second getting Judy so suddenly she fell off her seat in surprise!
It was a unique day, one to be remembered for a long time to come.
