Yanallpa & Dorado River
Once again a skiff left at the crack of dawn with the enthusiastic birders, but followed not-so-much later by the rest. It was an early day for everyone, because the location was great and we didn’t want to miss a thing.
The Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve blue-and-yellow macaws were out and noisy as they flew back and forth from the tall Moriche palm trees. These palm trees were dead and missing their tops, but perfect for nesting holes, and it seemed the macaws might have been thinking about this. Pairs flew back and forth and conversed about the location, location, location.
Those that opted for their last walk in the forest (because from now on we were focusing on rivers and skiff rides), enjoyed the early hour inside the rain forest as well. A Southern Amazonian squirrel made an appearance to some, while others saw saddle-backed tamarin monkeys, black-collared hawks, paradise tanagers once again, and black-capped donacobious, with their car-alarm sound, among many, many others.
Later in the morning a trip was made across the river to the community of Yanallpa where the birders added some species to their list, but also got a glimpse (and that was all it was) of the pygmy marmoset, the smallest primate in the world. We had great fun making our way up inside a small creek near to the point where the ship was tied up. Just this week the creek had enough water in it to attempt a visit. As the Ucayali and Maranon rivers are starting to rise with the early onset of the high-water season, this is the first visit in many months to this particular waterway. Over and between tree trunks and branches, our skillful drivers took us up “Belludo Caño” as far as we could go. It was beautiful in there, with marvelous rain forest sounds: undulated tinamou, yellow-rumped caciques, russet-backed oropendulas, tanagers, parrots, and monkeys. Only because our time had run out did we turn around (with difficulty) and come back to the ship.
On board, before lunch was called, we got a great explanation about a variety of Amazonian fruits. Some we have already been eaten or drunk as juice, some will be on our plates or glasses in the future…but all round, an eye-opening talk that makes us realize how limited our regular, North American diet is, at least when it comes to fruits!
In the afternoon we boarded skiffs for another adventure up the Dorado River. Every visit is unique, and this river leads deep into the reserve. If we had the days to follow it in, we could add a week! However right at the beginning where the Dorado River empties into the Ucayali River we started our exclamations with “Pink dolphins! Gray dolphins!” And it just kept going from there; squirrel monkeys, brown capuchin monkeys, white-throated toucan, chestnut-eared araçari (mini-toucans), green-and-rufous kingfisher; sloths galore, and when day turned to night and the searchlight went on, the sightings continued: boat-billed herons and black-crowned night herons, common potoo, common pauraques (a type of nightjar)…and our naturalist definitely found us some caimans, both black and spectacled. What was really extraordinary about this particular trip was the moment Juan Luis exclaimed in high excitement that up ahead were over a dozen baby caimans! He, nor I, had ever seen such a collection of little eyes together. When we finally got close enough, we realized they were newly hatched youngsters, barely a day or so old! Of course mother was probably around so we didn’t stay too long, but what a discovery!
We were back on board in plenty of time to get ready for dinner…the food on board the Delfin II is something no one ever misses!
What a day!
