Casual & the Yanayacu-Pucate Rivers
First day started early, as it will for the entire week! We had a great turnout at 6:00 a.m. with almost everyone getting into the skiffs for an exploratory skiff ride to see what might be out and about while the day was still fresh.
I have been impressed with the rate of river-level rise over the last few days. Moving down the Marañon River can be seen logs, branches, islands of floating vegetation…entire trees! This is an indication that a tremendous amounts of rain or snowmelt is occurring in the Andes mountains to the west of us. Forest debris has been accumulating over the last four months along the banks of the river while it has been low. Trees fall, muddy banks collapse, and now it is all being swept down river by the rising water levels.
We travelled along the Marañon River last night for a couple hours to reach this location on “terra firme” (where flood waters do not reach) and where we have access into a great rain forest. Three local residents accompanied us into their “back yard” so to speak, to see what lives there. We (they) found lots of fascinating organisms that otherwise we would have walked right by: leaf frogs, lizards, tarntulas, and one large member of the weevil family that remains to be identified. Of course we were surrounded by very large trees, rubber and various figs among them, as well as smaller understory plants—so many with medicinal uses!
By the time we made it back to the ship, everyone was ready for a good shower before the mandatory boat drill, and well ready for Kitty Coley’s first presentation of the week. As a National Geographic lecturer with over thirty visits to the Amazon in her past, Kitty has a lot of information to share, and this introduction to the rain forest set the stage.
Before lunch actually got underway, the captain and his crew were introduced to us in the dining room. Thank goodness we hadn’t tied up to the riverbank yet, because as soon as the Delfin II sailed into the mouth of the Pucate River, everyone jumped out of their seats because pink dolphins had shown up and stole the show. The mixing of white-water and black-water rivers is very attractive to dolphins, both pink and gray, because the fishing is better in these locations. Throughout lunch the dolphins stayed in the area just behind the ship…and just outside the Delfin II’s magnificent dining room picture windows! One individual dolphin (we think) played with a six-foot long pole for quite a while…if we had been in the Arctic we could have mistaken it for a narwhale!
By 3:30 p.m. a thunderstorm that had threatened us earlier had passed by, yet the cloudy sky was perfect as it kept the afternoon cool. As planned, the skiffs stopped at the ranger station at the mouth of the Pucate River for us to go sign their register…and there we found out they had hundreds of small hatchling yellow-spotted river turtles! Expect the unexpected in the Amazon! They were awaiting repatriation to their black water rivers inside the reserve, and we were more than willing to help!
The “deal” the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve has worked out with the residents of the area (who arrived long before this was recognized as a protected area), is in order that they may continue to sustainably use the resources of the region (in this case, turtles), every community is required to find 3,000 turtle eggs from the sand bars of the river at low water, and re-bury them in sand boxes in front of the community’s school building. After hatching, they are released back into the reserve to keep up the population. Meanwhile, after the 3,000 have been collected, the people are allowed to harvest as many turtle eggs as they want for consumption or sale.
It seems to be working, and as I mentioned, we were happy to help with the release of turtles into the grassy borders of the river. We each gave them our blessings, and hoped fervently “our” turtle would be in the 2-3% of the survivors.
What an extraordinary first day!
