Yanalpa & Dorado Caños
This morning we had an early wake-up call, just before sunrise, and soon after we were boarding our skiffs to go out and look for wildlife. Along the Ucayali River there are many palm trees, which is the main food source for parrots and macaws. And we get our reward for being early risers because macaws were soaring and interacting among them for a long time right in from of our adventurous travelers.
Macaws were hunted in the old days by native people for its bright colorful feathers; they were used as a sign of social status and were part of the decoration of the Caciques’ clothing. Caciques were the leaders of a group or tribe of Amazon people. Nowadays this species is protected by Peruvian law. This morning we had the amazing opportunity to see them in the wild inside the huge Pacaya Samiria Reserve.
As we went into Yanalpa Caño we spotted two species of monkeys:
Squirrel and Night or Owl Monkeys, we also spotted two species of birds of prey, the Great Black Hawk and the Yellow headed Caracara next to each other.
Well, every time we go out is a new adventure. We just don’t know what we are going to see but, so far it has been great to be part of this unique ecosystem in our planet.
In the afternoon we went out again on board our comfortable skiffs to look for more wildlife. The Amazon region is so vast that we never know what we are going to see out there. First we spotted a Hoatzin, which was nesting in an open area and was relatively easy to see. This bird species is a prehistoric looking river bird. When juvenile hoatzins are harassed by birds of prey, they jump out their nests into the water and later climb back up to their nests using their claws, which they have at the end of each wing. Later in their lives they lose these claws because they don’t need them anymore. Nature is full wonderful mysteries.
As we continued with our afternoon adventure, we spotted four species of monkeys in a single afternoon and minutes apart from each other. Squirrel monkeys have been in almost every outing this week, Howler monkeys produce a scary sound for demarking their territory and that was the reason we spotted them, Saddleback tamarins are very elusive but this afternoon we were very lucky. We also finally spotted the Monk saki monkeys that were just looking for a good place to spend the night.
At nighttime, out there in the rain forest is a complete different world. Nocturnal animals start to roam in the wild. The sky is full of stars but it is time to go to bed. Goodnight everyone.
