Casual Forest, Pucate & Yanayacu Rivers
Today was our first day of exploration, and we decided to go out for a skiff ride before breakfast. This place has a very narrow creek with very tall trees and is full of wildlife. First we spotted a small troop of Squirrel monkeys which were passing by, they were probably looking for juicy fruits for breakfast at this time of the day.
Soon after we spotted a couple of iguanas at the very top of the tallest tree, they were waiting for the sun rays to warm them up before they began looking for food, which mostly consists of leaves. We also had the opportunity to see some Red-capped Cardinals, Black- collared Hawks, parrots, jacanas, flycatchers, Greater Anis, and many species of herons—the sounds produced by these wild animals are amazing.
Right after breakfast we disembarked at Casual forest to look for poison frogs and snakes. The bright colors used by these animals is a self-defense only, and this hike in the rain forest is not dangerous for our nature lovers. We succeeded in finding a few of them: a vine snake (Imantodes sp), poison dart frogs, and lizards. This was great because we even had the opportunity to learn about this place and take great pictures as memories of this majestic place.
In the afternoon we boarded our skiffs one more time to embark on a completely new adventure, our first close encounter was with a Capped Heron. This bird allowed us to enjoy seeing the beautiful and bright colors of its feathers. Soon after, we spotted four Three-toed sloths feeding on the leaves of Cecropia trees. Amazon Kingfishers were relatively approachable this afternoon as well.
We also had the chance to talk for a few minutes with a local fisherman. He showed us his catch, it was a medium-size catfish, and he said it will be enough to feed his family of six.
Finally we entered a big open area with a lot of big trees and, due to the high water level for this time of the year, we explored some secret hidden places with our comfortable skiffs.
We finished our afternoon activities with a very elusive jungle sighting. An Anaconda snake seen just about six feet away from our guests! The huge snake was sleeping letting us to appreciate very carefully its unique colors and patterns on its skin.
What a wonderful day we had in the Amazon region.
