Atun Poza & Pacaya River, The Amazon
This morning we learned how to cook the Peruvian dish juanes from our assistant chef Isaias. We saw all the steps in a demonstration, and then several of us got to try our hand at assembling them. The juanes were then cooked for our lunch. Delicious. Now if we can only get all the delicious local fruits to grow in our yards, then we at least have a start on recreating our menu here. Though truth be told, this amazing cuisine with local foods and flavors is not something we could create easily at home.
After lunch we headed out for a long exploration of the Pacaya River, one of the namesakes of the Pacaya-Samiria Reserve that we have been exploring all week. It was a gorgeous afternoon, highlighted by excellent sightings. We saw and heard our first red howler monkeys. We also had excellent bird watching, especially with water birds like great egrets, large-billed terns, yellow-billed terns, Neotropic cormorants and horned screamers. Our skiff ride alternated from the river to “short-cuts” between the trees and among the water hyacinth. Our naturalists and drivers have an amazing ability to know where we are and how to wind across a flooded forest to a favorite blackwater lake.
The blackwater lake we went to today, Yanayacu, was our destination. Here the more amphibious among us jumped from our skiffs for a swim. The water was the perfect temperature, and the knowledge that we were sharing the lake with pink river dolphins made it that much better.
Our day wrapped up perfectly with another stunning sunset on the way back to Delfin II.
