This morning we woke up by the Iricahua Caño, where our first excursion of the day would be skiff explorations. After our traditional delicious breakfast, we got into the skiffs and sped across the main river and into the narrow canal of Iricahua. That is the one of the greatest things about traveling by ship—our floating home takes us to wherever we are going. As soon as we step out, we are already there!
Our skiffs proved ideal for navigating the meandering narrow canals of Iricahua, as always. Our skiff-drivers made it look easy, managing to make the sharp turns, and eluding branches, floating vegetation and submerged tree-trunks. Meanwhile, the naturalist were spotting and explaining the many things we saw along the way.
Soon the narrow canals and small bushes opened up into a much wider river and much taller trees, and things started to turn much more interesting. We spotted troops of saddled-baked tamarins, and squirrel monkeys, three-toed sloths, yellow-headed caracaras, great black hawks, black-collared hawks, and Amazon kingfishers. Somehow our naturalist spotted an elusive Yellow-crowned brush-tailed rat inside a little hole in a tree, that couldn’t resist looking back at us. But what really topped everything else today, and every other day for that matter, was awaiting high up in the tall trees where it lives. At the very pinnacle of the food chain, the top predator of the air, and one of the most sought out bird species among bird lovers… A harpy eagle! Considered by many to be one of the biggest birds of prey in the world, and definitely the biggest here! Unfortunately, it was too far away for a good photo, but the image will never leave our memories.
What an incredible day, indeed! This expedition has been so special, that maybe the only other thing that could top this, would be to spot a jaguar. We still have another day… Why not?
