Starting our day with a dawn skiff ride turned out to be quite rewarding. While still rubbing the sleep from our eyes we found a troupe of squirrel monkeys and a bit later a monk saki monkey. These findings were sandwiched in between a number of sightings of elegant and colorful birdlife. The capped heron was determined to be everyone’s favorite heron: a delicate bifurcating plume off the back of the head, creamy breast coloration and pale blue skin around a large dark eye. Lovely.
Back from our morning skiff ride we still had much to do, we were heading downstream on the Río Marañon and by lunchtime we were at a confluence to celebrate, the mighty Amazon River! With the national drink in hand, glasses were raised and pisco sours were consumed. We did a quick turn however; we still have a thorough investigation of the Pacaya-Samiria Nature Reserve to accomplish so up the Río Ucayali we started.
There is more than one way to see a river and we took all opportunities today, not only a morning skiff ride, but a late afternoon sunset one as well, and of course for the more intimate investigation, how about jumping into the river? We did that and thoroughly enjoyed the warmth of the Clavero Lake along with the swirl of muddy waters and the piranha jokes, which abounded. Coming back into our skiff we were greeted with warm towels and a bottle of Inca cola or amber bottles of Cusqueña beer. One more different perspective of the river was to be had, and that was by kayak. On Clavero Lake our intrepid kayakers enjoyed a lazy paddle along the forest edges. Thunderstorms boomed in the distance, but we all enjoyed an overcast afternoon that stayed dry on the topside.
We were not finished with the river yet, as it became a spectacular reflecting glass for the colors of sunset. With a glass of wine in one had, and the sky on fire ahead of us, we too became reflective of our experiences of today along the tributaries of the Amazon River.
