Last night, the Delfin II sailed throughout most of the night to reach our destination for this morning. Our goal was to make our way deeper into the forest, and even further away from civilization, to the beautiful Yanayacu lagoon.
After our traditionally magnificent breakfast of every morning, we all got into our skiffs to speed away into the Pacaya River. In true expedition fashion, as the skiffs maneuvered into the meandering narrow canals, our naturalists in front had to cut our way through with machetes on several occasions.
On the wider sections of the river the scenery was truly breath-taking. The sky was an intense blue with dark storm clouds in the distance. The area was like a flooded Water-World, with black mirror-like tannin-rich water, that contrasted with the patches of leafless, white-barked trees.
Once we reached Yanayacu lagoon, we had the opportunity to jump into the water to refresh ourselves, and swim among several pink river dolphins, that kept briefly and suddenly surfacing around us, popping out of the water and exhaling loudly. Sometimes the dolphins exhaled so loudly that it made us wonder, if they were somehow annoyed with our presence, or perhaps just curious about our happy group sharing the lake with them. For sure, the refreshing swim, and the cold beer we had at Yanayacu, hit the spot! Soon we were ready to head back, leaving behind Yanayacu for the dolphins to reclaim.
For the late afternoon, we repositioned to el Dorado to explore some more. As we returned from el Dorado at dusk, our expert naturalists searched the rivers edge for wildlife, with the aid of strong spotlights. After a bit of searching, several caimans where spotted hiding among the floating vegetation, and our spotlights reflected off of their glowing eyes. We returned to the Delfin II just in time for a superb dinner, and to toast to another great day at the Amazon.
