The first day of our expedition through the Peruvian Amazon started with a wake-up knock at 5:30 in the morning. In order to take full advantage of the best time of the day, we started out by embarking the skiffs at 6:00 to explore one of the many tributaries of the Marañón River; Pahuachiro Caño.

The first iconic creatures of the Amazon that we encountered, were the two species of river dolphins. As soon as we left Delfin II, we noticed the splashing on the water’s surface. We realized that there were several gray and pink river dolphins catching fish in the sediment-rich water of the river.

We entered Pahuachiro, where our guides quickly found the first three-toed sloth. In fact, it was a mother and a baby that were taking a nap way up on a leafless tree. After that, we had many sightings of interesting birds like yellow-headed caracaras, cream-colored woodpeckers, long-billed woodcreepers, short-tailed parrots and black-fronted nunbirds, among many others. We also saw a small troop of squirrel monkeys and had a very nice sighting of monk saki monkeys.

We came back on board for breakfast and headed back out for a jungle walk. We visited a terra firme trail, called Casual. Here, a couple of local villagers helped us to find poison dart frogs, a boa constrictor, a young green anaconda, and a very close three-toed sloth! We also learned about jungle ecology and interactions between the living creatures of the most diverse terrestrial environment on Earth.

Our destination for the afternoon was Yanayacu River, another amazing tributary of the Marañón River. This river is black tannin-rich water, with very little sediments. It reassembles a very dark black tea! We also had a very pleasant evening, with lots of wildlife and beautiful light.

We came back to the ship for a wonderful dinner, which was followed by live music. Our dining room crew happen to be amazing musicians, who played traditional Peruvian music for us. We ended the day on a wonderful note and went to bed early in preparation for tomorrow’s early outings.