Today dawned bright and sunny; we enjoyed a delicious and bountiful breakfast, and afterwards gathered in the lounge for a presentation by Emira about the non-profit organization Minga Peru. We boarded the skiffs and headed up river to visit San Jorge village. The guides lead us up a steep cement stairway to the elementary school where we talked with the students and teachers. The kids shyly told us what they dreamed of being when they finished their schooling, and we told them what had been our professions.
We gathered in an open wooden building, sat on benches and enjoyed hearing short talks by several of the women community leaders about the various projects they are involved with. Then we had a chance for shopping – and we were delighted with all the lovely handicraft items made from naturally dyed palm fibers and wood that were displayed. We motored back to the boat, and the Captain headed downstream, navigating to the confluence of the Maranon and Ucayali Rivers. Around noon we reached the mighty Amazon River and toasted our arrival there with pisco sours. Those who wanted to try their hand at steering the Delfin II did so, as we headed up the Ucayali River where we will spend the next few days exploring in the Pacaya–Samiria National Reserve.
In the afternoon 12 of us skiffed ahead of the boat for a quick swim in Clavero Lake. We bravely dove into the still and refreshing black waters and floated with styrofoam noodles for support. We tried not to think of the caiman, piranhas and snakes that were swimming elsewhere in that same lake… And we had a great loud, laughing time!
Around 4 p.m. we headed out again in the three skiffs with our naturalists and motored across Clavero Lake to enter a series of narrow vegetation choked creeks. As we explored our sharp-eyed guide/driver teams spotted several sloths, numerous hawks, bright paradise tanagers, squirrel monkeys and Sandro found a pygmy marmoset! We sped thru the narrow creek as darkness fell, the bats came out, and we arrived back on board our comfortable boat with the last light of day.
