Today we had a relaxing morning and chance to catch up on our rest. Even though we were up at 5:30 a.m. and ready to go, the thick fog insisted we go back to bed. The river was barely visible from the ship, so birdwatching would never have worked. By 8:30 a.m. the sun had burned off the fog and we were off to explore the Belluda Caño. This was a lovely narrow creek that to some of us truly fit our vision of “jungle.” There was thick vegetation, lots of vines, large emergent trees with buttress roots sticking out of the canopy. Who knows what was lurking just beyond our view. It was also another good look into the flood forest. Here the river banks were still three feet above water level and the water marks on the trees were another 10 feet or more above that. But each week it rises more and more. In the next one to two months the river will take over the flood forests, not to recede until April or May. Here this is normal and all life – plants, trees, fish, forest animals and people are all adapted to it.
Today we also enjoyed many Thanksgiving Day birds. Most of our birds were for viewing. This morning we saw blue and yellow macaws at their nest trees, the hollowed out aguaje palms. We also watched soaring hawks and vultures take to the air to enjoy the morning thermals. Our eyes caught sight of a huge flock of large black and white birds enjoying the rising air columns too, but these were not raptors. Instead we were watching a group of 40+ wood storks gaining altitude – perhaps to find their next wetland. In the afternoon we saw the most comical looking bird of the trip, the prehistoric-looking hoatzin. Related to cuckoos, hoatzins have a blue face, red eye and 80’s punk style “hair-do.” They live in trees and nest over the water. The young are adapted to jump into the water if there is danger, and then have claws to help them climb back up into the tree.
Despite all the wonderful birds we saw today, perhaps our favorite was the most familiar one. When we arrived to dinner tonight we were surprised and delighted that our wonderful galley team had prepared a traditional Thanksgiving Dinner. None of us expected to be eating turkey in the middle of the Peruvian Amazon! It is such a gift to be able to travel to places like this. We are so grateful to be learning about this new place, meeting new people and making new friends.
