Last night we traveled up river into the Ucayali. Before embarking to spend the night, we waited for darkness to come to look for elusive caymans. We saw several of them by finding their red eyes reflect the beam of our spotlight. Caymans are very difficult to find during the day, but at night, with the aid of a powerful lamp and the well-trained eyes of our guides, it is quite easy.
The jungles here seem higher and wildlife is richer as well. Early today, during our morning skiff rides, a good number of birds were seen. Scanning and carefully observing the ecotone between river and jungle can find a number of animals. At first glance there are just a handful of birds, but looking closer we found three toed sloths feeding on Cecropia leaves, festive Amazon parrots vocalizing high on the canopy, crane hawks, different species of brightly colored tanagers, and many others.
We traveled through Zapote Caño, a tributary of the Ucayali. On the riverside, we visited a small village that was built over an area that floods almost in its totality during three months of the year. Wooden houses with chambira palm roofs are built on stilts. After that we navigated up the Pacaya River, where we saw red howler monkeys, squirrel monkeys, hoatzins, pink river dolphins and other interesting creatures. We had some fairly strong rain during our outing, but it was not long lasting. After the rain stopped, the day got stunningly beautiful. We took advantage of this by going for a swim! The water was warm and pleasant and we had great fun as river dolphins emerged here and there just a few meters away from us.
