It is almost six in the evening and I just came back from our afternoon excursion. I am looking out the window and an exquisite sunset is adorning the already beautiful scenery. What happened to the day that made it go so fast? I guess it is true that when you have fun, time flies!
Earlier today, by six in the morning, I had already my cup of coffee and a group of early risers were heading out for their pre-breakfast kayaking outing. The peacefulness of the environment contradicts the very busy animal activity that one can find here at this time of the day. Both birds and mammals start their daily activities as soon as the light breaks through the dawn. It was no surprise to hear all the histories and to see how content our guests were from their early morning experience.
For the rest of us, the day adventure began shortly after breakfast, as we were exploring the river system known as Zapote. It was here we (besides experiencing the full hit of the morning sun in the Amazon) enjoyed a brief visit to a local village known by the same name as the river that surrounds it. Although all the villages along the river have to deal with the consequences of an ever-changing environment, the Zapote Village has a different history. Once upon a time, the first settlements of the village were building their houses on stilts by the main river, but an unexpected change on the river system isolated the village, leaving them far from what is nowadays the main river. Instead of abandoning the area, the villagers decided to build an entrance that can be accessed by boat during the high-water and by foot during the low-water. As a reward, the village now has “in its backyard” a nice lagoon where fish can be cultivated and secured for the hard times.
As we navigated by the houses, I couldn’t help but think that this village should be renamed as “the Venice of the Amazon!” Even the dogs have adapted, as they were either swimming or walking back and forth from one end to the other on floating logs to get some exercise!
Once on board, we repositioned the ship even further down the Ucayali River and into an area called Supay. This tributary had a serious of narrow entrances and wide lagoons, which were a delight to navigate. The afternoon heat was intense, but the river breeze helped bring it down and to make it bearable and even enjoyable. It was probably because of the heat that the animals were hidden in the dense forest vegetation, but we were lucky to find quite a few, even new species, for our sighting lists. Horned-Screamers, caciques, hawks, and a tarantula were among the animals we found during our ride, and for a great finale, the yellow crested brush-tailed rat, which was curiously observing us while perching “from its window” on a tree, as we explored some of the narrow creeks.
