Six in the morning and the gentle river breeze was already blowing on our faces. This morning we found ourselves exploring the upper part of the Zapote River in two different ways: kayaking and aboard our skiffs. Kayaking has been so great in this part of the world that we can’t get enough of this activity. Even this early, at least for us, there was already an overwhelming amount of birds flying above our heads.
The countless little creeks along the main river formed the perfect exploration areas for our kayaks. For a minute, you forget that you are in one of the most remote areas of the planet, but the sight of all the greenery and the giant trees emerging from the deep forest quickly brings you back to reality—for us traveling in this amazing part of the world.
Being surrounded by water, there is no better combination than these two choices to get the most out of this area. Our skiffs were then used to explore the rest of the morning, even deeper in the flooded forest. We not only concentrated on finding birds and other wildlife, but we even took the time to stop along the river and talk to the local fisherman returning home with their day catch. It was here in one of those encounters that a very nice fisherman proudly showed us one of his many findings: the infamous red piranha. We all rushed to take a good luck of the animal which, according to some movie producer, could easily devour a cow in a few minutes. Red piranhas are very common all along the Amazon River and its tributaries, and although they do not “devour” cows (at least not the healthy-live ones), they are predators, as their diet consists in other species of fish and some invertebrates.
Later in the morning we visited a nearby community known as Zapote village. It was great to see how people live in an area were flooded forest is all what you have. There are times where ground is visible, but that is not going to happen around this area until another month, at least. After visiting the community center where lots of local handicrafts were displayed (and bought), we all returned to our ship Delfin II to cool down a bit and enjoy lunch.
During the afternoon we navigated down the Ucayali River to a location known as Supay. The afternoon grew quite hot, so there was no better way to conduct our exploration of this part of the river than aboard our beloved skiffs. Our last afternoon on board the Delfin II was just as great as any other day on board, and the collection of thousands of images and memories is now all that we have to try to explain the wonderful experience we have had exploring the Upper Amazon!
