A full day of our exploration of the Pacaya Samiria Reserve in the Upper Amazon of Peru took us to two remote locations, “Belluda Caño” in the morning and “El Dorado River” in the afternoon.
A beautiful calm and relatively cool morning opened our expedition today. We departed the ship very early, at around 6:00 AM. The early hours of the day are the best to spot wildlife, and we were fortunate for we saw a lot! Many bird species including red-bellied macaws, herons and birds of prey were seen. We were lucky to find saddleback tamarins and monk saki monkeys as well. After breakfast, we had a talk about the primates of the reserve, one of my favorite subjects, and we had a presentation about Amazon medicinal plants.
In the afternoon, after kayaking, we explored the El Dorado River. We explored the area using the ship’s skiffs, a great way to search for wildlife since our skillful drivers can access very narrow passages, inner lagoons and creeks we wouldn’t have access to otherwise.
We had plenty of time to explore far into this beautiful river. The late hours are prime time as well to observe the extraordinary biodiversity that inhabits the rainforests. During this expedition, we had a lot of amazing sightings including that of juvenile spectacled and black caimans on the way back to the ship as the night was falling in the rainforest.
