Our expedition in the Upper Amazon started with an early morning outing to a place known as Pahuachiro Caño. It was here where we were first exposed not only to the beauty, but to the extreme biodiversity of the Amazonian ecosystem. Our ship, the Delfin II, is equipped with skiffs able to penetrate the intricate, narrow river systems of the area.
After our first outing, we were able to understand what a Varzea forest is. This type of forest remains for the most part, immersed in water all year-round, making each of the species found here unique. As you can imagine, a healthy forest ecosystem will be full of bird species, and indeed we were able to find and observe some of the species frequently found along the river. Some of us were lucky enough to find a small troop of squirrel monkeys, who were actively foraging.
As the morning progressed, and once we were fed with a proper, rather delicious breakfast on board, we headed to visit a nearby trail known as Casual.
Walking among some ancient trees and learning about some of their medicinal uses was among the highlights of the morning, but the big surprise was seeing some of the locals come out of the forest to show us some animals that otherwise we would not have been able to see. Poison dart frogs, tarantulas and even snakes were among some of their findings, and the “hunters” were all proud of being able to show them to us. After many pictures, they were release back in the forest where they belong.
As for our afternoon, we dedicated a couple of hours exploring the Yanayacu-Pucate River system, which gave us many more bird species to our list. The landscape was nothing less than magnificent, but improved even more with the frequent sight of pink river dolphins cruising along. Not a bad first day exploring the Upper Amazon!
