Casual Forest and Amazonas Community, 9/21/2024, Delfin II
Aboard the
Delfin II
Amazon
Our last full day in the Amazon rainforest was full of great surprises. We started the day with a walk in the forest where we found incredible wildlife, and finished with a heartwarming visit to a beautiful community called Amazonas.
Anahí grew up in a small house by the beach in the Galápagos Islands. Along with her best friend, she used to wander during the days around mangrove trees, becoming a different animal every day. She used to camp on solitary beaches, snorkel with shar...
Leaving Delfin II at 06:00 for our morning skiff ride, we explored the Marayali River, a river that bisects the Pacaya-Samiria National Park. Coppery titi monkeys and a plethora of birdlife rewarded our efforts. After a scrumptious breakfast, we visited the village of Amazonas to see how local people live and flourish along the mighty Amazon River. In this community of people, there is a very strong presence from Minga Peru, an NGO that empowers women to create artisan crafts as well as manage fish farms to raise fish for sale. Our day was topped off with a cruise along Piranha Creek which emptied into the Ucayali River. Going downstream we met up at the junction with the Marañon River, the very beginning of the mighty Amazon River! We stopped and raised a glass to this amazing river!
Today we explored the truly wild Pacaya River, the furthest river from civilization on our expedition, which took us deep into the Pacaya-Samiria Reserve. In order to go as far and for as long as we could, we started early and had breakfast at the “Jungle Café” while birds, amphibians, weird insects, and monkeys kept us entertained. Later, some of us took the opportunity to jump into Amazonian waters for a swim before going back onboard for a well-earned lunch. We changed locations, now sailing fast down the Ucayali for an afternoon of kayaking and more exploration.
Up early once again this morning, and this time we were treated to a plethora of monkeys on our early skiff ride. We started with saddle-back tamarins and then we found Isabel’s saki monkeys, endemic to this part of the Pacaya-Samiria Reserve! With their beautiful fluffy tails, they ate breakfast right above us in the canopy! After lunch, some guests chose to explore the Dorado River by kayak before leaving on a skiff ride, extending past sunset into the dark on our wild caiman adventure! Looking for the reptile’s glowing eyes in the dark with our powerful spotlights, we found several that allowed us to get up close and personal views of them. In these high-water conditions, it was truly a treat to find and photograph these magnificent creatures!
