Yanayacu & Pucate Rivers, Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve
A knock on the door woke me this morning at 5:30am. It was expected, so not startling, and knowing what lay in store for me, I immediately got up, dressed and was out the door in a flash. I am here! In the Peruvian Amazon! Binoculars at the ready! In just a few minutes more, the skiff was going to leave with those who couldn't let a minute more pass by without going out to see what this mysterious rainforest would expose. Coffee mug in hand, I got into the skiff with the others, and off we went.
Immediately we had to stop for the pied lapwings, large-billed terns, yellow-billed terns, great egret, snowy egret, Cocoi heron, striated heron, ringed kingfisher, Amazon kingfisher, black-collared hawk, roadside hawk, wattled jacana, spotted sandpiper, black, yellow-headed and turkey vultures.
We didn't get far before breakfast beckoned, and the next time out—this time with everyone in the skiffs—we set off up the Yanayacu River, the third-largest river draining the reserve.
The Pacaya–Samiria National Reserve is one of the largest protected areas in Peru with an area of more than 2 million hectares (7,700 ml², 20,800 km² or the equivalent of the state of New Jersey!). It is also the largest protected seasonal flooded forest in South America. The reserve is made up of three hydrographical basins: the Samiria River drainage, the Pacaya River drainage and the Yanayacu-Pucate drainage which we were exploring today.
The reserve is delimited by the two big rivers of the Peruvian Amazon region: the Marañon River to the north and the Ucayali River to the south. It is at the junction of these two mighty rivers (the easternmost corner of the reserve) that the Amazon River is born and begins its journey of 1,926 miles / 3,100 kms to the Atlantic Ocean. When we landed in Iquitos airport, we were only 340 feet / 104 meters above sea level!
After breakfast we boarded the skiffs and sped up the Yanayacu River looking for wildlife. Monk saki monkeys, with their thick, hairy non-prehensile tails jumped from tree to tree, with the occasional stop-and-stare-at-the-humans in between; grizzled faces gave them an ancient, knowing look. Green iguanas rustled the grasses on the banks and parrots flew overhead on their way to their foraging grounds.
In the tropics, for those of you unfamiliar with the custom in hot, humid places around the world, it is assumed, planned, written in stone, that a siesta follows lunch...and when in Rome...
As it began to cool off a tad, in the afternoon we boarded once more the skiffs and explored the second major river draining this basin of the Reserve, the Pucate River. We've declared these rivers the headquarters for capped herons, because as nowhere else in the Reserve, these exotic and beautiful herons with blue faces and head plumes to die for, line the waterway the entire length of our journey both morning and afternoon.
Soon the sky darkened and the wind picked up and the forest quieted. Lightning! Thunder! I had just been mentioning my hopes that my traveling companions would get to experience a “real” Amazon rainstorm! It turned out to be a good trial run, poncho-practice, etc., but not the downpour we had thought was coming our way. But it will...it will...
Before dinner we made plans for the coming hours...a lunar eclipse at 2:30am!
