Nahuapa River & Nauta Caño
Last night we traveled even further up the Marañon River to the junction of the Rio Tigre, which is the drainage for river systems coming out of the northern regions of the Peruvian Amazon. We were tied up to shore by midnight, and yes indeed, some of us got up at 2:30am and were rewarded by a clear sky and eclipsing moon! As we lay back on the top deck wooden-slat hammocks we could see Orion and Sirius, the dog-star, shining bright and getting brighter in comparison to the moon, which was slowly working its way into the earth's shadow. Through binoculars one could faintly see the orangey glow on the moon's surface, caused from the light refracted through the earth's atmosphere.
As usual, before breakfast there was the hard-core early-bird crowd waiting for our skiff to leave, some with coffee mugs in hand; we headed up the Tigre and into the Nahuapa River, scanning mainly the young islands, grassy-covered sandy islands which have short life-spans due to the vagaries of the river ebb and flow throughout the year. Here we saw a fair variety of representative species for this environment such as oriole black-birds, crested oropendolas, yellow-rumped caciques, blue-gray tanagers, smooth-billed anis, dusky-headed parakeets and the ever-present foraging black vultures–always an entertaining show, I confess.
After breakfast we once again took off in our excellent exploratory skiffs and investigated a small river off the Rio Tigre called the Nahuapa River. However, just at the corner we decided to ask a very nice older couple who owned their home up on the bank, if it would be all right to come and visit. The “ribereños,” or “river people,” who make their living along the banks of the rivers in the Amazon basin, are warm, welcoming people, and we soon found ourselves being invited into their yard, environs of the house and the house itself.
So much to learn and tell about! With the interpretation of our local naturalists and with the occasional translation, our guests saw what “yuca”/”manioc”/”cassava” is and saw the tuber dug out of the ground; we saw the making of sugar-cane juice using a home-made “juicer” (uses elbow grease to operate); saw a light bulb wired to a ceiling beam for decoration, as the home had no electricity; banana trees, papaya, the famous “Aguaje” palm, cocona bush (we have it as a morning juice on board at times)...bags of rice and corn were awaiting transportation downriver, the results of months of hard labor, ready to sell or barter for necessities such as kerosene, butter, matches, pots and machetes.
After the visit we cruised up the river looking for wildlife, the highlights being the spangled cotinga, plum-throated cotinga, Cuvier's toucan, chestnut-eared araçari, and another skiff met up with a woman and child fishing, so stopped for a brief chat before moving on. The inhabitants of the Amazon basin come in many forms, and we stop for them all!
Over lunch the Delfin II started on her journey down the Marañón River, riding with the current until we arrived at a small creek entrance on the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve side of the river. Called “Nauta Caño,” we entered into a different world; narrow, trees leaning over the canal, choked with water lettuce and water hyacinths. Black-collared hawks every few hundred meters chirred their notice of our passage; “tuki-tukis” (wattled jacanas) pranced over the floating plants; caracaras, both black and yellow-headed, and a bat falcon perched high. On this one stream, we spotted all five of the Amazon kingfishers living in the region: ringed, Amazon, green, green-and-rufous, and the jewel of all, the miniscule pygmy kingfisher who wasn't fazed in the least by our presence and sat for the photographers, alternating its profile left to right.
Squirrel monkeys put in an appearance as did a couple of sloths as the sun went down and the rainforest prepared for the night shift to take over. As we reached the main river, the fishing bats started cruising the surface of the water, faster than the skiff at full speed.
