Belluda Caño/Yanallpa & Rio Dorado
Last night's rain storm made it slow going up the Ucayali River for our officers on the bridge, and added to that were plenty of brush and wood that had been washed off the banks and were floating mid-stream, making it quite an obstacle course. But our officers and helmsmen are good, with years of experience, so despite the thuds against the strong steel hull, we were doing fine at daybreak when we got into our skiffs to leave for our morning outing.
The skiffs are fast and stable, so we made good time and on reaching our destination, some folks went for a hike on shore in the flood-forest region of the Pacaya-Samiria Reserve, and others went by skiff up one of the narrow waterways we have gotten to love exploring. However before even getting to the narrow part, we had spotted some blue-and-yellow macaws feeding on the “Aguaje” palm fruits. Hanging precariously from a dead palm leaf, then flying to a neighboring tree, they have colors that are spectacular. Of a totally different nature, we also saw a flock of the unusual “hoatzins” - those birds with blue faces, a punk crest and rufus brown and yellow showy plumage.
Inside the “Caño”, saddle-backed tamarin monkeys gave us a show – a family of five doing a little early-morning group grooming. An antbird (as yet unidentified) was building its nest over the water in a low spindly shrub. Scarlet-crowned barbet and lemon-throated barbets were seen, festive parrots and a limpkin as well (rare sighting).
Back on board, breakfast was consumed with gusto, and mid-morning our executive chef, Isaac, arranged a demonstration for us on how to prepare “Juanes”, a very typical local dish made of some basic ingredients such as rice, eggs and chicken cooked in a large tropical leaf, then invited all other self-proclaimed chefs in our group to come try it for themselves! Minna, Nancy and Peter took up on the offer and did well...all Juanes were consumed at lunch. However before sitting down to yet another meal, we had time for a discussion on the “Ribereño culture” along the banks of the Amazon river and its tributaries. This was an opportunity to ask all the questions we had been accumulating about river lifestyles, governance and politics of the Amazon region.
By 3:30 pm we were on our way up the Rio Dorado. We had to push our way through a logjam at the mouth, but got through in good time, despite a couple of prop-cleaning sessions. A green iguana, herons and black-collared hawks were spotted right off the bat, but a sloth found early in the trip was excellent for its energetic climbing, and then a large troop of squirrel monkeys kept us riveted to our binoculars for a long time – huge leaps from tree to tree, a female carrying a baby, fruit harvesting and nectar-drinking from the tress/vines/shrubs...we had it all.
Limpkin, common pauraque on a branch, pygmy kingfisher, laughing falcon, short-tailed parrots, fishermen and their nets, camp-ground for fishermen, scarlet macaws overhead! Then finally young spectacled caimans hidden in the brush. A brief glimpse of a capybara by our naturalist by spotlight, rain, the red eyes of a common potoo as we approached the ship in the dark, log jam at the boarding area.
Dinner, a cake for a birthday (thank you Rebecca!), music from “The Teenagers”...and sleep.
