Nauta Caño & San Francisco Town
Waking up in the rain forest is a surreal experience. Since early in the morning a beautiful choir of marvelous sounds is heard all over. At 6:30am with our spirits and energies replenished we headed to explore with our fleet of skiffs a nearby seasonal black water creek known locally as “Caño Negro.” It was a successful pre-breakfast outing for we spotted once again a very large number of bird species that included several highlights like: raucous festive parrots, white-eared jacamar, black-fronted nunbird, huge horned screamers, colorful scarlet-crowned barbet and masked crimson tanager and elegant fork-tailed flycatchers.
The icing on the cake regarding bird watching in the morning was the sighting of the rare Amazonian umbrellabird (Cephalopterus ornatus). This bird species is amazing in many ways. It is a huge cotinga found in the Amazon humid forests. Male umbrella birds can reach 19 inches in length! Its large size is a key to identify this bird species in addition to its characteristic “Elvis Presley’s-like” crest and a long feathered wattle on breast.
Several species of monkeys were seen on this trip as well. A couple of squirrel monkey troops, some brown capuchin monkeys and a small but noisy saddle back tamarins’ troop. Squirrel monkeys (Saimiri scireus) are arboreal monkeys that move quickly, constantly and noisily in the middle and lower strata of the forests looking mainly for insects, an important part of their diet, and for ripe fruits of the flooded forests.
We came back at around 9:00am to the ship to have a great breakfast. During this time we enjoyed through the dining room windows the overwhelmingly beautiful curtain of vegetation while navigating on the Marañon River. At around 11:00 we were ready for our next activity; rendering a tribute to the Amazon River by swimming in its famous waters. Once on board we had a cocktail that was prepared with seven different liquors to celebrate such important occasion.
In the afternoon, after a mandatory nap' time some of us disembark on San Francisco community to go for a long hike on a “terra firme” walk. We spotted several new bird species for this week’s expedition, double toothed kite, blue headed manakin, blue cheeked jacamar and ant wren. Some guests opted to take a skiff ride instead. In both options we all had a great time.
The fun was not over yet, for after dinner we went for a night walk looking for night dwelling creatures.
We came back on board once again a little tired but with our hearts and minds fulfilled with new feelings, memories and impressions, so strong they will stay with us forever.
