Atun Poza Lake & Carocurahuayte Lake
We awoke again to a cloudy morning, which is a blessing here in the Amazon. All night we had been heading slowly back down to Iquitos on the Ucayali River. Our goal today was to cut through flooded forest to Atun Poza, a black water oxbow lake, to look for wildlife. We weren’t disappointed as we soon saw and heard troops of squirrel monkeys and watched ringed kingfishers, the largest in North America, and smaller Amazonian kingfishers flying back and forth across the river. Some were successful at catching fish and then beating them to death on the branch. This beating helps break up the fish and makes them easier to digest and swallow. The acid in the glandular stomachs of kingfishers is so strong that fish bones are completely dissolved and the birds don’t need to regurgitate these as owls do in pellets! Also passing overhead were large flocks of neotropic cormorants in V-formation heading out to their fishing grounds. Others were in the river fishing, and they float so low in the water because of the heaviness of having solid bones, they look a bit like the Loch Ness monster neck photos.
This morning we visited a woman in her dugout to see the fish she had caught. She had three huge different species of incredible looking catfish. Other than the whiskers, I wouldn’t have recognized them as catfish as they were so unusual. There are hundreds of different species of catfish in the Amazon. She had a red-tailed catfish, a “doncella” catfish, and a “maparate” catfish. Some of these we had even feasted on at dinners on Delfin II. Another fisherman was cooking breakfast over a fire in his dugout canoe while fishing! Since there is no solid land, he was cooking breakfast right inside his boat!
On our skiff ride home we stopped at a local village that was flooded because we are in high water season. We wanted to understand how the people adjust and live in a village during high water. The houses are all on stilts to accommodate the rising water. This year the water rose 33 feet, which is very high (normally 2-29’). This week alone we have seen it drop two feet as the flooded forests start to drain and the low-water season begins. Everyone lives on the house platform built on stilts and this platform must sometimes be raised as the water rises. Villagers get from house to house by paddling their dugouts as there is no exposed land and chickens and animals must live with them in their houses and on their platforms. This village had a number of dogs who were left swimming around from tree to trees to try and stay out of the water. Many families were cooking breakfast or relaxing in hammocks. Soon we a flotilla of boats had surrounded us with women and kids hoping to sell us necklaces made from rainforest seeds. School is closed for the 4-8 months during high water but will reopen in the low water season again. How amazing it is to see how your environment controls everything about your daily life. We are so far removed from this in our daily world.
This morning we saw many beautiful flowers and so we spent a lot of time photographing them. High water season is the time for the trees to flower and fruit and so there are a lot of flowers to enjoy and a lot of food for the animals. Since figs are keystone food species is the Amazon, we stopped and cut open one of the fruits to look at its unusual flowering strategy. Instead of the flowers being on the outside of the fruit, the flowers are small, inconspicuous white flowers clustered inside the fruit. Pollination occurs within each fig by it is own specific fig wasp! These key species fruit all year and so support 85% of the animals during seasons of low food. Pretty amazing!
After a great talk by Expedition Leader Carlos Romero on bats, we went off in our skiffs up to Carocurahuayte Lake to try our luck piranha fishing. There are many different types of piranha in the Amazon and many are fruit eaters. Our goal was the red-bellied piranha, and to ensure our success we used steak tenderloin for bait. However, despite our best fishing techniques, the piranhas repeatedly made off with our bait. We did have some success and the biggest piranha in our boat that was caught was a whopping 3 ½” long. Nonetheless, a great time was had by all. Our efforts made you appreciate how hard the villagers have to work to feed their families.
Dusk was descending so we once again turned our skiffs back to the Delfin II. This was our last night so we relished the night noises and birds returning to their roosts as we passed by. Once on the ship, we had a scrumptious farewell dinner followed by fantastic music played on local instruments by our ship staff. What a wonderful way to end a perfect day and trip to the incredible Amazon.
