The legend of Velluda is interesting: The indigenous people here believe in ghosts, and this place got its name from the spirit of a “hairy” woman, that used to be seen by locals. Velluda means hairy in Spanish. Although the name is unusual, this site is spectacular. We went began our exploration early this morning, before breakfast. We quickly found a tree covered by dozens of red-bellied macaws, and after few minutes of intense searching by our local guides, we spotted several blue and yellow macaws. These are beautiful birds, whose colors create a nice contrast with the inversion layer of the jungle at this time of the year. We also spotted some other bird species that are commonly found here, such as crimson crested woodpeckers, oropendolas and orioles.
Once we had returned to our ship, the galley staff offered us a delicious and nutritious breakfast, and afterwards we headed out again to continue our exploration of this magical place. It seemed that every step we took, a new creature was spotted, and the many sounds coming out of the jungle were fascinating. Some vultures and hawks were seen resting on the top of the trees; on the branch of a low tree, we found caiman lizards warming up quietly; several steps later, we found some bats lining up along a tree trunk, perfectly camouflaged. The highlight of the morning was a very small group of night monkeys resting in a big hole of a wide tree; everyone was so excited to catch a glimpse of these tiny animals.
Later in the afternoon we moved to El Dorado, which is a secondary river that feeds into the main river, the Ucayali. We loaded our skiffs to explore all of the narrow branches of this river, which are filled with wildlife. Immediately at the entrance, we were greeted by egrets and pink dolphins. The animal sightings just got better from there, and many birds, reptiles and mammals were seen.
Our three main goals for this excursion were: First, to fish a piranha, second, to find nocturnal creatures and third to find a very uncommon animal. We were not disappointed! We found our piranha first, and shortly afterwards we spotted a couple of hoatzins nesting—we saw its little chick. Finally, just at dusk, we found several nocturnal caimans in the water. Mission accomplished!
At about 7:15 pm we came back on board. The moon and starts were shining brightly, the night was very calm, but we were not! We were very happy and noisy, celebrating a very successful day in this emerald jungle paradise that is the Amazon Rainforest.
