Morgan Heim, Naturalist/Certified Photo Instructor
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Daily Expedition
Reports
24 Jan 2020
Yanayaquillo Creek and Casual Forest, 1/24/2020, Delfin II
Aboard the
Delfin II
Amazon
Today Delfin II cruised the waters of the Marañon River. We explored two very unique places; in the morning we went searching for dolphins and managed to enter a very isolated oxbow lake in which water lettuce had covered the surface completely. In the afternoon we went for our special hike in the rainforest.
Socrates was raised on Santa Cruz Island located in the heart of Galapagos Archipelago. He had a childhood filled with swimming, scuba diving, rock climbing and volunteering in conservation projects, so it was natural for him to grow very passionate ...
Wildlife photojournalist and filmmaker Morgan (Mo) Heim raises a camera for one purpose – to capture moments in an animal’s life that will make us consider what that life means. Inevitably, those stories involve people as much as wildlife.
During our early skiff ride this morning we were treated to a special sighting of an animal endemic to the Pacaya-Samiria Reserve: Isabel’s saki monkey! We spotted a pair of them, eating breakfast right above our heads in perfect light. Cameras clicked and whirred as we watched and photographed these magnificent monkeys! After lunch some guests chose to explore the Dorado River by kayaks and paddleboards before leaving on a skiff ride. We explored through the sunset and into the night on our wild caiman adventure! Searching for glowing eyes in the dark, we spotted several spectacled and black caimans lying motionless on the surface of the river, seemingly posing for our cameras!
Our early outing this morning ended with sightings of a great variety of birds, and the beginning of a massive rainfall — which we managed to avoid entirely by the time we finished breakfast and were ready to go out again. We crossed Clavero Lake and entered a “shortcut” to the upper Ucayali that was exceedingly rich in birds and other wildlife. Delfin II was expecting us at the end of it, just when the morning was getting very hot. We sailed during lunch; in the afternoon we kayaked and explored another beautiful caño, to witness an even more spectacular concentration of wildlife and a terrific sunset.
We were up with the sun this morning and out for an exploratory skiff ride. It rained for most of the night but miraculously we didn’t see a drop of precipitation during our exploration. All the birds were drying themselves in the early morning sun! After breakfast we hiked on terra firma, one of the few places we can walk when the river levels are so high. We encountered quite a few critters, everything from a two-toed sloth to an Amazonian mata mata snapping turtle who had just laid a clutch of eggs and then buried them on high ground. Our afternoon was filled with more birds and even a few gray river dolphins playing in the confluence of the main Marañon River and the Pucate River. The dolphins were busy catching fish in the mixing black and brown waters of the two rivers. Time and again they surfaced, but never where we anticipated them to be, frustrating even the most seasoned photographers.
