It is our first morning in the Amazon and none of us needed the wake-up knock to get going. We were up at first light, anxious to see what this new place (that we arrived to in the dark) looked like. Beautiful. Lush. Green.
Our before breakfast skiff ride was our first introduction. We left the wider Marañon River and entered Pahuachiro Caño (or creek). Here we watched and heard the forest wakeup. The keen eyes of our naturalists detected sloths, monkeys, and birds at a distance that we sometimes had to look closely to find. The male wattled jacana guarding a nest and a green-backed trogon were two of the birding highlights.
We returned to find our breakfast waiting and had the opportunity to try delicious local fruits with names we had never heard (like camu camu and zapote, for example). Another food that grows abundantly here but is not eaten much in the United States is the plantain. Ripe and sweet or green and savory, both were fried and delicious alongside our eggs. Although some of us might have lingered over breakfast if given the chance, the day was warming up and the forest was calling.
Our first forest hike was in a place called Casual. We learned about local trees, medicinal uses, and about the rain forest in general. It was also our chance to see some of the smaller forest dwellers up close. Guides from the nearby community joined us and shared a plethora of small finds with us—tiny poison dart frogs, pink toed tarantulas, peach colored mushrooms, giant snails, and frogs that look like leaves were some of the highlights. Once back on board we had an introduction to the Amazon as well as to the Pacaya-Samiria Reserve that we will be exploring this week.
In the late afternoon we boarded our skiffs again for another excursion, this time into the the Yanayacu (which means black water) and the Pucate Rivers. Each group saw something different, but highlights included a palm snake swimming along the edge of the forest, limpkins carrying off freshwater snails the size of tennis balls, squirrel monkeys scampering around the trees, and many new and colorful birds. We ended our day by gathering in the lounge for a welcome pisco sour (Peru’s national drink) and an introduction to the expedition team. Just as it got dark, our moth friend, with kaleidoscope like patterns on it wings, that had spent the day in the lounge, left for its nighttime adventures.
