We started the first full day of our expedition this week visiting Clavero Lake — a very large black-water oxbow lake that has a few communities living along the shoreline. As soon as we entered the lake we spotted several birds, including different types of egrets, neotropical cormorants, kingfishers, and other birds of prey. After riding further in, we explored a shallow creek where we spotted more rainforest creatures like butterflies and bats.
In the afternoon we explored the Ucayali River shoreline in an area called Supay. The highlight of the afternoon for many of us was observing a couple of brown-throated sloths; these fascinating mammals have a very slow metabolism, and so they move very slowly as well. Just before sunset we returned to our ship. The day’s last rays of light ignited the sky with fiery oranges — it was a golden finale for our first full day of exploration in the Peruvian Upper Amazon.
