Supay and Belluda Caños and Rio Dorado
During the night we glided along smoothly, navigating first south and east on the wide, rushing Marañon, and soon turning up the Ucayali River whose source is in the Andes beyond Machu Picchu and the Urubamba Valley. While we slept comfortably, the captain and helmsman took turns at the wheel and used the ship’s spotlight to avoid logs and small clumps of vegetation as we travelled upriver; we scarcely noticed when the crew tied up to a tree along the riverbank at 4:45 a.m. We had traveled some 50 miles at an average speed of 5 knots.
“Knock, knock” on the cabin door came at 6:00 a.m. and we boarded the skiffs at 6:30 a.m. On this perfect, cool and cloudy morning, we went in search of wildlife up the Supay Caño (Creek). Birds, because they are bright, even gaudy, loud, often gregarious, numerous and easy to spot, are what one sees the most of from the rivers in the rain forest. This morning we saw many different species: terns, flycatchers, jacanas, hawks, kites, egrets, herons, macaws, and parakeets to name only a few of the groups that were spotted in an hour’s skiff ride. Huge green tree iguanas were observed in the tree tops, some of us watched a sloth climb ever-so-slowly down a tree trunk until it was out of our view, and for some the early morning highlight were leaping and chattering squirrel monkeys.
Ten of our guests paddled quietly along in our double river kayaks; they poked under the riverside vegetation and explored much as the locals will do in their dugout canoes. It was a thrill to be seeing the flooded forest with such intimacy, and although we could not identify every species sighted and every exotic bird song we heard, it was an amazing experience.
Back on the Delfin II we had a fabulous breakfast while the ship moved further up the Ucayali River. We boarded the skiffs again and motored across to the northern bank, entered into and motored slowly up the narrow Belluda Caño. Naturalists Jesus, Rudy, and Luis pointed out morning glories, passion fruit, and guava flowers. They spied termite, wasp, ant, and stingless honey bee nests. We found a lazy caiman lizard sunning out over the stream on a broken branch and a group of sleepy night owl monkeys cuddling in the hollow of a tree. Several pairs of monk sakis—large, dark, heavily furred monkeys with fat wide fluffy tails—leapt high up in the trees. One male shook the branches and growled at us in a territorial challenge. We all had a fantastic view of these rare and previously endangered species of primates. A true highlight of the day was the unusual sighting of a young brown three-toed sloth female with a baby. It was very close to the skiffs therefore we had a wonderful intimate view.
During lunch and siesta the Delfin II traveled 30 miles west up the Ucayali and tied up at the mouth of the Rio Dorado. We boarded the skiffs to explore this river system that flows out of the Pacaya-Samiria Reserve. We navigated in the river and along a flooded dark water lagoon beside the river. This afternoon we saw our first giant Victoria regia lily pads, many horned screamers that were both loud and large, brilliantly colored blue and yellow macaws, amazingly camouflaged giant potoos and everyone got great looks at several three-toed sloths. Howler monkeys could be heard in the distance and after sunset, using a spotlight to search for wildlife, we located small spectacled caiman and many large fishing bats.
