Atun Poza & Pacaya River
This morning we had to change our plans a bit because we woke up with rain in the Amazon Basin. And, well, being in this region what else we could expect? Rain is very important for the survival of many species adapted to these conditions.
As it was raining the best decision was to have breakfast first and enjoy the view from our comfortable dinning room. The windows are big, which allow our guests to have a nice view every single meal we had on board the Delfin II.
It was exactly like we planned, the sky started to clear up and with a nice warm weather, we were boarding our skiff to go out, we wanted to see how the animals would behave once the rain was over.
Once we entered this narrow stream and spotted several birds of prey. One was a Laughing Falcon, which feed mostly on snakes, young caimans, and insects. The second raptor was a Hook-billed Kite, and the third one was a Roadside Hawk. The last one was the most common raptors in the area for is seen practically in every outing, the Black-collared Hawk.
We also had a chance to see a small troop of Squirrel Monkeys, probably they also had to change their plans, to camp first and then to go out to look for food as well, they were just so busy in getting fruits that they ignored us the whole time. This was not over yet because we also spotted three Monk Saki Monkeys, also looking for fruits for a late breakfast, too.
It was amazing because we learned some species of birds follow some troops of monkeys, because as they jump from branch to branch, they shake their leaves and insects are and easy prey for these birds, there is a mutual benefit for both species; when there is a bird of prey nearby, they will warn them of the danger. This is what we call a symbiotic relationship in between two species or more. It was a great morning adventure after all!
Early in the afternoon we took our skiff boats one more time, and this time with no stopping for almost an hour we got to a place, a big lagoon. This was the chance that everyone was waiting for. To swim and cool off in the Amazon region. As soon as we entered the river we were accompanied by many pink dolphins, we even had a chance to swim with them. After a quick refreshing dip, we started come back on board but this time looking for wildlife.
We saw lots of species out there such as: a tarantula, parrots, hoatzins, hawks, cormorants, swallows, terns, and lots of herons and egrets as well.
On our way back we stopped many times because there were many groups of Red Howler Monkeys everywhere.
After waking up this morning with rain, we had a great afternoon with a blue sky and a fantastic sunset to end a wonderful day here in the Upper Amazon.
