Casual & Yanacacu River
The expedition in the mighty Amazon started today with a rainy morning. After the rain stopped and just after breakfast, we went for a hike in a place known as Casual, which is maintained and protected by the nearby San Jose community.
Equipped with rubber boots and accompanied by three local native scouts from the community, we explored this beautiful “terra firme” rain forest trail. The latter term is a widespread word in Portuguese used to describe a forest that always remains dry during seasonal flooding.
We had two choices, a short walk or a longer hike. The Delfin II naturalists explained to us the fascinating dynamics of the tropical rain forests. We learned about the uses of some important tree species and observed and photographed several frog species, some of them very colorful, that our native scouts spotted for us.
Once back aboard we had a couple of introductory talks, one on the Amazon region and one on the Pacaya Samiria Reserve. Just after lunch we had the thrill to observe several pink river dolphins directly from the ship.
In the afternoon, the rain appeared once again reminding us that we are in one of the wettest ecosystems on Earth. A little later than usual, we waited for about half an hour for the rain to stop, we went to explore the Pucate River, which is a black water tributary of the Marañon River. The long, soft, and constant rain we had this afternoon is described by the locals as “guarmi lluvia,” which is a combination of Quechua and Spanish languages meaning “female rain” as opposed to a strong storm which is usually windy, explosive, and noisy. Despite of the rain, as rain forest animals are used to it and with the help of our “eagle eyes” drivers and naturalists we spotted many beautiful bird species.
Finally, late in the afternoon, at around six the rain stopped and we headed back to the ship. We observed a beautiful rainbow that marked the ending of our first full day of our expedition this week in the Peruvian Amazon onboard the Delfin II.
