Right after a delicious breakfast we loaded the skiffs. We had the desire to explore the Ucayali River looking for macaws and later hike a trail of the Varzea forest. It was an overcast morning and a gentle fog covered most of the area.
On our way to the entrance of the trail, we explored part of the riverside. We could hear a peculiar call. As we got closer, we could identify the origin of the calls. A flock of red bellied macaws were all perched together and allowed us to have a very close look at them. In the distance we recognized a different species of macaws. These had gorgeous blue and yellow colored feathers. Bigger in size, these macaws are known as “blue and yellow” macaws. Not that difficult to understand why they are called this! What a great start to the day!
Once on the trail, we were also attracted by a similar call. We got closer to the origin of the sound and to our surprise, we saw another species of macaws, the unmistakable scarlet macaws. Four of them were perched on a huge fig tree and the red color of their feathers were easily spotted among the green leaves.
We continued enjoying our hike through the varzea forest, learning a lot about how the trees manage to survive so many months underwater without spoiling. We ran into a tree that had a big hole in the trunk. We stared for a while at the tree and little by little, four little heads began to appear inside the hole. We had found a family of noisy night monkeys. What a treat! An excellent morning too!
Back on board, we navigated towards our afternoon destination, Dorado River. We couldn’t wait. We planned to explore after dusk, with a big spotlight. The main idea was to look for spectacle caimans and black caimans.
A big diversity of birds were spotted before dusk. Ringed kingfisher, green kingfisher, cocoi herons, black fronted nunbirds, red capped cardinals and many other displayed their behavior as we passed by. Squirrel monkeys and brown capuchins monkeys were also easily seen from the skiffs.
As the sun began to set, the spotlights were turned on. Red little eyes could be seen from a distance. Spectacle caimans began to take over the lake. From small ones to mature ones, each guest saw so many! Besides reptiles, we also enjoyed the presence of other species of birds like the black fronted nunbird, boat billed night herons, common parauque and many others.
It has been another excellent day here in the Upper Amazon!
