Our first day in the Amazon did not disappoint. Despite a long travel day yesterday we were up with the sun (and the birds) to go out in the skiffs for a before breakfast adventure. It is the perfect time of day to be on the water—cool temperatures, pretty lighting, and the wildlife is more active. This morning we saw many new bird species as well as two three-toed sloths!
After breakfast we explored a nearby trail to learn about these amazing forests. Today we hiked on terra firme, land that does not flood and is dry all year round. This is the exception to the rule here in the Pacaya-Samiria Reserve. Eighty-percent of the land here is flood forest or varzea. This means that for large portions of the year the water goes over the banks and floods into the forests, standing many feet deep in some places. Forest trees are adapted to this and a whole system thrives because of these floods.
Our hike today was a great introduction to these tropical forests. We learned about the thin, poor soils and fast nutrient cycling that takes place, as well as the incredible biodiversity that is found here. Our naturalists discussed many of the more common trees and their uses. Besides the trees, we also go introduced to some of the smaller creatures that live there. With us on the hike were two local gentlemen that would leave the trail, go off into the forest for 10 minutes and show back up with some interesting treasure. Tiny poison dart frogs, lizards that looked more like leaves, bird-eating tarantulas, and even a small red-tailed boa were miraculously found and brought for visits with us.
During the end of lunch as the ship was tying up at our new location many of us were happily distracted from our meals by our first pink river dolphin sightings. They really are pink! There were lots of them around the confluence of the Yanayacu and Marañon Rivers. Challenging to photograph but delightful to watch as they worked the area where the black water mixes with the muddy water.
This afternoon toward the end of the day we gathered in the skiffs to explore another creek. It had rained right before we went out which was a nice way to cool the temperature down a bit. The pink dolphins, still abundant, taunted us by appearing when our cameras were focused somewhere else. We also got to see the gray river dolphins, recognizable by their smaller size and triangular dorsal fin. Interesting birds were abundant and included the horned screamer, capped heron, vermillion flycatcher, dusky headed parakeet, great black hawk, great egrets, wattled jacanas, and a bat falcon. We also found another sloth. This one showed us the speed at which they move by climbing up higher into its cecropia tree. We felt like we were watching a movie that had been changed to slow motion!
