We navigated last night on what it would be the longest navigation of the trip. This long journey brought us today to a marvelous location known as Magdalena River.
We started our morning with a skiff ride on this river and into its many small tributaries, all filled with great wildlife sightings. We were able to journey through areas that we don’t visit often, and observe the way the river changes the lives of the inhabitants of the small villages in the area. The Amazon River, as well as all its tributaries, naturally erodes away pieces of land during its powerful journey to the Atlantic. The villagers constantly have to relocate to new areas, as the river takes a new course year after year.
During our afternoon, we navigated into a black water river called El Dorado. The entrance of the river has been occupied by a group of people that moved away from a nearby land that doesn’t exist anymore. They survive in this paradise using the same techniques that the ancestors of this land did: hunting, gathering and fishing.
As for us, we enjoyed a marvelous ride into the flooded forest to explore and to photograph more wildlife. As the darkness fell upon us, caimans and other nocturnal animals emerged to fulfill the biological cycle in this blessed land. Naturalists, armed with powerful beam-lights, found us several caimans alongside the muddy river banks. Giant fishing bats glided gracefully by the skiffs as we sped by, disturbing the fish at the surface and quickly grabbing them right in front of our eyes! Several nocturnal birds, such as owls and the common potoo were perched on the trees waiting for their next prey to pass by. We were only able to detect them when noticing the reflection of their eyes against the powerful lights that we were carrying, but they quickly disappeared as we tried to approach them.
And so the life continues in the Amazon, and we motored back to our floating home, Delfin II, to be treated to a wonderful dinner; no hunting or gathering is needed on our daily life during this journey, just an incredible and dedicated crew, ready to give you the best experience they can possibly provide you with, during your stay in the mighty Amazon!
