The Pacaya River is probably the healthiest ecosystem that we get to explore in the Pacaya-Samiria Reserve. This river certainly deserves a full day of its own. We departed the Delfin II on board our skiffs to explore the Pacaya River at 6:30 in the morning. At the entrance of the Pacaya, pink and gray river dolphins were abundant and very active. We spent some time looking at them, and the more ambitious made their best efforts to take a photograph of these elusive creatures.
As we traveled through the flat calm water, hundreds or maybe thousands of great egrets lined the trees and the aquatic vegetation. The Pacaya River seemed to explode with life!
Aside from the many red howler monkeys and birds that we saw, we had a glimpse of a world's largest rodent, the capybara, and two adult black caimans. We estimate the size of the caymans to be roughly four meters long! As a pertinent theme for the day, Carlos Navarro presented his lecture about crocodilians. Not only had we already seen two huge black caymans, and now we were prepared for the night caiman search.
After exploring the Pacaya River for second time and finding more wildlife, we stayed out until dark and our local guides took out their spotlights. Crocodilian's eyes shine red in the dark. The eyes of many other creatures ranging from spiders to birds and reptiles can be easily detected with a spotlight and experienced vision. Our guides found numerous spectacled or white caimans; mostly juveniles. Later on, on our way back, a third large black caiman was found. We had a glimpse of the reptilian beast, until it splashed in the water, leaving a powerful turbulence behind.
