Very early in the morning around 05:45, we went deep and far into the Pacaya River — the farthest destination we will visit on our expedition this week. A beautiful sunny day accompanied us during the whole exploration. At around 07:30 we had our breakfast outdoors under a big tree, with the company of a large troop of squirrel monkeys.
Later on, our three skiffs arrived at a large black-water oxbow lake called Yanayacu Lake. We stopped there momentarily to stretch our legs and use the toilet facilities at the Pacaya-Samiria Reserve Rangers’ Station. As we continued with our exploration, we had a brief but exciting observation of a family of giant river otters. We also had amazing sightings of many caiman alligators — some of the black caimans we saw were huge! We observed beautiful hoatzin birds as well. After a refreshing swim in Yanayacu Lake we returned to the ship.
In the afternoon we visited a sandbank in the Ucayali River, close to the El Dorado River. It was a lot of fun! We walked along the bank, enjoyed some cold drinks, and even had a mud therapy session. It was a long day of adventure, with all the wonderful ingredients of a memorable expedition.
