This morning we woke up to the sounds of the forest. The Delfin II had spent the night quietly docked at the river’s edge, tied to a large tree, at the confluence of the Marañon and Pucate Rivers.
As we all congregated by the coffee station on the upper deck of our ship, we couldn’t avoid listening to the loud chattering of many parrots and parakeets that also where just awakening in the nearby trees.
Our efforts to get to see the birds with our binoculars, inside the trees where they had spent the night, were fruitless. It was still dark, and the green birds blended perfectly with the green vegetation. The bird activity and ours went in crescendo, as the light increased, until suddenly, just as the dining room doors opened up, and we all headed down for breakfast, hundreds of birds in unison noisily exploded out of the forest in flight, in search of theirs.
After a delicious breakfast, we all jumped into our skiffs to explore the Pucate River. We had the choice today to explore by skiff, or by our own power in kayaks. Whatever our choice for exploring, we where all invariably escorted this morning by playful pink dolphins that teased us by loudly surfacing all around us, drawing our attention every which way. For the afternoon we visited the privately owned Amazon Park for a walk on suspension bridges through and over the forest canopy.
In all, today we had a great tropical rainforest experience, skiffs, kayaks, and walking inside and above the forest on suspension bridges. After dinner, we decided to also experience the forest at night, so we loaded our skiffs for an evening outing. A different set of creatures come to life at night, and although our sight was limited by the darkness, we experienced all the many mysterious calls of many frogs, insects and night birds.
Soothing sounds will surely accompany us during our dreams tonight, in the remote jungles of the Amazon.
