Early before sunrise, some of us gathered in the upper deck. From here we had a nice view of the colorful sunrise. On the shore, great egrets were lined up as if preparing them self for the roll call. We questioned ourselves, why were they there? The answer was soon going to be given.
Pink river dolphin began to approach the shore where the egrets were lined up. We came to understand that the great egrets were taking advantage of the pink dolphins’ hunting techniques. As the dolphin swam towards the shore, many fish would jump out of the way, avoiding getting caught by the dolphin; then, the egrets would catch any fish that would fall close to them. Easy way to get breakfast!
We loaded the skiff and went to explore the Pucate River. We passed several villages on our way. Even though it was early in the morning, already several families were busy in their morning duties. The little kids were excited to see us pass by, that they would wave to each of us.
Black collard hawks would perch close to the shore waiting for us to pass. Juvenile great black hawks would fly by looking for the best branch were they could look for their breakfast. Cormorants, egrets, herons and many other birds just concentrated on their breakfast while we passed next to them.
Seeing the birds feeding, eventually made us hungry. So we pulled aside. Our Captain with our bartender had followed us since we left the Delfin II in the morning bringing our breakfast. So in the middle of the river, we tied to a tree and had our delicious breakfast facing the river. Pink river dolphins also decided to hang around us to have their breakfast too. It was the best breakfast ever!
Back on board we repositioned Delfin II to our afternoon activity, Very near to San Regis community there is a little hut, home of Carola, a Shaman Cocama lady. We were invited to visit her and learn about the different medicinal plants that the ancient native people would use for their rituals and healing ceremonies. So right after lunch, we visited her. It was a very interesting visit. We left her hut after she gave us the blessing of the Amazon and wished us well in all our activities.
The rest of the afternoon we hiked the trails of the Amazon Natural Park. We had to cross a manmade lake in order to get to the entrance of the trail. While hiking we learned a lot about the forest of Tierra Firme. The park has hanging bridges that go parallel to the canopy. So it was great to have the idea of the view of the canopy dwellers.
It was dusk by the time we had finished crossing the bridges. Our naturalist turned on the flashlights and we had our night hike. The sounds had changed by then. We could identify the frogs, crickets and bats. It was just a great experience to see and hear how the life in the forest changes during the night.
