How do you fill your first full day in the Amazon Basin? Start early with the cooler temperatures and enjoy the chatter and clatter of kingfishers flying riverside as you navigate in our comfortable and efficient skiffs. Our highlights this morning were varied and colorful. Amazon kingfishers, green kingfisher, Cocoi heron, Roadside hawk, black-fronted nunbird, and yellow-headed caracaras were sprinkled generously about the vegetation. While we admired the crimson hat worn by a red-capped cardinal, it was outdone by the kaleidoscope of colors worn by the lemon-throated barbet sitting nearby. Absolutely stunning on both accounts.
After breakfast we went for our first walk in the forest. Local guides added to our sightings and brought forth a plethora of hidden rain forest treasures including poison dart frogs, tarantulas, lizards mimicking leaves, and a magnificent anaconda. Flitting effortlessly about the forest were butterflies, their wings reminded us of intricately patterned stained glass windows.
What could possibly be left for an afternoon? Another skiff ride along the Yanayacu, a Quechua word for black water, brought us into the realm of mammals. The sound of a somewhat rude raspberry from the water made us turn our heads towards a group of pink river dolphins. What fun to experience dolphins so many thousands of miles from the sea. Our guides sharp eyes soon focused on a small group of brown-mantled tamarins, the tamarins looked like they were auditioning for the “Got Milk” ad, as they wear a permanent furry “milk” moustache. Continuing with the mammal theme, we spotted a brown-throated (three-toed) sloth. Its unusual silhouette aided its discovery as it half dangled from a cecropia tree, it soon gathered itself up and became an amorphous blob in the treetop.
Our day ended with another sloth sighting, but the best possible kind of sloth sighting, a mother with her baby sloth clinging tightly to her midriff. Perhaps a face only a mother could love, but the sweetness of babies always makes you go a little mushy inside.
A stunning sunset capped a fruitful day of discovery as we headed back to our mother ship. This evening we’ll continue our navigation and tomorrow start new investigations of the tributaries of the upper Amazon River.
