Rio Marañon: San Isidro & Rio Yanayacu
Why not dive right in? We began our voyage this morning with a pre-breakfast exploration of an offshoot of the Marañon, Sapira Cocha. It takes time to calibrate one’s senses to this place. So much vegetation! So many sounds! Such strangeness! Waking up early and venturing forth is a wonderful way to start. The dawn chorus began as light broke, and we keyed our ears to parakeets and terns, black-collared hawks, and wattled jacanas. It was a pleasant task, to say the least.
After breakfast, our rubber boot sizes sorted, we set out to walk over ground that soon the river would claim: varzea forest. In the still, dim understory, we stood at the foot of trees with huge buttresses and marveled at the busy entanglement of vines. Our group split among different trails, some heading in from the Marañon itself and others retracing our way back up Sapira Cocha to test a new trail that local folks had blazed for us. It’s this spirit of exploration that drives adventures with Lindblad-National Geographic, and this one was a success.
We pulled the skiff along by hand into the shore, shifting our weight to get the steering console under a low tree branch. Aside from the phenomenal parades of leafcutter ants and the occasional ginormous centipede, we found many fist-sized apple snail shells and clusters of eggs laid three or four feet up the trunks of trees by the same snails. This, we decided upon seeing a trio of chestnut woodpeckers squabbling on a ceiba trunk, was a place to which we’d like to return.
Back aboard Delfin II, we showered off our insect repellent, refreshed ourselves, and gathered for a safety drill and orientation to the Pacaya-Samiria Reserve by Luis. Although this area of the river has been his haunt for many years, we were just arriving, and it was nice to be grounded in the place. After lunch, we revisited the morning’s sightings with the daily wildlife checklist, which will become a daily chance to share stories and memories throughout the trip.
The Yanayacu was our afternoon destination. The Delfin II pulled in to shore and tied off to a tree, and we watched pink and gray river dolphins work the confluence of the sediment-laden Marañon and the dark, tannin-rich Yanayacu. Surprisingly, we were even able to see a gray river dolphin leap entirely out of the water several times!
Setting out by skiff up the Yanayacu, we signed the guest book for the Pacaya-Samiria Reserve, and then keyed our eyes. A delightful surprise was the chance to witness a plain-breasted piculet busily excavating a home in a tree trunk. This tiny woodpecker is not often seen… and I can’t imagine it’s often seen as well and thoroughly as it was today. It was so keen on its work that everyone got a view.
It’s the surprises of travel that drive us to continue exploring. Who would think that a rat could be the highlight of the day? But peering from a small hole in a tree trunk was a yellow-crested brush-tailed rat, and no one could say it wasn’t adorable, to use a completely unscientific adjective. Adorable.
All afternoon, we dallied along the river, enjoying the sight of kids in their makeshift boats made from cracked water tanks, the yellow-rumped caciques flitting overhead, and even a view or two of the slowest and mellowest of rain forest creatures: the three-toed sloth.
Back aboard, we downloaded our photos, then gathered upstairs for a welcome aboard cocktail party and a chance to get to hear a little more about the backgrounds of our guides. Let me say, we are in good hands.
