The early hours of the day are among the best for spotting wildlife in the rain forest. Today we continued with our expedition in the Upper Amazon in Peru with an early pre-breakfast skiff ride along the Marayali Caño. This black water stream was as its best today for we saw many new bird species to add to our weekly wildlife list. We saw a couple of squirrel monkey troops as well.
Once back aboard and after a superb breakfast we visited San Francisco community. This picturesque town is located very near the confluence of the Ucayali and Marañon Rivers—it is simply wonderful. For a couple of hours we watched and experienced how people live nowadays in the Amazon. One of the highlights of this cultural visit is a very informal encounter with members of this community who are beneficiaries of Minga Peru. The latter is the organization that Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic chose to help using the Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic Joint Fund for Conservation and Research (LEX-NG Fund) in the Upper Amazon in Peru.
Minga Peru is a non-profit organization, founded in 1998, that has as a mission the promotion of social justice and human dignity for women and families in the remote rural areas of the Peruvian Amazon. They have been developing various projects in the area. Educational workshops focused on the protection of the environment and the development of leaders. Radio programming twice a week reaching more than 100,000 inhabitants focusing on the prevention of domestic violence, management of natural resources, and health issues has become a popular way to reach the remotest communities in the area. The technical training of community members, especially women, in agroforestry, crop cultivation, and the construction and management of fishponds has proven to be invaluable in increasing the economical sustainability of many people.
We visited the local school as well. Children greeted us with songs in Spanish and our guests replied with a couple of songs in English. We visited the community’s beautifully organized handcrafts market before returning to the ship for our next activity of the day.
At around midday we had a very special celebration. The ship was located in the famous confluence of the Marañon and Ucayali Rivers, geographical place where the Amazon River takes its name. We toasted this important event with “cucchuazo,” a local Amazon drink!
In the early afternoon we had a photo talk on composition with our photo instructor Aura Banda. Right after the talk was over we went to swim in Clavero Lake. We came back to the ship just in time to continue with the rest of the activities planned for the afternoon, kayaking and skiff riding.
After dinner we watched a nature documentary entitled Amazon, River of the Sun that gave us a broader understanding of the annual changes between the dry and wet seasons in the Amazon Basin and the adaptations of the Amazon inhabitants to such dramatic changes.
This day has been a great expedition experience with many ingredients that made us feel part of the Amazon rain forest and its complexity.
