This morning was sunny. The day started out warm, and the sunrise was spectacular. At eight o’clock, we took our skiffs to do a wildlife exploration along the riverbank. The first gift of the day was the monk saki monkey. These monkeys have bushy tails and inhabit the highest canopy to avoid jaguars, their main predator. Monk sakis are in danger of extinction due to the human activities that damage their habitats. We also found squirrel monkeys and a pygmy marmoset carrying an infant on its back in the hole of a tall tree trunk. We were lucky to spot a bald uakari monkey eating on the ground in one of the local communities. We also spotted many varieties of birds, trogons, jacamars, tanagers, cardinals, and kingfishers.
Our morning was very energetic with a lot of activity. We took hundreds of pictures of many kinds of flora and fauna. We also interacted with people, especially the hardworking fishermen.
In the afternoon, we walked on terra firma in search of a lagoon full of one of the most famous and well-known plants, Victoria regia. These lilies grow in small lagoons in the Amazon basin. Lily pads or water lilies provide shelter for aquatic and nonaquatic creatures, and they are a very important food source for beavers. We found many lilies flowering. Nearby, our paramedic found a baby sloth on the top of a cecropia tree. It was so cute, and it made our day!
On our way back to the Delfin II, we had a very nice celebration at the junction of the Ucayali and Marañon Rivers which form the majestic Amazon River. The Amazon is one of the largest and more complex ecosystems on our planet.
