We began our exploration of the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve shortly after sunrise, as usual. After enjoying a cup of coffee and an early riser snack, we boarded the skiffs and headed into the Zapote River, one of the many tributaries of the Ucayali. The early morning outings are never disappointing and today’s was no exception. Although we continued to see black collared hawks, great black hawks, and the usual birds, which are quite abundant, we paid more attention to the smaller and more challenging birds. We saw plum throated cotingas, fruit crows, paradise tanagers, long billed wood creepers and small parakeets. Greater anis began their daily search for insects, while high up in the trees several species of woodpeckers and wood creepers looked for bugs in the bark as troops of squirrel monkeys went by.
During our exploration, we found a beautiful renaco tree to tie up our skiffs. The galley crew prepared a jungle breakfast for us. With more luxury that one would expect, we enjoyed breakfast surrounded by nature as we floated on the Zapote River.
After breakfast we continued to explore the Zapote River aboard the skiffs, adding several more species to our count, including more squirrel monkeys and chestnut fronted macaws.
During the afternoon the Delfín II arrived to the vicinity of the Supay River, where we spent a couple of hours exploring and searching for wildlife. Several species of parrots, like the short tailed parrot and the dusky parakeet, bare-necked fruit crows and black fronted nunbirds were some of the many birds that we watched along the shores of the Supay. But we found some mammals too, represented by seven three-toed sloths, the elusive Dusky titi monkeys and saddleback tamarins, plus some pink river dolphins as well. A gorgeous sunset with bright red clouds marked the end of our day and made for the perfect farewell of our last full day exploring the Peruvian Amazon.
