Peru: Amazon – Delfin 1 – Day 2

October 17, 2017

Nauta Caño Creek is known for squirrel and silver back tamarillo monkeys, birds, dolphins and sloths. We skimmed the riverbanks for small caimans and spiders, as well as insects of all colours, shapes and sizes. The walk at Fundo Casual jungle trail will took us deep into the rainforest on terra firme where the guide pointed out the dynamic creatures and vegetation of the Amazon. It is unbelievable how every step reveals something along the way. Almost definitely (! - lol!)) anaconda, rainbow boas, tarantulas, poison frogs and most recently, porcupines have been spotted. This is one of the very few places in the Pacaya Samiria National Reserve Amazon Rainforest where one can spot the ever so elusive two-toed sloth. This National Reserve is a vast area of Amazonian jungle and floodable forest in northeastern Peru, bordered by the Marañón and Ucayali rivers. Known for its biodiversity, it shelters animals from pink dolphins to spider monkeys and giant South American turtles. It's also home to hundreds of bird species, like colourful macaws.

We were up at 7.30am and enjoyed a breakfast of fruit salad and poached egg. Boarded a skiff and headed off for a jungle walk.

Amazingly enough (in a cynical tone!) we saw in very quick succession: 1) an anaconda in the water (and it was shedding it skin – which means it would never ever be in the water as this hinders the ability to shed! 2) a HUGE tarantula 3) a very wet and bedraggled, long nailed and smiley sloth 4) Leaf Frog plus many little poison dart frogs (which was actually very exciting as unlikely that they had been pre-captured given at how nifty they were!). I should not have watched countless You Tube clips of this cruise prior to departure as perhaps then I would have been equally enchanted by our immense luck in spotting all this wildlife and right on our path! 🙂 I shouldn’t have told Tony and Nessy as they genuinely seemed quite disappointed.

The flora was also diverse with huge buttressed trees, spiky trunks and interesting fungi as well as other interesting reptiles and insetcs.

Paul bought a dried piranha fish and then we headed back to the boat where enjoyed our cabin sitting in the plunge pool and enjoying the Amazonian scenery and listening to the varied bird calls as we floated by. Spotted river dolphins which was exciting!

River life continued unperturbed by our presence.

Lunch was delicious … and all while watching the dolphins sparkling in the water next too us!

The bird life was also spectacular!

So excited to a Hoatzin – sorry about the blurry pic!

Sleeping bats were really well camouflaged on the tree trunks.

A sloth! (Wild this time!). It really felt like we were in a David Attenborough documentary – Magnificent!

After lunch Tony jumped in the river so I joined him. We were quite surprised at how strong the current was!! It was amazing to see the dolphins swimming right next to us!The crew had a moment of panic when they saw us in the water and sent a boat out to collect us! The areas of black water were as hot as a bath! But there were also cold currents – very interesting…. and another wonderful experience in the Amazon!

Chilled and the boys played backgammon.

Had a snooze and then at 3pm headed off for our excursion to a village.

Spotted a capybara as we disembarked.

Adorable girl brought us flowers.

We walked around and watched daily life going by. Paul and Tony played football with the children which they absolutely loved! I bought a little necklace and a kalabash from the girls. They were so warm and welcoming.

The kayaks were ready for us to hop into so that we could kayak back to Delfin 1 from the Village. Absolutely stunning experience with pink river dolphins all around us and taking a curious look until the sun started setting and we reached the boat. Magical memories in the making.

Back on board we had a quick shower and headed to the bar for Pisco Sour making lessons – lively music and great fun!

Lots of fun had by everyone including the American couple! (Sadly the other couple had not been anywhere to be seen following the copious amounts of red wine consumed the previous night!).