Amazon-Day IV.

2-6-13 RIO MARAÑÓN, PERÚ: The village of San Francisco sits on a hillside next to the river. We climbed up their hill surrounded by the villagers showing us their town. They have a primary and secondary school, lots of houses, typically with partially open sides and with either thatched roofs or corrugated tin. There’s a big missionary church at the top of the hill. The kids are on summer vacation, but we all went into a schoolroom where they sang us a song, and we gave them ‘Old MacDonald’ back. The boat naturalists donated school supplies and a soccer ball, partly from us.

After school, we all went back to the riverside where they had a market for local crafts and a Carnival celebration. Judy and I both made purchases. The hobbled Gardener was led in a slow dance around the May pole like-creation in the center of the market to the accompaniment of a local quartet and by a lovely young villager. After the dancing, the pole was chopped down for all the goodies hanging from the top, sort of a piñata moment.


Curious about us.

Group sing. The furniture is put away for the summer.

Dancing in the market place. That's the boat in back.

Goin' for the goodies.

Back on the boat, we continued down the Marañón to the point where it conjoins with the Río Ucayali to form the Amazon. At this point, it’s origin, the Amazon is huge, brown, turbulent and roaring and at least a mile across—massive. The moment was celebrated with Pisco Sours.


As we started up the Ucayali, one of the naturalists, all of whom were excellent, gave us a talk on the fruits of the region, the ones we had never heard of.


Recognize anything?

Some blue, a rarity.

Later in the afternoon, we went skiffing in a tributary, Cedro Caño, with the sun out, jungle heat and lots of SPF. There were monkeys, lizards, termite, ant and wasp nests, and a profusion of birds. The side river current was flowing upstream with the brown water for a mile or so before it changed to out flow with the black water.


Blue-and-yellow macaw.*

Yellow-hooded blackbird.

White-faced marsh tyrant.



After dinner the naturalists all talked about their bios and backgrounds. Three of them are local guys who still live in Iquitos. There was a movie about the Amazon basin seasonal flooding and about two of the biggest predators, otters and a huge lungfish, neither of which we ever saw.

Amazon-Day III.

2-5-13 RÍO MARAÑÓN, PERÚ: This morning we had a later start, 6:30, for breakfast, and then a short skiff ride to a private preserve, Amazon National Park. We had a boat ride around a big fishpond and a hike in the rain forest. On the way out there was a group of about twenty monkeys, squirrel monkeys, in the trees by the skiff landings. Back on the boat, we started down river.


Hiding under a log-Mr. Frog.

They're not a lot of showy flowers here, but this is one.

Squirrel monkeys move through the trees like squirrels, except in a big pack.

After lunch on the boat, we were tied to a riverside tree—they don’t use anchors, only trees, we saw lots of bird activity in the trees next to the boat and a lot of dolphin activity. The dolphins like the junction between the black and white water where tributaries dump into the main river. Fish have a problem of some sort with the transition and are easy prey for the dolphins. The pink dolphins have some gray, more when young and have a different dorsal fin than the gray dolphins that are also present in the basin.


Blue-gray tanager.

The afternoon skiff ride took us up the Nauta Caño tributary and, then a tertiary stream, for many birds, more squirrel monkeys, and a big green iguana.


Anyone??

Red-capped cardinal.

Black water river. What appear to be river banks are just more water in the wet season. Many times we boated through the woods.

Green iguana.

The sun is over the yardarm.

After dinner night walk showed us mostly bugs, but there was a tiny, nocturnal woodpecker, and, on the skiff going back to the boat, fishing bats that skim the surface of the river for fish. With all the flashlights off in the woods at night—very dark and very noisy.

Amazon-Day II

2-4-13 RÍO MARAÑÓN, PERÚ: Our LAN flight to Iquitos in eastern Peru on the Amazon river was an uneventful hop over the Andes to, probably, the only airport in the Peruvian jungle. Iquitos is a city of 600,000 that we did not see. We left the airport on the one road, two paved lanes, that goes to Nauta, a smaller city on the Río Marañón where our boat docks. People drive a vehicle that looks like a motorcycle with a passenger compartment, like a motorized pedicab.

We bused to Nauta, the sky was filled with a anvil shaped clouds and distant squalls, befitting the rainy season. Nauta showed up after dark and after a decent sunset. The last few miles were on unpaved road, a swamp of red mud. The bus actually got stuck in the mud for a few minutes. Embarkation on the Delfin II, finding our cabins, having dinner and an orientation followed before bed.

Every morning on the boat started with an early skiff ride because the animals and birds are active. At midday it’s too hot for anyone to do much, so there were late afternoon skiff rides also. Monday, the 6 AM skiff trip took us up a side river, at Casual, in moderately heavy rain, covered in ponchos and DEET. We saw tree sloths, a green iguana in a tree, a big lizard swimming toward us, lots of birds, and the rain forest itself. At 8, we were back to boat for breakfast.


The Río Marañón at dawn in the fog and rain. It is a big river with a discharge equal to both the Ohio and Missouri Rivers.

A side stream in the rain. The waterline on the trees indicates how deep the water will probably be in March at the height of the rainy season. The whole Amazon basin is flooded like a giant lake.

Tree with epiphytes and an ant nest.

Lizard, four feet long, speaks with forked tongue.

Wattled Jacanas walk, feed and nest on the floating vegetation.

After breakfast there was a walk in rain forest on a bit of dryish land with huge trees, lizards, frogs, a giant millipede, and then back for lunch when the crew were introduced. Lunch was disrupted by the appearance of pink dolphins who hung around boat for hours, perhaps six or eight, spotted first by keen eyed Judy.


Note that all-purpose tool. A Neapolitian in the backround.

The afternoon skiff ride went up a black water river to a lake. We saw an anaconda on the way at a small settlement, birds, a sloth, a toucan. The major rivers are turbulent and fast flowing, brown with a load of mud, and full of big debris, whole trees, big branches, hunks of floating land. The local folks refer to this water as white water and sometimes it looks whitish. The smaller tributaries have much slower flow and the water is called black water, probably because it’s black. Then back on boat for showers, beverages, and dinner while the crew took us further up Marañón.


This baby Anaconda was caught in a fish net. We got to see it before it was released.

Great Egret on the left and Snowy Egret.

Ringed Kingfisher.

Couvier's toucan from a distance-big schnoz.

Skiff adventure.

The mother ship.

Perúvian Amazon I.

2-13-13 SHORT HILLS: We’re back and have slept, showered and done the laundry, picked up the dogs, that was first, and are enjoying the snow, our eight inches of it. I will start to post the trip diary and pix, one day at a time, as I edit them.

2-3-13 LIMA, PERÚ: Our direct flight from EWR got us here on time. After customs and immigration, we were met by a rep from National Geographic/Lindblad [NGL], and when the group was assembled, walked us to the airport hotel, Ramada del Sol. This morning we had a bus tour of Lima going to Plaza Mayor, the main square, and a visit to a colonial mansion, Casa Aliaga, built in 1535 by Pizarro’s treasurer and still lived in by his family—gorgeous, with a central atrium and filled with antiques.

Lima is huge. It has nine million of the thirty million who live in Peru, and it extends for miles along the coast. We went across town to the Larco Herrera Museum in another colonial mansion displaying a collection of pre-Columbian art filling several rooms full of shelves. We lunched in their outdoor restaurant/garden before the trip back to the airport for the flight over the Andes to the Amazonian jungle and our riverboat. Did I mention our in-country flights are on LAN?

Lima is dry, with scant rain, but with water from its rivers carrying melt water from the Andean glaciers. The daily temps go from 80° to 70° at night.

Yesterday was Pisco Sour Day in Lima, it’s a daiquiri like drink from a local grape brandy and the Peruvian national cocktail.




Lima Plaza Mayor.

The entry to the Larco museum.

Clay bottles, there are thousands, many faces and animals.

Our guide Julia.

The museum restaurant comes complete with Pisco Sours.

Our first bird has a familiar look.

Cabin on the Delfin II.

EWR to LIM

2-2-13 NEWARK AIRPORT, NJ: We’re about to leave for our trip to the Peruvian Amazon, waiting for our flight to Lima where we meet the rest of the group, including Ken and Carol.

After a day in Lima, we fly over the Andes to western end of the Amazon and tour a large Peruvian park by riverboat. I doubt that there will be much Wi-Fi after Lima, so updates and pix will be uncommon at best. I will post when able.

Back to Winter.

1-31-13 SHORT HILLS: Yesterday was warm, the car said it was 61° in the afternoon. It was foggy all day as snow and ice were busy melting. I saw a perplexed flock of Canada geese standing on a frozen pond, they were almost hidden in the fog. I had seen, and heard, them flying around in their v-formation earlier in the day.

We went to the NJ Medical Club winter, social meeting last night and saw a bunch of old friends.

Last night there was a rain and wind storm, and it’s still windy this morning, but dry now and getting cold again. Tomorrow is predicted to be below freezing with snow flurries.

New blooms: snowdrop, partially open.


Canada Geese having a problem with hard water.

There's ice, fog and melt water.

Fog in the morning lasted all day.

Here's the snowdrop, almost open on January 31.

A Glimpse of Spring.

1-29-13 SHORT HILLS: It was warmer yesterday, even with a dusting of early morning snow, and quite warm today, springishly warm. I was outside with a light jacket, no gloves or winter hat. Tomorrow may hit sixty, even in the rain.

The big surprise, the huge surprise, was a Snowdrop popping up. We have one that always starts before the others, but this is unusually early. It’s not open, but it’s up, and the first flower is in bud.


Snowdrop is up, not open yet, but maybe in January?

Closer look.