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.