The Delfín II spent most of the night underway sailing the Ucayali River. We woke up early to take advantage of the pleasant temperature and better light for experiencing the jungle. We cruised in search for wildlife, and our first exciting finding was a nesting area for (Ara ararauna) blue-and-yellow macaws! These magnificent birds make the tropical rain forest come alive with their bright colors and their loud calls. Like most parrot species, they are monogamous and are commonly seen flying in distinctive pairs, even within a larger group. The same area of tall dead palms, also offers good nesting sites for the abundant red-bellied macaws, (Orthopsittaca manilata).
We continued sailing through the Amazonian wilderness to find myriads of species. Just to mention a few, we found two species of primates: Saddled tamarins and night owl monkeys. We saw more birds than could be mentioned in this short Daily Expedition Report, but many of them do deserve to be part of it. With the invaluable help of our local guides, we saw white eared and bluish fronted jacamars, lesser yellow-headed vulture, oriole blackbirds, yellow-headed caracaras, late colored haws, and many others.
Back on board, we continued sailing and our local guide, Adonai, presented an interesting show-and-tell talk about medicinal plants from the jungle. We learned of the traditional medicine practices that have been transmitted from generation to generation, and that are so valuable.
Delfin II tied alongside the bank, and river dolphins stayed quite close to the ship, and showed interesting behaviors. Both pink and grey river dolphins took advantage of a tributary river that joins the Ucayali, where fish are abundant. We observed the gray ones jump completely out of the water more than once, which is quite unusual.
We went for a second skiff ride and explored a small lagoon surrounded by jungle. Bird watching was phenomenal. We saw many horned screamers, muscovy ducks, jabiru storks, black collared hawks, scarlet macaws, and many other bird species. As planned, we waited for sunset to look for other creatures at night. With spotlights we scanned the floating vegetation and found spectacled caymans and some interesting frogs.
