Life in the Amazon

 Tuesday, November 8, 2022

This morning we had an early start, exploring the bank of the Ucayali River and a narrow side stream called the Belluda Cano. We saw many familiar birds and some new ones (including 20 scarlet Macaws in a single flock):and got to see a Monk Saki monkey feeding in a tree near the stream. These monkeys used to be hunted not only for meat but for their bushy tails, which were made into feather dusters.  We returned to the boat for breakfast, and lectures on monkeys, local fruits (complete with a tasting session) and photography.  

In the afternoon we explored the Dorado River, first in two-person kayaks and later in the skiffs. We stayed out after sunset to look for nocturnal creatures, although the full moon made many animals a bit shy. All along these tributaries to the Amazon there are small villages and temporary shelters, all focused on subsistence farming and fishing as a source of revenue as well as for food. Larger villages have generators; smaller ones have kerosene lamps and no electricity. We watched a family group, which had caught armored catfish with gill nets and long lines further upstream, toss the fish by hand from the bottom of their wooden canoes into a large floating and netted platform. When the holding cage is full enough, they will float with the current back downstream to Nauta, a 3-4 day journey, eating a few of the fish along the way.  We also watched children helping to clean and mend nets and swimming in the river, with no fear of the piranhas (which are another source of food to them). Piranha are not nearly as aggressive as Hollywood would have us believe, although there are special circumstances where they become a hazard to mammals including humans. 

The scale of the Amazon watershed continues to be overwhelming. We travel several times a day to new locations to enable new explorations, on “minor rivers” at least half a mile wide. So far we have traveled upstream; the current is obvious from the debris floating downstream, sometimes whole trees that have fallen into the river when the soil around was eroded by the current and collapsed, but more often a tangle of branches, logs and vines. While the rainy season has not really begun yet, it has rained a bit in the last few weeks so the water level is gradually rising. This increases the amount of material being washed downstream. On the other hand, the high water mark visible on standing trees is still about five feet higher than the current water level. 

Pictured: local fruit exhibit, blue-and-yellow macaws, yellow-crowned brush-tailed tree rat, Butterfly, American Pygmy kingfisher, Monk Saki Monkey (and the wrong photo got posted in yesterday’s blog, that was a juvenile black-collared hawk not a speckled chachalaca)