Thursday November 10, 2022
This morning’s activity was to walk through the rainforest near the town of Casual. The area is protected and maintained by several local villages although it technically lies outside the reserve. A local expert found interesting creatures for us to see: a Goliath bird-eating tarantula, a bullet ant (largest in the world and toxic if not lethal), a red-tailed boa, unusual grasshoppers and several frogs and toads including a red-backed poison dart frog. It was great to just “be” in the rainforest.
At lunchtime, our first real Amazon rainstorm blew through with wind, thunder, lightning and sheets of rain. We watched the storm move in from the east, the forest downstream slowly being engulfed in heavy rain. Our ship, which was moored to the river bank, rocked from the heavy winds. We were grateful for the storm’s timing, as the sky cleared before our scheduled late afternoon skiff ride on the Maranon River, about 3/4 of a mile wide at this location.
Our lecture today was about medicinal plants, and Erickson used live examples he had gathered early this morning, rather than slides with pictures of the plants. Some of the plants brought ants with them, but one had a baby pink-toed tarantula inside!
The afternoon skiff ride on Pahuachiro Creek was particularly productive. A pair of local fishermen showed us the freshwater barracuda and tiger stingray they had caught — the barracuda was smaller than expected but the stingray was enormous. We had a pair of terrific primate viewings: Saddleback Tamarin and Squirrel Monkeys. These monkeys often move through the forest together. We also saw several beautiful tanagers, two woodpeckers, and all five species of kingfishers present in this region.
Pictures: saddleback tamarin monkeys, airplane grasshopper, Goliath bird-eating tarantula, masked crimson tanager 
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