Flor de Castaña & Yana Allpa, Rio Ucayali
After our night walk in the terra firme at San Francisco we navigated downstream and past the confluence of the Rio Marañon and Rio Ucayali. This is the point from which the Rio Amazonas starts. By morning we were in position to explore Cedro Caño by skiff. The highlight of the morning sightings was a pair of red-and-green macaws perched high in a canopy tree. It was soon clear from our vantage that this pair had obviously decided it was time to make some baby macaws.
The next stop for the day was a change in pace when instead of looking for wildlife we set off down a narrow and winding channel that is the point of access to the small village of Flor de Castaña. Here we walked through the village and enjoyed an informal insight to the lives of those who call the river their home, one that we are visiting and travelling on with them this week.
Even in the villages we are never far from wildlife and a small tree in the village was found to have pair of the colorful orange-cheeked parrots. A typical encounter with these birds is of birds flying over calling and then disappearing into the leafy canopy of a rain forest tree. It can be remarkable how a flock of noisy green parrots can hide themselves among foliage. Before returning to Delfin II we stopped at a small black water lake for a refreshing swim.
The afternoon skiff ride at Yana Allpa turned into an afternoon for unusual mammal sightings. The discovery of both Brazilian porcupine and a kinkajou were quite unexpected. However, my experiences here are beginning to give me the feeling that an appropriate mantra for the jungle is to expect the unexpected.
