Photos by Nanci Blog

Thursday, December 20 Day 11 Peru Jungle Breakfast, Jungle Hike, Shaman Ceremony and Tree Planting Ceremony. Another full day on the Amazon River. We're now on the Yanayacu-Pucate tributary. We'll do some exploring and then have breakfast on the skiffs. First we need to register at the ranger station and some of the village children gather to show us their crafts. Their carvings are made from local tree nuts. We pass a few more villages along the way and catch up with the other skiff for our breakfast break. We have sandwiches, juice, coffee, tea, crackers and fruit. The La Perla crew really has their act together. Breakfast is simple but elegant. Next we do a quick Jungle Hike to see if we can find anything of interest. Neal leads the way with his machete and lets Natasha give it a try. Neal points out many things...parasitic fungus, leaf cutter ants and fire ants and a blue-tailed trogon. And an armored millipede. Time to head back to La Perl...

Wednesday, December 19 Three toed sloths, B ats,  Owl Monkeys,  Squirrel Monkeys, Pink dolphins, and piranhas. Breakfast today is at 7:30 am so of course we're up at 5:30 am. We can smell the bacon cooking and the coffee brewing. Our tummies are growling. We start the day with a boat ride into the Pacaya Samiria National Reserve . We're near the Nauta/Cano area of the reserve. Motoring up the the ranger station we see at least three three-toed sloths!  One is balled-up sleeping . As we make our way upstream we see a tree with some bumps on it. The bumps are actually long nose bats. Hulber spots a couple of owl monkeys in a hollowed out tree. They are really hard to see. We spot some monkey following birds and next we see movement in the trees. It's a troop of squirrel monkeys. They hear our boat and chatter and begin to scatter. We're even lucky to see a few gray and pink dolphins but they are really hard to photograph. Back to La Perla ...

Tuesday, December 18 Afternoon and Evening Jungle Hike Chunky Monkeys Birthday Cake for Linda After a nice siesta we're back on the skiff; this time naturalist Neal who joins the Jaguars and Roger (our fearless boat captain). We meet our local guide, Robert who will hike ahead of us looking for critters and things of interest. Robert's first find is a dead leaf toad. Next he wow's us with a red back poison frog  (Ranitomeya reticulata), the second most poisonous frog in the genus. Next he calls us over-he's found a three-toed sloth high in a tree. And to top off our afternoon he finds an anaconda (Eunectes, which means good swimmer) waiting to find it's dinner: fish, bird or small mammals. Anacondas predators are caimans, jaguars and humans. They aren't poisonous, they are constrictors. Only animal left on our bucket list is a jaguar in the wild (we saw one in captivity in the Belize zoo but not in the wild) I'm pretty sure we ...

Tuesday, December 18 Early Morning Bird Watching on the Amazon River A Visit to Nauta after breakfast We're up early because the river village's boats are buzzing by our window on their way to the Nauta Market. Residents carry in their dugout canoes fish, fruits and vegetables that will be for sale at the many stalls and halls in Nauta. We'll be visiting the market later but first an early morning bird watching trip. As we head down a tributary we see a few people harvesting Yucca. They are harvesting now because the river will soon rise and flood their field. This woman collects the tubers for kitchen use but also to make Jungle Beer. We see so many different species of birds. And as we make our way back to La Perla we see more families heading to Nauta. After breakfast we take the 10-15 minute ride to Nauta, for our Nauta Market and town tour. The first person I meet is this beautiful young girl. I ask "¿Puedo tomar su foto, señorita?...

Monday, December 17  Iquitos to Nauta to La Perla We're up around 5 am to shower and get ready for our van to Nauta. The hotel night clerk said he'd try to reach the cook to see if they could open the restaurant for us around 6:15 (they usually open at 6:30 but our van is arriving at 6:30-I know we'll need coffee and tea!) We load up our gear into the van and the guide from  Jungle Experiences-LaPerla   tells us there aren't any shops in this area of town but we can stop in the center and grab food. He brings us to The Yellow Rose of Texas -coffee, tea and sandwiches to go, that works. We travel about one hour to the town of Nauta and meet our boat tour director/organizer-Wendy from  Jungle Experiences-LaPerla . We get a 20-25 minute ride on the Amazon to our home for the next week-the La Perla. Holy cow, we're on the Amazon River! Our room is #5 on the Main Deck and we have a great view out our bedroom window. We settle in and...