Monday, February 15, 2010
After another early morning start, we took the skiffs into a national park, the Pacaya-Samiria Reserve, where we saw the freshwater river dolphins, which are pink. The reserve is approximately the size of Belgium. We donned our rubber boots and took a hike within the forest, noticing all of the medicinal and useful plants in the forest, including curare tree and rubber trees. There were several species of ants, including the gigantic bullet ant, and lots of mosquitoes and bugs. At one point, the water had risen across the trail and was about ten feet deep. The guides felled a tree and we used it as a bridge to get across. This was an adventure but nobody fell in! In the afternoon, we went out again on the boats in some of the black water channels for some dolphin and bird watching, including a sighting of a bird called the Horned Screamer. Our last night on the boat featured some of the crew playing some local Peruvian music before dinner.
Interesting fact: The pink dolphins become more pink and “blush” when excited due to capillaries being close to the skin surface. The local people feel that the dolphins are bad luck and can steal people from the villages.
1 comment:
Pink dolphins??? That is amazing...i have never heard of them and Danielle will be excited. That's interesting that they are bad luck...dolphins are harmless to people...right???
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