We are back! Still alive, breathing and with all extremeties! 😅 We had amazing days…But not to anticipate too much we will start with the beginning…
The beginning
We were starting our adventure really early again into the Amazon rainforest with a fast boat from Yurimaguas to Lagunas.
The so called “fast” boat was not exactly that fast…and especially for Christian the seats, which must have been made for dwarves, were pretty comfortable. 😅
After long 3 hours we finally arrived in Lagunas where our local guide Alex picked us up. With a second guide who was also our cook or jungle mum we left for the Pacaya Samiria National Reserve.
With about 2 million hectares, it is the biggest National Reserve of Peru and one of the largest protected areas in the Amazon. Alex told us that there are more then 500 different animals in this area. So we would definitely see a lot. But of course he can’t guarantee as it is the wilderness! 🐾
Floating down the river
The journey began in a small canoe heading deep into the Pacaya Samiria Nacional Reserve! 🛶 And as if that wasn’t exciting enough, our two local guides of course only could speak spanish (!) So let the adventure begin! 😅
While paddeling downriver, our two guides were always looking left and right, so that we won’t miss any of the animal inhabitants. Everytime they discovered an animal or heard their sounds, we would stop to watch or listen to it. They also told us about their names and lifestyle. Of course with the spanish names it wasn’t easy to understand everything. But we really tried hard. 😎
Thereby we already caught sight of:
- Many birds, such as parrots, a Toucan and a tiny yellow bird that is called “Victor Diaz” 🐦
- Monkeys, like the cute little squirrel monkeys and the “mono rojo” (Red Howler Monkey) which you can hear roaring like a bit predator kilometers through the Reserve🐒
After a short break with some fresh Mango, which was incredibly delicious 😋 we arrived at our first accomodation, a house on stilts. Relaxing in a hammock, reviewing the day we did not know what would come after dinner!
Into the darkness
After a nice little dinner that our guides cooked, we would take a night ride on the river, watching for “cocodrillos”! 🐊 More and more nervous and equipped with our headlights we climbed into our canoe. 🛶
Alex paddled into the dark quite fearsome looking river…
He already discovered a crocodile after a short trip around the corner. It was not that big and just laying calmly in the dark river.
Alex decided to get pretty close to it! And as if it wasn’t scary enough, due to our bright headlamps the crocodile all of a sudden moved around quickly and disappeared! 😱🐊
We really creeped out and winced, even Alex a little! After that our guide of course made fun of us and decided to take a big round trip in the dark with switched off lights!
It was a pretty scary end of a first day in the wilderness! We certainly looked forward to the next days to come…
