Peru - Pacaya-Samiria NP in the Amazon region
Avaldatud: 17.10.2018
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It was a real change of climate. At 5 o'clock in the morning, I arrived at the hot and humid entrance gate of the tropics - I lay down first. That's also a kind of acclimatisation. In the hostel, I meet the people from Chachas again and also get to know Raphaela. They have already planned a trip to the nearby Lamas for him. I join them. That is a very strange place. There are already two Plazas. One as usual and the other is supposed to be a kind of alternative Plaza of the indigenous people. And that's not enough. A few years ago, apparently an Italian decided to have a residential castle built there according to medieval models! This was completed a few years ago and is now the main attraction of the village. Of course, for South Americans, it's something special. It seemed misplaced to us, but interesting nevertheless. When we had finished our stroll through the village, we went back to Tarapoto.
The next day we wanted to leave for Lagunas and start a jungle tour from there. Konstantin had said goodbye and wanted to travel by boat via Iquitos to Manaus in Brazil and further to the coast. Certainly also a nice, long tour. But in the rainforest, there is certainly more to see than on a boat trip on the huge Amazon. So there were Raphaela, Roberto, and me left. And that was also a wonderful group.
I had read that you can ride on the cargo ships from Yurimaguas to Iquitos. The journey takes three days and you simply hang a hammock on deck and enjoy the ride through the Amazon region - that's the theory. First, we went by bus to Yurimaguas, which was a three-hour adventure in itself. When we arrived, the moto-taxi drivers asked us where we wanted to go, even though we were still in the moving bus. Next level customer acquisition. At the same time, they were all somehow connected to an agency or even guides themselves. Leading the way was Winston, who provided us with numerous information and drove us to the hotels and ports of the city. But he immediately told us that the last boat had just left and the next one wouldn't leave for another two days. We then drove to the port and took a look at two of these magnificent boats that were supposed to leave the next morning and politely declined. These models were already extremely outdated and not worth a trip. The alternative was to take a speedboat that only takes about 7 hours to get to Lagunas. That wasn't bad either, but not very fast either. I was once again horrified by how naturally the locals simply threw all the rubbish overboard into the water. Styrofoam boxes for food, nicely packed in a plastic bag after use and directly overboard. The children were also explicitly taught to do it that way. The worst thing about it was that it was not the tourists or other visitors, no, it was the people who live on, in, and from the river every day!
We were able to enjoy the trip and the view on the Rio Huallaga nevertheless and then spent a night in Lagunas.
I had already been to Puerto Maldonado and Rurrenabaque in the jungle. The difference was that this time we were only traveling by canoe and didn't stay in the same place all the time. It's a completely different experience in nature. And in the jungle, there is ALWAYS something new to see and hear. My original plan was to travel on a cutter for three days to Iquitos and then go on a tour from there. And from Iquitos, I would have had to fly back to the coast via Lima to continue my journey. Iquitos is the largest city in the world that is not accessible by land - they say. On the way there, however, you always drive along the national park, which you then also visit from Iquitos.
Yurimaguas is located on the Huallaga River, which then flows together with 2 other major rivers and forms THE Amazon at Nautas in front of Iquitos.
That's why both of my great companions and I got off the Rapido in Lagunas. As it turned out, it is currently not possible to travel with the cutters anymore, as the owners also own the speedboats and make more money with them. That's why they simply don't offer the slow option anymore. Too bad.
Besides, I thought that maybe I wouldn't come back to the Amazon until the rainy season. In terms of timing, however, I was still too early for that. That only really starts in November. Then the water rises by about two meters and the whole animal world changes. The land animals withdraw to very small, higher areas. And otters, dolphins, poisonous snakes, and crocodiles are then everywhere to be seen. However, the abundant rainfall, which fortunately almost always occurred at night, had already raised the water level by half a meter in the three days. That was quite impressive.
I thought with four days, you can already penetrate well into the national park. But with the canoe, you don't cover as many kilometers, even if the two of them paddled quite well! To see larger and more animals, you have to plan for 6-12 days. Then you can meet an 8-meter crocodile or poisonous snakes. But it can also be dangerous. The crocodiles can easily smash the boat with their tail and they even reported severed arms. You can also travel through the entire national park in 30 days and then come out on the other side.
However, we stayed in the corner of the park. Our tour led along some of the thousands of rivers that together make up the Pacaya-Samiria Park. In retrospect, we would have loved to stay longer.
The next morning, the actual jungle tour started with the canoe. Since our arrival in the jungle, it had been raining heavily most of the evening and night, so there were some doubts about our tour. But it looked good at the start. Strong sunshine, tropical heat, and our two guides/cooks, Emilia and José, were already ready. Loading the canoe and off we go.
Loaded.
With some nostalgia and against a strong current, we paddled back to Lagunas on the last day. We cleared some trees out of the way with a machete and suddenly found civilization very close. It was Sunday and in the evening, we naturally wanted to review the past days. However, all 4! open-air discos in the small town were already well soundproofed in the afternoon, so after a short break in the hotel, we could start right away. And they even had a DJ and some visitors. It became a wet, cheerful, and sad farewell from the jungle. The next morning, we got on the boat back to Yurimaguas with a hangover. The jungle is crazy!
From Yuri, we continued to Tarapoto. I didn't do anything else there except endure the heat. And there was surprisingly good internet. That had to be used extensively, of course. So the blog made progress again. Another stop in Jaen in northern Peru, and then it continues in Ecuador.
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