Reserva Pacaya-Samiria

​And we are back in Yurimaguas. The five days in the Reserve were just amazing. We had to start the trip late, since Paula got sick and we had to wait for her to stop throwing up. At first we wanted to take the collective boat to Lagunas, where the jungle tours start, but then we had to take the speedboat, since the collective boat still needed to be fueled up. We later found out from other people in the reserve that in the end it was 36 hours late. The speedboat of course was late, too, but only one hour.

With us there was a Canadian named Neil on the boat, who we met the evening before and who wanted to do the same tour as we. We ended up sharing two guides and a boat.

After a night in Lagunas we were picked up in the morning by one of our guides and since Peruvians always have a big breakfast we ate fish and rice at the market. After a visit to the police to register we were driven out into the reserve. There we had to register again and then out we went in the wooden canoe. Right at the beginning we saw some giant tarantula nets and a monkey in the trees. We stopped at a place called Trancas to eat lunch and take a break and then went on to Gloria, our place to sleep for the night. There we met a lot of people from Spain and France, who told us about their trip, which was pretty useful since we only understood half of what the guides told us.

On the second day there was a lot more paddeling, but we took a long break at a place called Pantheon. On the way there we saw some river dolphins. It was too hot to paddle and on top of that Max got sick and threw up all the time, which had our guides worried. We were already used to being sick, since a lot of the food here doesn’t agree with us. He was healthy again by the next day. In the next hut, late in the evening, we took a night tour with the canoe, where we saw some frogs, birds and our guide caught two crocodiles which we could hold. We also saw a puma in the bushes, but only the eyes and parts of the fur. Max and Neil each caught a fish with the spear, that the guides ate for breakfast.

On the third day we started with a trip into the forest,  where we saw more monkeys, parrots, crabs, spiders and a land turtle. Also, lots of mosquitoes. For the night we paddled back to Pantheon, where we took another night trip. On the night trip we were warned that there would be a lot of fish jumping out of the water, and also into the boat. Paula caught a fish with her face, when it jumped out of the water, hit her in the face and landed in the boat. Spears are for beginners.

On the forth day we took another hike in the forest to a small lake. On the way we tried our first cacao fruit and there was a Liana swing where we could swing like Tarzan. Including the sounds. For the night we went back to Gloria. Since the waterlevel went down quite a bit, and we had to paddle upstream, the way back was quite hard for the two guides and Neil.

On the last day, we got stuck quite a lot on logs in the river and the guides had to shovel a lot of water from the boat, that always got in through a small leak. And for the first time in 25 years, the one guide fell out of the boat, when his paddle got stuck on plants in the water.

Back in Lagunas we drank a cold beer and on the next day at four o’clock in the morning we took the speedboat back to Yurimaguas.

It was an amazing trip, mostly thanks to our guides, Juan and Joel who always discovered animals we would never have seen, and taught us a lot, despite the language barrier.

Tomorrow we are leaving for Cusco, which is in the south of Peru and a two day busride away.