Blog 8 - The Tahuaho Reserve (The Amzon Jungle)

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And so we began our second major tour in South America, our Amazonia Expeditions tour; 7 nights in the Amazon jungle. It was a solid 3 hour boat ride from Iquitos to arrive at our lodge, which is based on the 2 million hectare Tahuayo Reserve, based on the Tahuayo River, a tributary of the Amazon River. It wasn’t quite the ‘motorised canoe’ we thought we were travelling in, it was simply a speedboat and for that we were grateful or else it would have taken double the time! The Reserve itself has registered over 600 species of birds, a dozen monkey species, caimans, snakes, spiders, butterflies and is also home to the puma, jaguar, giant ant eaters and anaconda. For our 7 nights in the reserve, we had our own personal guide, Weninger, who spent night and day ensuring we were getting the experience we wanted.



Our accommodation needs to be mentioned early on here, as our time in the main lodge was as big a room as we have had, and probably will have, on our entire trip. The accommodation at both lodges is a series of cabins/huts, about 5 metres above the ground (to avoid the flood waters that come through every year), and were very spacious. Our room at the main lodge itself had a king bed, 2 single beds, 2 hammocks, a couple of chairs and our bathroom, while both lodges had their own hammock room and walkways leading through all the lodges.



Upon our arrival at the main lodge, we were given options for activities to do on our first afternoon, and despite reservations from Renee, we decided to do zip-lining above the forest. So at about 30-35 meters above the ground, about 2-3 metres above the forest canopy, we had the best view of the forest as we zip-lined to 3 different platforms before finding solid ground again. Great fun, and Pete videoing of himself showed the older couple we were doing it with how super confident (and maybe a little crazy) Australian males can be! That evening, following dinner, we had the opportunity to do a boat tour, searching for caimans and frogs. Although not seeing too much wildlife, we were able to see the Milky Way in all it's glory, and we were again reminded how good it is to be out of the city and in the middle of nature. It was the most spectacular sight of the night sky.



Day 2, and we had decided to go on a full day tour/hike to the Terra Firme, or as it's also called, the Frog Forest. The aim here was to find the Poison Dart Frogs, plus any other interesting creatures along the way. After a couple of hours in the boat, firstly heading south along the Tahuayo River and then further along the Blanco River, we arrived at our starting point. Along the way we were treated to seeing kingfisher birds, a couple of species of hawk, grey herons, a toucan and finches. When we arrived at our hike starting point, we learnt that our guide Weninger had created this hike 15 years earlier, on request from the lodge when he began working there because we was from the area, and he knew where to look for everything. We found 2 species of the poison dart frog, the yellow and black and the orange and black frogs, which he carefully assisted us in seeing, bats in the trunk of a tree that had fallen years earlier (and then assisted us in photographing and seeing the bats), insects and lizards and then showed us how the roof of our cabin back at the lodge, and the many houses within the various villages in the area were made, using only the leaves of a certain palm tree. We then enjoyed lunch on the river bank, (they made a fire and heated up rice and chicken) as a tropical storm passed over us and cooled everything down again. A beautiful setting. On our way back, we encountered 3 woolly monkeys that had been brought up with human contact, and although now living in the forest, interacted with the boats from the lodge. We were lucky enough that Dorilla, the main female, was particularly hungry (and in a good mood) on this day, and she joined us in the boat. So as we pulled over on the bank to feed them, Dorilla took it upon herself to not just take the bananas from us while sitting in the tree, she jumped in the boat with us. Despite some initial trepidation (from the humans) Dorilla had a great feed, and despite what the photos showed, Renee quite enjoyed the interaction, as Dorilla found the most central part of the boat where she could access most people's food, and it just happened to be on Renee’s lap or beside Renee on the bench seat. The monkey whisperer in another life?? Again, pretty cool stuff. Talking to people in the following days we appeared to be the only lucky ones to have had this sort of experience.



Day 3, this was our morning of fishing. Fishing equipment was very basic, a long stick, about 2-3 metres of fishing line and then a hook attached to the line with a metal wire, to prevent the piranha biting through. At no point was it a competition between us (Pete and Renee) as to who caught the most, so between us we caught over a dozen fish, including a good range of piranha, pachi, catfish and large freshwater sardines (ok, let’s be honest here, Renee caught 10 of the dozen fish so Pete will endeavor to get some tips from his 7 year old nephew Nick when we get back to Australia on just how to fish). We even got to keep a few of the fish we caught which they cooked up for us at lunchtime; sardine was definitely the nicest between the piranha, sardine and pachi that we got to eat (Pete is very glad that the video he made successfully made it as a special edition of the Nickfish Facebook page). The afternoon activity for us had us visiting El Chino, a village just north of the lodge and a second home to our guide, Weninger. Here we got to check out some of the homes here, the school classrooms, and meet some of the locals as they went about their daily lives. Having Weninger run the tour for us ensured we were seeing them in normal life, not a 'tourist show', which was quite enjoyable and refreshingly different. Renee made some new friends with the young girls there playing dolls with them, and was even given the opportunity to assist in making some of the baskets that they sells at the markets; as a basket weaver, she is a very good marine biologist.



Day 4, and already we were on our last full day at the main lodge, before moving to the Research Centre. Our goal was to still see as much wildlife as possible in its natural habitat. We had already come to realise the difference between the Amazon and the Galapagos, with the Galapagos wildlife never having to really fear humans, and the Amazon clearly still experiencing it, so when we saw wildlife it was clearly a big effort and catching that glimpse was still amazing enough.



So on this particular day we spent the morning canoeing up an offshoot of the Tahuayo River. Immediately, if we hadn't already thought about it, a canoe in the morning was going to allow us more opportunity to see wildlife, and after a little while, nature showed how awesome it can be. We had successfully canoed in between dense trees, under a canopy on a flood plain, and could clearly hear the Giant Freshwater Otters working as a group to attack a school of fish. We sat silently in our boat for close to 10 minutes, listening to them bark orders at each other and splash the water as the sounds moved closer to us. The school of fish suddenly appeared in front of us, and guessing something wasn't right, the leader of the otter pack greeted us, popping his head out of the water, with a large hiss, snarl and display of teeth, before disappearing with the rest of his group. Pretty amazing to listen and watch. We continued our search for wildlife after this, listening to otters (could have been the the same group) again hunt their prey, various bird species sing and warn others of approaching predators (and humans) and fish continually jumping in and out of the water. We also were lucky enough to see a baby caiman, maybe 20cm in length, sunning itself on a tree out of the water. On our trip back to the main vessel, Renee successfully spotted a Brown Throated 3-Toed Sloth at the top of a tree. Again, seeing a creature like this, in its natural habitat, was awesome. Our afternoon was then spent in the boat, looking for different bird species, and while we saw many, including the woodpecker (which, by the way, looks exactly like it does in the cartoons!) we are still to properly see a macaw in a tree (we have only been catching glimpses of them flying overhead).



Day 5, and we were heading to the Amazon Research Centre. So another couple of hours up the river and we got the distinct feeling we were definitely getting much more remote, as the jungle surrounding the river became denser. (For the google map nerds out there, the main lodge has the coordinates 4°, 18'41"S and 73°, 13'55"W and the Research Centre is at 4°, 23'20"S and 73°, 15'26"W according to Pete’s phone). On our first afternoon here, we canoed down the Tahuayo River, before eventually finding our way into Barni lake. From the main river, we veered off and travelled down a narrower and shallower strip of water and then bam! A massive lake in front of us. In the lake, we arrived to the very distinct sounds of the Giant River otter, and despite it being from a much further distance, we saw 2 of them pop their heads out of water, look displeasingly in our direction before disappearing under water, with that all noise ceased. Later, on this particular evening, we went for a night canoe, where again the Milky Way showed off in its greatest glory, we watched storm clouds roll in, and Weninger caught pencil fish by hand and a sardine jumped in the boat. Wildlife is amazing.



At this point, Pete needs to mention the food, which, although very tasty, had a "fish as a main course" feel to it most of the time. The catfish here is edible, but after many different meals with it, Pete was ready to trial vegetarianism again. And rice. Everything was with rice, including an interesting breakfast dish of scrambled eggs, rice and veggies. Until we arrived at the Research Centre, who's cook clearly cooks for non-Peruvians more often, finally we had red meat, with spag bol, pizza and beef stir fry coming onto the menu. Everything also has ridiculous amounts of sugar or salt in it, so the desserts have been very tasty, but the salt exaggeration has meant we won't need any additives for the next few decade!!!



Day 6, and we were ready to hike. So we planned to leave the lodge early at 7am, for a boat ride of about 20 minutes and then a hike to Yarina Lake, with the promise of more monkeys, the Watson bird and macaws. However, nature had other plans, and wanted us to sleep in a little, and sent through a gigantic storm the night before, (even in their dry part of the year, the Amazon storms are impressive) and sometime before we were due to get up, Weninger found us in our rooms and told us to stay in bed and we would revisit the plans at breakfast at 8am. So a couple of hours later than planned, we were in the boat to head to our starting point for the hike. It turned out to be more of a wade through mud hike for half of it as we moved through some pretty serious swampland and then about 2 and a bit hours later, we arrived at the lake. Along the way we spent close to 15 minutes watching a pair of brown capuchin monkeys watch us, eat fruit and hide from us. At the lake, we saw what happens when a large body of water is left without human intervention with protection measures in place to prevent any sort of activity on the lake, include non-extractive activities; the fish continually jumped and ate (mind you, the splashes were huge and Weninger informed us that the Pachi fish can grow to 3 metres in length, so we were thinking the Paichi here were hugggee!), the birds flew where and when they wanted and everything was green and clean. Quite amazing. By the time we arrived back to the lodge, we had been hiking for almost 5 hours, covered more than 7klms and seen some amazing animals and scenery.



Day 7, already we on our final day here, and it was time to get our monkey on!! Weninger took us on another 'short hike', about a 5 hour trek through the area behind the lodge. Our goal today was to see the Saki Monkey, a potentially new species of monkey only found here in the Amazon. Within a couple of hours we had located a few, but had a great line of sight to one in particular, which sat and watched us as we watched it. Pretty cool. Over the next 3 hours we saw squirrel monkeys, mustached and saddleback tamarind monkeys and a pair of brown capuchin monkeys with a baby. And if anyone has seen the Planet of Apes (when the apes/monkeys all travel through the tree tops quickly?), well we had that experience at one point as about 60-70 squirrel monkeys ran, jumped and swung above us in trees; the noise was amazing, the sight spectacular. A great morning trek, and seeing so many monkeys of different species, some curious to check us out, while others did everything possible to hide from us, was a great experience. The afternoon trip we went out on the boat, initially for a bit of a scout along the river bed, and then to see the Pygmy Marmosets and the Red Titi monkeys. Our scout was very successful, as we found a female brown throated 3-toed sloth having her dinner high up in the tree, and as we were admiring her, Weninger found a porcupine up in the tree (as we very quickly learnt, in South America, to avoid the floods, the porcupine has evolved to live in trees, and not on the ground). We then moved along to see Pygmy Mamosetts, which looked more like a really small possum or mouse, but very cool to watch, as these things moved down the trees. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see the Red Titi monkeys, but we did hear them! And seeing so many species of monkeys in one day meant it was a very successful and good day.



To sum up our time in the Amazon Jungle - much like the Galapagos, is beyond words. Unlike the Galapagos, we had to work a little harder to see the wildlife here, but when we did get the view, whether as an animal staring back at us from a distance, a fleeting glimpse in a dense forest, or from the other side of a lake, we felt we were seeing something special, and we were privileged to be in that moment at that time. It was a time where although we did get some good pictures, for the majority, it was great to just see the wildlife in all its glory through the lenses of our eyes.



But, with all our adventures, this adventure had come to an end. We couldn't have asked for a better guide in Weninger.



We arrived back in Iquitos in the afternoon and it was definitely an afternoon to get washing done, just over a week in the jungle meant our clothes had lovely smells and an array of colours splashed over them. On our journey to the ‘lavanaderia’ aka dry cleaners, we bumped into a few of the people we met at the lodge so we all got a little too excited and indulged in an afternoon and evening of food and lots of beverages.



So onto the next bit of fun – a bus trip from Lima to Cusco with lots of stops along the way before the Salakantay Trek to Machu Picchu! - Pete and Renee

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Photos

Tahuayo Lodge
Our main welcome sign and the common room to the right of it

Tahuayo Lodge
The maintenance shed and the laundry room

Zip-Lining
Pete heading up

Zip-Lining
The view on the way up to the first tower

Renee
No matter where she is, she looks gorgeous!

Renee and Dorilla
Dorilla wasn't as big as this photo makes her out to be, but she definitely ruled the boat for a bit

Our Sloth Sam
A 3 Toed Brown Collared Sloth

Our Sloth Susan
A 3 Toed Brown Collared sloth, found on the river, high up in the trees