Deeper and deeper into Manu Reserve

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Safe water - ✔

Bananas - ✔

Extra outboard motor - ✔



Today we take a 6-hr boat ride deeper into Manu Reserve Zone. First we stop for a swim in a hot springs. There we'll meet, Michel, our guide for the remainder of our trip, and pick up four people who will join us. Their English accent sounds familiar...yep, all four from UK. I've been giving Phil a hard time, as he has cranked up the British accent since we landed in Peru. I can only imagine how it will go now! The expression of people separated by a common language came to mind.

No sooner than taking off, we pulled over to the river edge to trade bread for Chicha de jora; the Peruvian version of corn beer. They passed it around the boat for a taste. I took a pass; here we are being very careful not to get sick from bad water, and we're going to drink this stuff???...not me. Besides I had tried some back in Cusco, it's pretty bad and warm? Anyway, we continued a short distance and stopped again, this time at Boca Manu, small riverside community. Believe it or not, they were celebrating the establishment of Manu Reserve by staging a chugging contest of...yep, Chicha de jora. The only girl, on far left, raised to the nearby bushes shortly after I took this picture, to relieve herself of this awful beverage. You can see the river erosion has taken it's toll on one of the village structures. Apparently no hurry to clean up, as the river will probably carry it away shortly.

Finally saw one of the caman we'd been looking for...this was a White, or Common, Caiman, looked like an alligator to me.

We got to our lodge in time to get settled and to boat/hike to Lake Salvador. This is an example of an Oxbow Lake. The river curves back and forth. The current at the outside of the curve erodes the bank, while the slow moving river deposits sand on the inside of the curve. This continues until a flooding season when the river overruns the bank, going as the crow flies, if you will, thus creating the isolated horseshoe shape lake...Oxbow. This will gradually fill in with plants and the process begins again. These Lakes are great for wildlife watching. We were fortunate to be on the lake with a catamaran at sunset...lots of wildlife and gorgeous views.

On the hike back to the boat in the dark, saw lots of spiders, frogs, caterpillars, etc. But coming across the Bridal Veil Mushroom/Fungus was amazing, just beautiful! It last only about 24 hrs.

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