Allpahuayo-Mishana National Reserve

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I am going to wrap up the last legs of the trip to Peru (April/May 2012) in this and maybe one more post. I am cataloging this as Peru-April/May 2012 as there is a small chance I will be back in Peru in December 2012 to work on a seabird project with a Peruvian biologist I know (we’ll see).

After returning to the more civilized life in Nauta, Sara and I journeyed onwards to Allpahuayo-Mishana National Reserve which is about 2/3rd of the way up the newish Nauta/Iquitos road. Since the bank had been flooded in Nauta – and it being the only bank in the city – cash was a little tight all of a sudden for me. Lesson: carry more Nuevo Soles next time I’m in Peru. We grabbed a moto-taxi up to the combi station and looked for a ride up the road. Combis in Latin America are usually any make of van with as many seats as they can fit in the vehicle. In Guatemala, I was in a combi once with over 20 passengers! We found a ride in a collective taxi and in about an hour we were at the reserve. The reserve was set up to protect the rainforest along one stretch of this road – most of which has been destroyed and turned over to various uses such as poultry farms, artisanal charcoal making, land grabs for human habitation, and the like. The reserve has a research center and can accommodate scientists as well as visitors daily and for overnight stay. If you are ever in the area, it is well worth a visit! The majority of the interpretive signs along the trails were made as part of Sara’s work at this reserve – a good way to learn about the ecosystem while being in the rain-forest!!

The rare white sand forest had plenty of trails to explore on and the most abundant animals seemed to be the cryptic frogs (lots of photos). Hence, most of my photos are of the frogs or lizards we saw. The soils in rain-forests are generally shallow soils and nutrient deficient – all part of the this ecosystem. The white soils were white as they have a primarily white-sand composition. You can see it in one or two photos near the frogs. The reserve has tons of trails which made for easy exploring. A kitchen shared with the caretakers allowed us to have a few simple meals with the limited food we had.

There were a variety of butterfly species sighted. The spectacular Blue morpho was spotted a few times – and amazing sight to behold in rain-forests. There were also a lot of see-through butterflies – one of which I finally got a quick photo of. Within the first few minutes on the trail, a group of Saddleback Tamarins (photo) appeared in the trees. These are small monkeys with a distinct look from most other monkeys I have seen. They have a whitish face and more of a square look to their heads. Many groups of these monkeys appear to live in the reserve – as they were sighted a number of times in different areas. We kept a lookout for poisonous snakes and other animals that would be good to see with a little warning, but none were sighted.

In one area where a scientist is working with cultivating fruit trees, there were some cool colorful crickets/grasshoppers (saltamontes) (photo). For sure, the coolest part of this two-day stop over for me was the high number of frog species seen. There were many frogs with a neat variety of camouflage patterns. Some frogs were as small as 2 centimeters long, while others were nearly fist sized. The lizards also had a neat variety of camouflage patterns (photos).

This reserve was a great stop to delay our way back into civilized life – especially because it let us enjoy the rainforest by foot, which was almost impossible to do in Pacaya-Samiria due to the flooding. We only took one real walk while in Pacaya at puesto four! After a night at this reserve, it was back on the road to Iquitos. Here’s some of the rainforest life seen at Allpahuayo-Mishana….enjoy…(technical note: you can pause the slide show by dragging over photo and clicking stop button)…

June 7, 2012 | Categories: Peru Trip April/May 2012 | Leave a comment

Samiria River trip in Pacaya-Samiria Reserve

Typical guard post on the Samiria river

Now to the core of the trip my friend Sara and I embarked on in Pacaya-Samiria Reserve –

We arrived at the main guard post 30 hrs after leaving Nautu. From this post it was a quick boat trip to the first guard post (guardaparque) where we awaited for a boat transfer.The big boat went back to the village of San Martín de Tipishca community – who were the organizers of our trip – and the following day a small boat with a peque-peque showed up in the morning for our journey into the reserve proper. In the small boat were Sara, myself, Marta (our cook), Blås (guide), and Ristec (guide/boatman).  Since the guard stations were the only places one could sleep where there was no water – that is where we slept the following 8 nights in spare rooms or literally in the main offices of the station.

The typical bug net sleeping set up

Basically, we loaded up all our gear most days into the boat and motored upriver exploring as we chose. Some days were more adventurous as we took ‘corte caminos’ (shortcuts) or went deep into the flooded forested areas to reach hidden cochas (lakes). We usually motored 4-8 hours a day – with a combination of motoring and stops when we spotted things such a river dolphins, monkeys, neat birds, a sloth, or anything else noteworthy. Photographing was a little tricky as we were in a covered boat that was often moving or rocking a little – so, I just did my best. To start, here’s a few images of the common scenery along the Samiria river. We were surrounded by rainforest at all times as that is what Pacaya-Samiria Reserve is – rainforest with a few large rivers bisecting the forest.

Reflections of rainforest in the river

Puesto de control – area of control with turtle hatchery

Epiphytes up in a lush tree

Wildlife Conservation Society Vessels

Cultivated banana plants in the reserve

Sunset along Samiria River while canoeing

Okay, this format of the blog seems okay. Now I will upload some slideshows next of wildlife sitings….onto next post

June 3, 2012 | Categories: Peru Trip April/May 2012 | Leave a comment

Pacaya-Samiria journey – Part 1

On our way into Pacaya-Samiria Reserve from Nauta, Peru –

From the smaller jungle city of Nauta – our boat trip began. Nauta is similar to Iquitos in that it is also a ‘rainforest-river-locked’ city. The development of the Nauta-Iquitos road is fairly recent and has led to destruction of the roadside forests more or less and the subsequent rise in Malaria cases in the area (due to increase of backwater flooded areas and increased human population. For more on that, go to National Geographic July 2007 issue.)

The plan was to get on a somewhat faster boat to get into Pacaya-Samiria Reserve so that we could have more time deep in the reserve. The plan did not quite end up working out that way, unfortunately. We boarded a 30 foot long wooden boat that belonged to the community that was hosting the trip early in the morning – before sunrise. The trip was supposed to take all-day – somewhere in the scheme of 12 hrs – but, ended up going overnight…making the trip almost 30 hours total!!

On the ride, we had some motor problems which left us with one 40HP outboard running a 30+ foot long that must have weighed over 2 tons. That may sound exaggerated, but we were at least 15 total passengers, loads of supplies for various communities on the way, our personal supplies and gear, dozen of gallons of gas, and the boat itself. Anyone who knows motors or boats, would understand how underpowered we were – and add to that, we were going against the current of the Marañon River. Most of the boat photos you see are of our loaded boat. It was actually a fairly pleasant ride most of the way – blue skies, water everywhere, various forms of river traffic coming and going. The boat traffic ranged from the huge Amazon River boats full of passengers and cargo down to the simplest dugout canoes propelled by one or two paddlers on their way to fish or to unknown destinations. The most common form of transport were the small peque boats (sometimes called peque-peque) run by one 5-15HP engine that is connected to a long 8 foot drive-shaft. Peque-peque’s only go forward, they do not have a reverse like more modern outboard engines. More on that later (video too).

Anyhow, when the sun began to set on the Marañon River our boat slipped into a riverside community for the night. Everyone on board slept on the boat somehow – and Sara and I were dropped into the living room of an inundated thatch hut. This was rather frustrating for a few reasons: 1) as we attempted to set up a tent in the people’s home we were in, a tent pole snapped, 2) the house was full of smoke from the commonly burning fire people have in their homes (for cooking or mosquitos), 3) later at night, rats began running about the house (due to the Amazon River flooding, rats and other animals like snakes were more concentrated around homes – due to lack of higher ground/terra firma), 4) we really didn’t eat much that day, 5) our ‘plan’ was to get to the reserve a little more quickly on this community boat. The night passed, and we were on our way again at sunrise…I got a little grumpy with our boat captain and his sister, as their father had arranged for our entire trip, and it seemed as if they were a little unprepared for the trip. Making the best of it, we all just accepted the situation and by noon on the second day (30 hrs into boat trip #1) we arrived at the main puesto de control for Pacaya-Samiria Reserve. The reserve is guarded by a series a guardeparques (park guards) who patrol the rivers by boat and carry out other official duties (like running small river-turtle hatcheries at the posts). We checked in, paid our fees (120 soles for 7 days, or $40 American dollars to me), and with permits in hand we went on our way to the first puesto de control inside the reserve where our trip would change pace when we switched to a smaller boat with just 5 of us heading upriver….the photos attached to this post sum up the stage of the trip from Nauta to puesto numero uno – where the bigger boat dropped us off.

May 31, 2012 | Categories: Peru Trip April/May 2012 | Leave a comment