The Amazon Jungle (Southern Peru Part 4)

When we planned our trip we thought we should try and cover a chunk of Bolivia while we are "in the area". But of course distances - and travel times - usually turn out way longer than expected. So before we even got to Cusco we changed our mind and decided that we would travel to Bolivia another time and rather make use of the opportunity to explore another fascinating place in southern Peru: Manú National Park.

Manú comprises approximately 19,000 square kilometres of protected area. This is a bit smaller than Wales or let's say Slovenia, and to put it into perspective, there are about 100 countries in the world which have a smaller territory. It is yet another UNESCO World Heritage Site, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and the largest National Park in Peru. It is located in the south-western corner of the Amazon Basin and is apparently one of the places on Earth with the greatest biodiversity owing to the different ecosystems that can be found between its highest and lowest points (ca. 150 - 4200m above sea level).

The Park is divided into three different zones. The bulk of it is virtually inaccessible and home to a few indigenous tribes which are either uncontacted or live in voluntary isolation. "Voluntary isolation" means that they know that there is a different world out there, but they don't want to be part of it, and they are likely to shoot arrows instead of wanting conversation if one happens to come into contact with them. Secondly, there is the "cultural zone", the least protected and most easily accessible of the three, along the Madre de Dios River where there are a few settlements, tourist lodges and the only road access. The third zone is the "reserved zone", which essentially is a bit of a compromise between the "cultural zone" and the "inaccessible zone", meaning the only access is by boat and there are only a couple or so very small permanent settlements. Tourist can enter this zone but only with one of the approved tour operators and only subject to permission from the National Park Authority. That's what we signed up for.

It took the better part of three days to travel from Cusco to our camp in the reserved zone, even though one is only 200km or so from the other. That's one day in a minibus travelling from Cusco through the Andes to the cloud forest to the rain forest, followed by one day going down the Madre de Dios River in a smallish boat to a settlement called Boca Manú, followed by almost another day going up the Manú River to a rustic camp in the jungle.

Loading the boat - the flying backpack did not end up in the water, in case you were wondering

Travelling by boat through the rain forest is actually a great way of spotting wildlife (way easier than walking as we figured out!) and so the journey was rather interesting and not nearly as tiresome as it may sound.

A Capped Heron 

A Black Caiman on the river bank (with her baby, kind a hard to see in front her tail)

When visiting the Amazon one should be prepared for bumping into a few interesting creatures, such as a couple of snakes, nocturnal wasps (beware of this link if you suffer from trypophobia), a scorpion spider or giant ants:

A Bullet Ant

But most of the time we were actually filled with awe as opposed to adrenalin and felt very priviledged to be able to visit such a remote and relatively untouched place. We came in contact with an incredible amount of species, we spotted jaguar tracks on two occasions, saw 5 or 6 species of monkeys (the spider monkeys peed on us), an ant eater, a couple of caimans, a pig and a Coati crossing the river, giant otters, countless spiders, frogs and birds and a few others.

 A family of Giant Otters 

Leaf Cutter Ants

The trunk of a massive Kapok Tree

Who is the prince(ss)? - a tree frog

Nevertheless, it is fair to say we were out of our comfort zone during much of the trip. The humidity, the mosquitos (as well as having to apply nasty DEET to our clothes and skin several times a day) and occasional creepy crawlers each played their part . 

Our little expedition consisted of the two of us, our guide Ketty, our cook Señora Guille (both travelled with us from Cusco), and three local men who were in charge of the boat. Señora Guille did a great job keeping the entire lot well fed (yay - vegan food for everyone, the paying customer is king and everyone else eats what they eat!)

Papaya for mid-morning snack

Ketty was very good at spotting wild life, pointing out other interesting things all the time and apart from that was a very friendly and chatty person. You could tell that she loves Manú and her job and we very much enjoyed her company and the explanations she gave us for all the questions we had.

A ripe Cocoa fruit (tastes great!)

The tour operator we travelled with pride themselves on working closely with the local communities who live in Manú, so that they benefit at least in a small way from the money that arrives with the tourists. These people often follow a subsistance lifestyle and don't have many other forms of income. We felt very safe the entire time with our local boat drivers.

Nevertheless we made the observation that there is a gap to be bridged between the desire to get a piece of the tourism pie, and being part of a low impact type endeavour which the jungle tourism in Manú is meant to be about. And so it is sad to see the rubbish piling up in some of the local settlements where these people live along the Madre de Dios River. Or the lack of - or disinterest in - family planning. Or the supersticious approach to explaining the world where black magic and love potions play a role. That's what happens when the traditional jungle lifestyle is replaced by 20th (and now 21st) century civilization within one generation or so.

Of course it's not entirely fair for us tourists, who clearly have the much greater eco footprint, to be judgemental about such things. But we thought "working with the local communities" should perhaps extend beyond providing jobs and cash.

The Manú River from near our camp

Interestingly, we learnt that in this part of Peru one of the threats (but not the only one) to the rainforest is the informal (or illegal?) small scale gold mining that has already destroyed much of the jungle especially around Puerto Maldonado only 150km down-river from Manú National Park. It reminded us again of the reasons why we decided against showing off our marital status by means of silly gold rings...

On the way back to Cusco we stopped in the "Dos Loritos" animal shelter on the last day, where a local man raises orphaned animals that other locals found in the forest (although we didn't quite dare to ask with too much depth how the "found in the forest" part works). The interesting thing is that the shelter is in the forest so as the animals are not caged, they can leave when they feel like it.

"Mochila", the orphaned sloth baby

The resident blue and yellow Macaw at the "Dos Loritos" animal shelter

A few more photos for those interested here:

And this was the end of our peruvian trip, we went back to Cusco, then Tacna by overnight bus, then Arica and then back to Santiago. In the end, we travelled a lot less than we had planned and covered a much smaller area but we spend more of our time experiencing and less on a bus which we both thought was well worth it!