DAY 1We set out in a leaky canoe loaded with 6 days worth of supplies and equipment. Before leaving the park ranger explained on a map how far we would penetrate into the park in 6 days (4 slow days in, 2 smashin` it out). Essentially we would be still at the border - the park covers over 2 million hectares (bigger than Wales) of lowland tropical rainforest and is home to indigenous tribes and in certain areas tourism flourish along with fishing by locals to provide food and income. The heat and sickness I was feeling abated somewhat upon embarking on the narrow shady streams, dodging wood in the water, listening to the myriad sounds of the forest and gazing at the overhanging trees smothered in vines - Josuey did all the rowing at this stage. We saw large groups of up to 150 shiny black locreros (similar to dollarbirds), noisy papagayas (macaws) and kingfishers, herons and a few different types and sizes of monkey (some of which turned to scope us out while I took photos - very cute).
By lunch time the clouds were giving welcome cover from the sun, because when it did come out it was very hot. Sometimes the overhanging trees gave cover also but with the river widening more often they didn`t. We lunched at a jungle hut, I continued to struggle, Josuey continued to paddle and the day ended at a `refugio` on stilts in a small clearing, where other tourists including Ivan the Terrible were busy checking their emails and watching DVDs.
....
Not¡¡¡ Heh heh, just checking to see if you`re still awake. ;) Actually they were just hanging 5 really. I didn`t feel very good and had to lie down, skipping dinner, drinking lemongrass tea and going down with the sun. I woke in the middle of the night and I couldn`t get back to sleep due to the humidity and warmth. Eventually I braved the mosquitoes (of which there were surprisingly few) and strolled outside and lay down on the jetty in the cooler air, listening to the various crackles, pops and whistles emitting from the crazy nocturnal birds and other creatures. Then a light breeze became stronger, and as the remote lightning drew closer it started ever so slowly to rain. It was a purely magical moment for me. After being so hot and sick the cool rain was such a blessing. True to form it hammered down, and I had to go back inside to sleep soon enough.
DAY 2The next morning Josuey`s uncle, one of the elders, prepared a jungle remedy for my ailing stomach, which was the bark of a certain tree boiled down to potion that tasted aromatic, sweet, astringent and drying to taste and looked deep red. After drinking my half-cup down I was lightly informed that I would be feeling a bit funny in the head, but only for 5 minutes or so. Yeah right. It wasn`t just my head that felt funny, my stomach was not happy at all for the next 8 hrs which included toking a little more at lunch time. After a small dinner of a little bread, coca leaf tea and a joint for the lads, we set of to hunt (for) some crocodiles. Apparently the noisy motorboat passing just beforehand had scared off the majority of the larger ones but we saw many nocturnal birds and Josuey actually managed to catch a small black caiman by hand. I patted him then sent him on his way and we returned to the hut to sleep.
It had been a great day despite my sickness. On our canoe journeys we saw and molested an 8m long anaconda (check the photo), woodpeckers, more cool monkeys, the rarer red macaws (coincidentally they have a nicer call than their common cousins, like the relationship between white and black cockatoos in Australia to which they bear no small resemblance), a tree snake and pink river dolphins. During the dry season (now, but its still very wet) the dolphins reliably hang out in a deep lake on the river close to our hut. Very cool. I wasted a lot of photos trying to capture their brief surfacing but only succeeded in running my battery dry two days into our trip. We also walked in the forest learning about medicinal and useful plants and observing massively buttressed trees of apparently only 80 years of age - they were huge. The middle of the day is insanely hot if you`re in the sun, and because I was sick all I could do for the first 2 days was lie back and let Josuey guide the canoe down the river. I sure felt like William Blake in `Dead Man`, being paddled slowly and peacefully by Nobody to a pre-determined fate.
DAY 3
I awoke after a great sleep feeling much better. The red potion had worked. It had been raining since the early hours and continued to while we relaxed in the hut. Josuey described the group of guides from 3 or 4 different companies that take tourists into the jungle from Lagunas along with the local fisherman that use and stay at the same places that we did as a family. I could see why. Although they are lamentably losing their indigenous language, their version of Spanish is an incredible sing-song dialect that seems to fit in perfectly into the other sounds of the jungle. After the rain petered out Josuey and I walked in the jungle some more, observing more massive trees, large mammal scats, eating delicious yellow passionfruit tasting fruit and drinking clean fresh creek water which was very invigorating.
After lunch we continued downriver, spotting several Mama Viejas (black collared hawk) and other impressive raptors, a little squirrel, a two-toed sloth, some deep-diving cormorants and many giant riverside trees including one massive banyan strangling the riverbank with wicked vertical roots. Josuey also stayed true to South American form - when I asked him what a majestic but small raptor was high in a tree, he looked and thought for a moment then replied `Una paloma`. It certainly wasn`t a dove - it seems a lot of locals have had problems with the words `I don`t know`, so they make the best possible guess instead, never mind the misinformation. :) We spent the night in another refugio - by this time we were deep in the jungle.
DAY 4
The next dawn I was awoken by a mechanical water pump starting - I wasn`t too impressed but assumed the locals were needing some water for the toilet or something. But then I heard the same sound coming from across the river... Not a pump. Alpha male red monkeys. Cool. Before our leisurely breakfast we stood at the edge of our house clearing exchanging inquiring looks with a gaggle of tiny black monkeys with adorable white faces and pointy ears. After that we paddled downstream to the next rainforest walk. During our many walks we encountered many different insects including armoured centipedes and frenetic water skaters, also lizards, amazing fungii, beautiful butterflies of all colours and of course more freakin`birds¡¡ I learnt about many different native medicinal cures from things as varied as snakebite to bad luck with the opposite sex. For these people the jungle has a cure for everything. I think this is what I loved learning from Josuey the most. Most cures take between 3 days and 2 weeks, with others requiring 6 months of treatment including sexual abstinence¡¡
This particular one was essentially a tour of forest giants, but also took us to a secluded pool where many river tortoises were sunbaking on the walk. We also disturbed a large tribe of inquisitive white monkeys. Then Josuey opened a large seed capsule to reveal `Cacao de la selva`, with a sweet white flesh surrounding crunchable nutty seeds - I gorged myself on them. Apparently they are also used for commercial chocolate production. Then the giant trees began. Not exceedingly tall, but huge at the base with massive plank buttress and thick round trunks. These giants were all over 200 years old. After much oohing and ahhing, I was brought to the mother, a 600-year old fig of probably 50m of height. Its buttresses angled down starting some 10m up from the soil and then snaked off into the forest some 10m or more also. The entire tree was covered in lianas, basket ferns and the endless variety of lichen, moss and other ferns. I`ve seen many impressive trees but in the middle of the Peruvian Amazon this one could top the list, I feel. A beautiful climax for the trip.
Continuing on the track we saw the tracks of a domestic cat-sized forest feline. Soon after Josuey paused, looking intently into the greenery, and then ever-so-politely asked me for permission to chop down a tree. Sure. Why not¿ My type of gig. So after 20min of non-stop hacking with his machete he brought down a large chonta palm of some 12m. But it still wasn`t accessible having been caught in another palm. He then easily climbed into that palm to chop out the 60cm of the newest growth of the trunk. He then peeled off the extra outer, outer, outer middle, middle, inner middle and inner skins of the trunk to find the soft lush palm heart. It was truly delicious, but realistically could only feed 3 people for one meal. A lot of work and waste to get not much. We left our edible remains on the path for `the pumas and forest pigs`. While waiting for the sun to dissipate a little, we saw a much louder and bigger commotion on the water than is usually given by the many different types of splashing fish. This was a paiche, the largest freshwater fish in the world reaching 250kg and 3m in length. On our canoe back to the refugio we observed markings of the locally rare tapir in the river bank. There we stopped at one of the series of permanent nets placed parallel to the bank to trap fish by local fishermen. There must have been many kilometres of this netting inside the park. In the 3m of net we saw, there were 3 fish caught in the net dying slowly underwater and 2 dead on the surface. Now, I love waste. But this is ridiculous. It seems to me that if people have a seeming abundance of something they couldn`t care less if it is wasted, be it native fish or fossil fuels. The waste I saw here was atrocious. The fish we had from the net for lunch, however, was delicious. Later it rained again. Hard. For 4 hrs straight.
DAY 5
We packed up and set off up river the next morning and I felt a little sad. The unbelievably musty, decaying, delapidated house made out of mould and mildew with bits of wood stuck to it had grown on my the two nights we were there. On this day we both paddled for the 6hr strong paddle upstream - after the heavy rain the river was up and flowing. Of course we passed and observed more monkeys, mama viejas, garbilans and paiche. The highlight of the day was a black water side-trip; a long network of clear still black backwaters to a spot where river otters regularly gather - but not that day. But we did see a 2-metre long crocodile. After lunch I grew very tired due to a lack of sugar and a very sore arse and struggled to keep up with Josuey. I had been teaching Josuey English, which was coming along well enough - his main problem being the pronunciation. But this day we had a great breakthrough. Josuey had mastered the speaking of and several different modes of using the word `fuck` - including with an Aussie accent. At the refugio someone had caught a Galapago tortoise of some 80cm head to stumpy tail. It was very ugly and smelt bad.
DAY 6
The next day was again paddling upstream. By this time my upper body was accustomed to the repetitive motions of paddling and steering, but my arse was still not used to the hard wooden seat. We smashed it for 4 hrs before a quick prepared lunch at a little beach under the trees. While we were resting it started raining, slowly at first and then heavily, but nonetheless we pushed on upriver. Actually the rain was very refreshing for the first hour of our two hour push to the ranger station. The day was punctuated by a lot of curious monkeys and a few indescribably cute green loros (parrots) that don`t fly so well. Back at Control we endured more smashing rain until our bike-ute arrived well later. The bike-ute had slightly more grunt than a mototaxi and we loaded 8 people and luggage onto it for the half-ride, half-push through the muddy potholed road back to Lagunas. 4 Swedish girls sat in the front, didn`t once get off or offer to help at all and said no thanks, in fact saying nothing much at all. Wankers. Oh well, back in Lagunas.
PS Special thanks to Sven from Germany who was also journeying at the same time and has lent the first several photos due to my lack of camera. We saw similar things on my trip but I think he got some great shots including the stone frog¡
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