Trans-Amazon Expedition

Week 4

When we ran into this fisherman with his boat loaded with many different kinds of fish, we knew our dinner that night would be good.

Two hundred miles before the water of the Huallaga River empties into the Amazon, it flows past Peru’s largest national park. The Pacaya Samiria National Reserve protects over 5 million acres of lowland rainforest and remains one of Peru’s most remote and least-visited parks. We planned to spend two weeks paddling down the Samiria River, which flows through the center of the reserve and then joins the Huallaga River before empting into the Amazon River.

To get to the headwaters of the Samiria River we would need to travel 6 miles through rainforest with our canoes and supplies along a cart path, which starts in the bustling town of Lagunas. Luckily, we found two horse-drawn carts to haul our canoes and supplies over the muddy trail. Several times the carts became mired in middle of the soupy trail, but with everyone pushing and lifting we managed to deposit all of our supplies on a bank of clear stream that quickly disappeared into the dense forest.

As we pushed off with our paddles, it was evident that a new stage of our journey was about to begin. We were entering one of the most remote sections of rainforest left in South America. For the next two weeks we would be traveling though a very special place where animals still dominate the landscape.

The fringes of the park are explored by a few hundred tourists each year and it is not uncommon to find local fishermen out tending their nets. We took advantage of this whenever possible and purchased fresh fish from any fishermen we encountered. Oftentimes our money was refused by men who probably thought it strange to buy fish in a wilderness so full of aquatic life. “It’s a gift, good luck with your journey,” they would say with a smile before disappearing into the flooded forest to check another net.

Now we have left the fishermen behind and every day the number of animals we encounter increases. The sounds of the forest are a constant reminder of how alive the forest is. In the predawn darkness we are awakened each morning to the low growl of male Howler Monkeys defending their territories with their rolling call.

The morning is the best time to be on the water, because many of the animals are active before the heat drives them deep into the forest. Monkeys and birds fill the trees, but for me the true king of the forest is the River Dolphin. Two species of dolphins live in the Amazon Basin, hundreds of miles from the nearest ocean. These curious, intelligent mammals often follow us for miles, and occasionally swim right under out canoes.

Traveling through the Pacaya Samiria National Reserve is like traveling back in time hundreds of years. The park is like a bubble of pristine forest surrounded by slash and burn farms, and denuded forests stripped of their natural inhabitants.

Soon our journey through the park will end, but hopefully this amazing natural treasure will continue to be protected and preserved.