The real jungle adventure and how Borja ate Oscar

You will now read about the most adventurous of our actions during this trip. That is because we went to a place that no guide book ever mentioned and all this just to save a few money!

We heard about an amazonian jungle reservation that could be visited. But we would be on our own. So we dared to descend the safety of the boat to Yurimaguas after 160 km down the Amazon and the Marañon rivers, in a tiny village called San Pedro. From there we took another boat to cross the river to the other side. Getting in that second boat was what scared us the most. Borja with his white pants got stuck in the mud and myself fell on the slippery ground almost into the river. From that moment we started to somehow regret our decision and call eachother crazy.


But we relaxed a little bit as we arrived to the reservation's entrance (Pacaya - Samiria): they had there a parabolic antenna (great! there is civilization here after all!!) and the person in charge explained us about their projects. Like how to protect the turtles by taking care of their eggs and how to pick up the aguaje fruits directly from the tree instead of cutting them down first (the trees were safe now).

Next we went to the '20 de enero' village where we were told we could hire a guide to show us the jungle. That's how we met Augustin, father of 10, that after a few discussions accepted to be our guide. We were supposed to sleep in his suspended house, in the first terrace, where we put our hammoc and tent. That's how my days of eating the same started (eggs, of course, they did not have anything else that wasn't fish for me) and that's how Borja's days of best meals started (fish freshly caught from the river).


We took our first walk through the jungle with lots of explanations from Augustin's side. We saw loads of ants, monkeys, weird trees, butterflies, and all sorts of birds. We slowly started to calm down and realize we did a good and courageous thing coming there on our own. That the only danger we were facing were the horrible and numerous mosquitos.

In the afternoon we visited the village (really small, only 300 people formed of families each with an average of 10 children). We were actually followed in everything that we did in the village by Augustin's youngest daughters Daniela, Soledad and Eugenia. Every question that we were asking them was answered with just a shy laugh. That was all the answer we were getting.

At night, in spite of all the protection against them, we suffered the attacks of various groups of mosquitos. I almost suffocated in the tent trying to avoid them, and Borja chose to directly confront them in his hammoc with the terrorist hat on his head.

The second day we went fishing in a small boat made of one tree. The river was full of fish jumping around or just resting near the banks. Augustin was fishing with his small harpoon. He could guess where the fish where hiding and to our surprise was catching loads of them. I did not want to participate into this cruel sport, but Borja was really enjoying himself. They caught a really nice big fish called Oscar. It had orange spots on it and I thought he was really stupid for allowing himself to get killed like that. Anyway, at the end of the fishing trip Borja took the lead and was killing more and more fish with the harpoon. I decided to just admire the views and the tranquility, spot the pink river dolphins that were jumping around us and hate fishermen in general. Borja enjoyed eating Oscar later that day. He said it tasted exquisitly...











Just as we returned home, the rain started. It was pouring incredible quantities of water, but only for one hour, so that we could take advantage of the time left until the end of the day. We went visiting another near by village, half an hour of walking through a muddy road. Nothing to see, really, except for the place where the villagers were keeping the turtle eggs waiting for them to hatch. As we were planning to return home, the rain started again so that we had to stop in the house of one villager. In one terrace-like house with legs (for the flodding season) lived a family of 7 children. They had absolutely nothing in there except some covers to sleep on at night, a few clothes, a place where they were cooking and some dry fish. I started wondering what that life feels like, with almost no earthly possesions. I am sure I could not make it. I would at least need a proper shower with normal water, other than the river yellowish one and a decent WC.Not the forrest!!!


That night, I assisted to the 'Fiesta patria' that the kids prepared for the national day, 28 of July. Really nice dances, jokes, theatrical interpretation of some female hero's execution, a teacher's dedicated song to the country and much more. It was funny, because lots of impredictible things were happening like a dog coming in to eat the false blood the kids used for the asassination of the hero, a dancer's tight costume fell apart, etc. and also emotional because I was part of the public, accepted to their small festivity, a private thing, not for tourists' eyes, but for the parents only.

Our last day, we went on another boat trip to a some what hidden lake where some ancient very large birds lived. They were making a wolf-like sound and apparently were really scared of people. Drank water from a liana and admired the fauna that remains an incredible place for us (spotted a slot high on a tree). So much tranquility not spoiled by any modern touch makes you pray to stay like that for ever. For the people never to wish for more and be happy with what they have. But that never happend so far...