August 1st, 2015
We rise early, 5:30 am before the sun, to the symphony of the untouched jungle all around us. It’s been a good sleep, lulled to dream land by the calls of countless tropical birds mixed with the sound of dolphins surfacing in the nearby river. As dawn approaches the birds only grow louder and more impressive as we sit down and enjoy a tasty and simple breakfast of porridge and biscuits before heading down to the docks for our first real outing into the Amazon.
The five of us: Tristan, Allie, Noam and Avshi climb into our small wooden canoe with Pepe as we motor upriver towards our first trail, named the three wimba’s after the three massive wimba trees near the rough and unkempt trail. These trees also lead me to a question. A-wimba-wei from the mighty jungle song, now is that referring to this type of tree specifically. Yeah, I know I just changed your life.
We land and climb up the muddy banks of the river and press into the jungle right away, Pepe leading the way with a machete in hand. Already this has a different feeling than the Ecuadorian amazon where I stayed on the more trodden path, where all the trails were shorter and much more manicured.
Maybe 10 minutes into our walk through the dense jungle Pepe cuts off trail to show us one of many lagoons on the Tapiche reserve. It’s beautiful and in the distance we can see caiman’s and hear frogs singing to each other.
We cut our way back to the trail where we encounter our first sign of animal life up close in the form of a giant armoured millipede which Pepe quickly picks up for us to have a closer look, and to remove it from the path, since we already almost stepped on it.
We eventually deposit the millipede on a nice leafy patch of ground and continue on our way reaching the first wimba, an incredibly massive tree standing out in the jungle of ancient trees and stretching up above the canopy. If I was a treehugger I’d need lots more tree huggers just to hug this one tree. We also find an impressive termites nest.
After another half our or so of climbing through the jungle we reach the second wimba tree where we encounter a little more insect life in the form of another wimba tree and a sider half the size of my hand, as well as some awesome mushrooms and fungus.
Pepe then shows off for us, scaling the Wimba tree in bare feet using a combinations of vines and handholds and making it look easy. I can’t be bothered to get my rubber boots off (your best friend in the jungle, but some of the others do give it a go, tristan managing to get just about as high as Pepe.
As they finish climbing I do the best I can to clean my face of sweat. The jungle is incredible, but it’s also incredibly hot and humid. Thank god the walk is mostly flat, even if it’s not that easy as were climbing over fallen logs and cutting our way through the thick undergrowth regularly. Still, as I clean up a beautiful butterfly floats by, not the last one we’ll see in Tapiche.
After a while longer walking through the greenery we find a fallen log and sit down to make a picnic out of the rest of our breakfast. Fruit, a hardboiled egg, and more biscuits later and we’re on our way. This time it doesn’t take long before we spot our first monkey in the distant canopy above. He looks down at us with interest as a few others join him in rustling the trees even further away before he too makes a run for it,Pepe tells us he’s likely headed for a nearby fruit tree that is a favourite of the white fronted capuchin’s.
By this point we’ve reached the third wimba and are about to head back the long trail (Perhaps the only failing of Tapiche Reserve is that the trails are not loops, though when you consider the terrain you can kind of understand why.) when Pepe signals for silence and we all stop moving. He listens carefully searching for a specific sound and then turns and whispers that he’s heard the red faced huakari monkeys in the distance. We leave the trail behind instantly but get to a grove of trees they are known to frequent just too late, missing our chance to see these rare and beautiful animals in the wild, though I will later get to see them in a rehabilitation centre outside Iquitos.
A little sad we head back on the long walk back to the boat, which passes more quickly than I’d expected it to. Along the way we find our first frog and catch a brief glimpse of some other smaller black monkeys up in the trees. While searching for them I snap a picture of a black shape in the tree which turns out to be a massive toucan with it’s head turned away. A lucky find.
We climb back into the boat exhausted and drenched in sweat and head back downriver to the lodge. Lunch is already ready but I’ve got a plan first, after getting quick permission from Pepe immediately peeling off my clothes and jumping into the river. The water despite it’s brown colour is cool and refreshing, though the all but invisible current is deceptively strong and keeps you swimming hard or staying close to the shore. either way it’s just what was needed after the long hot and sticky jungle walk.
We then go and eat a very hearty lunch (Pasta, Rice, Tuna and several other things) before taking a half hour break and getting ready for our afternoon excursion, searching for Caimans and Dolphins from the boat.
I head down to the dock early before everyone else and am amazed to find a huge collection of butterflies flitting through the sun filled air. Slowly I’m joined by the rest of the group just Henrietta falls in love with my camera, a beautiful yellow butterfly she is, and she refuses to leave her perch on my camera for about ten minutes, giving me an up close and personal view of these beautiful creatures. In the end we almost end up getting married. Sadly, as Henrietta was on my camera I couldn’t get any good pictures of her, but i did snap some of her friends before she claimed my camera.
Jose and Pepe both arrive and after a brief wait for us all to be ready we climb into the boat and get going, motoring off upriver sticking close to the shoreline in search of caimans. The sun is out and scorching but it does make the river and jungle glow in a whole knew way, billowing white clouds filling the sky and reflecting surprisingly clearly in the murky waters.
It doesn’t take too long for Jose to spot our first caiman, a young one, sunning itself on the muddy banks of the river. Through some incredible stoke of luck it doesn’t seem to mind as we pull our boat up close to it, killing the motor and paddling in until we’re just a few feet away. The creature just lies there enjoying the sun and looking entirely prehistoric. I’m brought back to my first trip out of Canada and the U.S. back when I was 16 going to Costa Rica 11 years ago and cruising down a river looking at these things. That trip definitely ignited the spark of travel and since then I’ve done pretty well. It’s a cool moment of reflection as I snap a few photos of the creepy looking creature.
We continue along the river, eventually crossing to the other side and hearing before spotting this loud and incredible looking bird, which squawks at us incessantly and watches us with unhidden interest, constantly changing it’s perch to keep us better in sight.
As we watch the bird Dolphins dance in the river all around us we’re very torn where to look, though the dolphins eventually disappear downriver making our choice easier. Eventually we continue along up river and before too Long Jose has spotted another caiman for us, this one is even smaller and has caked itself in mud turning it a bright white colour in the sun. Sadly this one is a little more shy and slips into the river.
We spot a few more dolphins and ask to hang out around them but Jose and Pepe explain we’re heading to a better place to observe the dolphins from where two rivers intersect and so we continue along leaving the two pink dolphins behind and hoping are guides aren’t wrong. We learn quickly not to doubt them as we reach the intersection of rivers and dozens of dolphins surface all around our boat. We kill the motor and just drift, marvelling at these incredible creatures surfacing and sometimes even jumping up out of the water. Both species are represented, the grey dolphins and the rarer pink ones.
For those who’ve not tried, photographing these beautiful and mystical beasts (there’s all kinds of local legends of dolphins attracting and impregnating village women) it’s very hard to get them in frame, so, though we sat in the boat surround by them for over an hour, I only have a few pictures with them even in it. Better than my results with the one dolphin i saw up in Ecuador.
Eventually the sun dipping low in the beautiful jungle skies we head back downriver towards the reserve, exhausted, but all utterly thrilled with the day we have, and excited by the knowledge that there’s more to come. So much more. Stay tuned.
