6/8/2014

At 9:00 am, we took a taxi from the Fitzcarraldo to the Dorado Plaza Hotel in the center of town where we met the tour bus. From there, we took a pretty good paved road 90 km to Nauta to meet the Clavero.

Nauta, on the Maranon River upstream from Iquitos, has a population of about 30,000 and is a classic Amazon basin town, bamboo houses on stilts with rusty tin roofs strung out along the river. We boarded over a too narrow gang plank and went directly to the dining room. While we ate, the captain took us down river to the confluence of the Ucayali and Maranon Rivers where the Peruvians claim the Amazon begins. Apparently the Brazilians claim the Amazon begins hundreds of miles farther downstream.  Nevertheless, it was a pretty impressive sight to see these two might rivers merge. The Pacaya-Samiria Nature Reserve (5,000,000 acres, half the size of Switzerland) begins in the triangle between the two rivers and extends up river between these two impressive watersheds. The reserve is known as a flooded rainforest in which 90% of its surface is covered with water during approximately six months. During our trip, the water level was dropping but still water extended deep into the forest floor.  

From the confluence of these two mighty rivers, we headed back up river and at about the level of Nauta again, we boarded an aluminium skiff and at about 4 pm set off up a small tributary snaking out of the Reserve looking for birds and animals. In the hour and a half on the water, we saw 3 sloths, one with a baby, high up in trees overlooking the water and a big aquatic lizard high up in the crook of a tree. We also saw numerous birds. Down the river came a low-slung dugout canoe with three rough looking guys in it with a huge chainsaw. We thought that these three could be illegal loggers and further up, we saw 8 big logs lashed together floating down stream. Obviously the three we saw earlier were up to no good. Darkness falls quickly in the Amazon so very soon it was pitch dark as we returned to the Clavero. We had a good meal of fried catfish and went to bed early since we are off in the skiff at 6 am tomorrow.



Suspected poachers (illegal loggers).

Birds everywhere.

Three-toed sloth.