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| Photo by Jann Segal |
A
trip to the the Peruvian Amazon is a trip of quiet riverboat luxury,
adventure, and unexpectedly delightful sights and sounds. This author traveled
with OverseasAdventure Travel on
their Amazon River Cruise and Rainforest trip in July of 2014. As with any OAT
trip, there are always wonderful surprises lurking. On this trip, it was at the
end of a long day aboard a skiff when we took a night time excursion into the
depths of an Amazon tributary in the Pacaya-Simiria National Reserve.
The
Pacaya-Simiria National Reserve is one of the largest protected reserves in the
Amazon and the second largest in Peru. The area covers over 20,000 km or over 127,000
miles. Only two percent of it has been impacted by deforestation, and it is
rich in wild life, vegetation, and a fairly sizable indigenous population. This
reserve is easy to reach by boat from the small town of Iquitos, where we began
our journey after the flight from Lima.
The
first thing that delighted all of us in the evening's adventure were the
spectacular sunsets, but that was not our only surprise. We were traveling with
two naturalists who were quick to point every creature out to us using small
pinpoint flashlights. As the sun set even further and evening was upon us, our
guides skillfully navigated us into a small tributary where we were close to
the sights and sounds of the nocturnal animals. We even encountered a family of
Capybaras, a member of the guinea pig family. All nocturnal animals that live
in the rainforest close to water such as flooded grasslands, lowland forests
and marshes were ours to see that night. They just needed to be as curious
about us as we were about them.
After
our naturalist created a considerable amount of excitement by jumping out of
the skiff to grab a wild cayman and bring it back on the boat, we all settled back
down. Our trip leader took out his small flashlight and pointed out the
Southern Hemisphere constellations we would not be able to see at home like the
Southern Cross. Then he did something absolutely magical and otherwise
extraordinary. He asked us to just sit quietly, close our eyes, and listen to
the sounds of the rainforest symphony. It had, after all, been performing for
us all night, but we had been too excited to listen to the music. The frogs,
toads, katydids, crickets, and the rest of the band played their natural
nocturnal music for us under the lights of the Southern Cross, in an experience
that could only be had in Peru and the wilds of the Amazon. It was truly an
encounter with nature that every traveler with a curiosity for eco-tourism should
experience.
Many
people feel they can they live their entire lives and never spend six nights on
a small Amazon riverboat. Many never want to. But if you love to travel and
have new experiences, it is precisely for this reason that you should look into
taking this trip. Very often, the destinations and experiences that would never
occur to you if left to own devices, are the ones that provide the most
lingering memories.
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