The Manu National Park and Biosphere Reserve
The story of my second trip to Manu in 2009
Manu Biosphere Reserve is in the South Eastern Corner of Peru and is located in the Manu National Park. The Manu National Park itself is one of the most important national parks in the Amazon region and is also one of the most diverse national parks in the world. But that is not the total story. This National Park is one of the largest conservation areas on earth covering an altitude range of 200 - 4100m above sea level encompassing a wide range of microclimates and terrains. In this area is a natural diversity that is unrivalled with 13 species of primates and over 1000 bird species alone, plus there are several indigenous groups living within the park and within the reserve with little knowledge of the outside world. Needless to say, permits to visit the reserve area are difficult to come by, with the majority of the reserve area being strictly off limits to tourism. However, the National Park and part of the Reserve does welcome tourists with a controlled permit scheme to a designated area.
The Manu National Park is at the crossroads of the Rio Manu and the Rio Alto Madre de Dios. To the Northwest of this intersection is the majority of the Biosphere Reserve, where entry is prohibited except to registered biologists and anthroplogists. Along the Rio Alto de Madre there are the settlements in the national park, made up mostly of people from the Andes and private reserves, where people's income is derided from tourism or logging. This area is an official buffer zone for the Reserve area. To the north are the reserved areas for the indigenous people.
This was to be my second trip into the national park. My first was in May of this year, when a friend of mine, Karina and I undertook a five day visit to the Bonanza Property, close to the village of Intahunia. This property is owned by the Huamani Choquepuma family, who have been running ecological tours on their property and to the Biosphere Reserve for the last ten years. This family business is run by the three sons, William, Ryse and Boriz and their sister Lourdes from an office in Cusco. The property and tourist lodge are maintained by their parents. That particular tour was lead by Ryse and Boriz and was one of the most efficiently run tours I have experienced. We also saw plenty of wildlife including several spieces of monkey, many birds and some rather large insects. The highlights included the bizzare Cock of the Rock, the national bird of Peru, Saddle-back Tamarin Monkeys, Capybara, Woolly Monkeys and the tracking of up to fifty Peccary (Wild Pigs) through Bonanza. We also saw tracks from Jaguars, Pumas and Tapirs, but missed the actual animals. It was during this trip that Ryse asked if I would be interested to return to Bonanza in late July, to help with a particular project they were starting at Bonanza. This project was the construction of a viewing platform, above a clay lick on the property. This clay lick was frequented by many animals and birds daily as they need to top up their mineral intake. Consequently the family decided to construct this platform to enable visitors to see the Jaguar, Tapir, Peccary, Puma and some jungle dwelling birds. My job would involve sitting ontop of the platform and recording when these animals visited the clay lick, so they could develop a timetable of when to take the tourists. This seemed such a great opportunity for me, to see these rare animals and others in this wonderful enviroment, so I agreed. Ryse mentioned he had students coming in August to sit on the platform and record the wildlife, but that the construction would finish in mid-July, so I could have these two weeks. We agreed that I could base my self at their jungle lodge (Bonanza) and I would provide my basic food and water. I would have access to his parent's supply of fruit and vegtables and his solar panel charger. Ryse said he would also try and get someone to accompany me.
In the meantime Karina and I left to travel Bolivia, where we visited the Beni River in Bolivia (the same river as Manu, just a different local name) to do a Pampas Trek. Pampas is the wetland area and river areas that surround the Rio Beni in the Maldidi National Park on the other side of the boarder. Despite some unseasonal weather that disrupted our stay there, we managed to see a vast selection of animals, including Howler Monkeys, the Pink River Dolphin, Black Caymen, Squirrel Monkeys and again thousands of birds. Highlights included viewing the River Dolphins catching a snake, fishing for Pirhana, seeing the White-necked Heron catch fish and watching the Caymens fight.
After Karina had left, I travelled to Argentina and Brazil through Paraguay to see the spectacular Iguazu Waterfalls, then I started to retrace my footsteps to Cusco, to meet up with Bonanza Tours. The final leg of my journay was a long 12 hour journey from La Paz in Bolivia to Cusco along the Alto Plana at up to 4,300m high. Unfortunately this was accompanied by a rather nasty spot of food poisoning from the La Paz bus terminal, contracted over breakfast. By the time we reached the boarder with Peru, I was complaining about what I thought was altitude sickness induced nausea to a fellow traveller from Sweden sitting next to me. However, as we left the bus to go through customs, it was obvious to me it was not altitude sickness. I was then sick when a Bolivian customs official was trying to stamp my passport. Luckily, I had excused myself and he appeared not to notice anything when I returned from the rather putrid bathroom. Then as I crossed the Friendship Bridge into Peru, I was sick a further four times, in full view of the Peruvian Health Officials, actually on the bridge. Luckily again, they appeared not to notice (incredibly), and as this was during the Swine Flu Pandemic, I was concerned they might take action. I then felt better for a while, until we got back on the bus when I started to vomit again. The Swedish man was definately pleased to get off at Puno. Consequently I arrived in Cusco, exhausted, but strangely, feeling better.
The Second Manu Trip
So it was on a fresh Monday morning that I presented myself to the Bonanza Office in accordance with Ryse's wishes. Ryse himself was in Huacachino and told me he would meet me in Bonanza in a fortnight. Lourdes and Boriz though were there to greet me and soon introduced me to Moises, a trainee guide who was to be keep me company at Bonanza and help me in my jungle activities. Moises was 25 years old and was in the middle of studying English in Cusco. A likeable guy he had a Peruvian oval face with piercing black eyes and a mat of black hair. He was pleased to be able to practice his English. He was from a local village close to Bonanza where his sister was a local school teacher and he was a friend of the Huamani Choquepuma family. Lourdes then informed me of some bad news. The weather that had blighted my Bolivian Pampas Tour had prevented construction of the viewing platform at Bonanza. In fact, other than the materials arriving at the lodge, nothing had been done, as the mud on the trail and at the site was preventing any work. Therefore Lourdes suggested that, either I continued with my plan and travel to Bonanza for two weeks with Moises and help with the construction, or I join her and her group on an trip she was taking with five tourists deep into the Biosphere Reserve to look for Jaguars for six days. Well this offer was too good to pass up, so I accepted. This left me 48 hours to prepare and buy my food, which I managed with Moises help. Although I did reduce Boriz's suggested shopping list by half as he appeared to think I had an appetite the size of an army. I could not understand the need for 10Kg of rice, 10Kg of potatoes and 10Kg of pasta for just me for 10 days.
Wednesday at five am I met Lourdes & Moises in the Cusco square and waited for other the tourists to arrive as we loaded the minibus. The other five duely arrived and were a completly constrasting mix of travellers. We had Chris, a lawyer from London who had been given an enforced holiday due to the economic crisis. He was tall, friendly looking with an army style crew cut. There was Jessie, a quiet language student from the US with a round face and strawberry hair; Katherine, a Swiss student doctor with long tawny hair raised cheek bones and that soft french anglo accent. And then there were Maggie & Tara, two young women from Denver. Tara was the dominant and older one with a pretty blond face and reminiscent of a young Glen Close. Moises asked me just after we left, "why does Tara walk like a man?" but I thought it was better to let him work that out himself, so I replied "I dont understand." Maggie was alot quieter, with friendly smile, black hair and startling bue eyes. And so, off we went.
We followed the same route as the previous trip in May, so the start of the tour was somewhat uneventful for me, until we reached Paucartambo, an Andean town that was close to the national park entrance. In May, this town had been deserted, but was famous for its fiesta - and this time we arrived in the middle of it. Dancers were dressed in formal fiesta costumes with striking masks, some portraying doll-like faces, some with white balaclavas, some with simple black masks, some with devil masks, monkey masks, masks with huge noses, death masks and strangely, nurse masks. All of this activity was washed down with copious amounts of alcohol. The town itself was packed, the traffic was chaos and there were many tourists joining in. All in all, quite an event.
Afterwards we entered the park and reached a memorial to Sven Erickson (not the Sven Goran Erickson, but a pioneer). Next we followed the windy read down into the cloud forest where unlike my first trek, we were completely unlucky as a group, spotting only a fleeting glimpse of a hummingbird. We picked up our guide, a Peruvian Biologist called Edward further down into the cloud forest and it was then that our luck started to change. Lourdes spotted a troup of Black-Capped Capuchin Monkeys next to the road almost in touching distance and they posed for us for a good twenty minutes. Then we had a quick glimpse of the Cock of the Rock bird, with it's bright red head with its distinctive mating call. Unfortunately with the late afternoon light fading, taking photos was very difficult and soon we were on our way to Pilcopata and our first night's accommodation.
Our first night was in a road side guest house as we were still some six hours travel from the Bonanza lodge, but it was comfortable enough. The following day was an early morning start, much to the disappointment of Tara and Maggie who appeared not to like mornings. We visited a cocoa farm and the town of Pilcopata, which was also engaged in its festival. It was also Pilcopata's festival. There outside the church, in front of a statue of Mary, young men in white balaclavas used whips to fight each other and "suffer pain in her honour," added Edward. It was about now that the heavens opened and for almost the rest of the morning we got soaked. We continued to Atalaya, where the road finished and we had to board a long narrow traditional river boat to journey the final four hours to Bonanza.
This part of the trip again had previously afforded great views of monkeys, water birds and parotts, but again for some reason we were again unlucky. This could have been down to the weather as it was either raining or threatening to rain as we passed. The boat itself was piloted by Henry (the same boatman from my May trip) and David. We were also joined by Deanna - the cook and were now complete, totalling eleven people. We stopped briefly at some hot springs south of Atalaya. They were next to the river in a little patch of rainforest and were certainly swollen due to the rain. Here as we sat in the hot pools, a snake swam past us in the cooler part of the river and two giant bright blue butterflies flew in and out of the jungle trees. The sun even graced us with a fleeting appearance.
Back in the boat, after a quick lunch prepared skilfully on a moving boat by Deanna, we were again hit by rain, which continued for the rest of the journey until we hit Bonanza Lodge. The lodge was a little different to my last visit. Some of the encroaching forest had been cleared and a new hammock area had been completed, but otherwise it was just the same. We were met by Ryse's parents and by William who had a group of his own already encamped at the lodge and after a short rest we were off into the Bonanza jungle with Edward. He lead us in a different direction to where I had been before. We trekked a circular route that took in Ryse's parents home, their field with their cattle and finally onto a jungle track for the evening night walk to see the insects and other creppie crawlies. Ryse's parents home was just a traditional shack with a few outlying buldings and a chicken house. In fact it transpired that the two puppies that we brought down for them in May as a present they had swapped with another local family for two chickens. They introduced us to their eight cows, all of whom Lourdes said had names and then the pet parrot and the pet Spix's Guan (which is somewhat similar to a pheasant) who was very protective of its nest. They also have a pair of giant red Macaws nesting in their clearing and several toucans are regular visitors.
Our path from the farm to the night walk area was obscured by a swollen river that I managed to ford whilst Maggie and Tara crawled over a tree trunk. As it was getting dark they were luckily oblivious to the multitude of spiders on the trunk whose eyes were picked up by the beam of my tourch. Soon it was pitch dark and the jungle took on a much more interesting almost intimate character. We all switched on our tourches and followed Edward who was on a mission to uncover everything creepy and crawley. One thing that appears in Manu in abundance is the wolf spider. This arachnid comes mostly in small to medium size (medium being small Tarantula size), and as their eyes shone in our torch beams. It was only at night that we could fully appreciate their proliferation. However they were not what we had come to look for, and yet it was not long before we did find what Edward was hoping to see, the Scorpion Spider. This is not actually a spider, but a six legged insect that is not too dissimilar to a spider, certainly a large one. Not dangerous to man, its fairly imposing growing up to diner plate size with two huge mandibles at the front, I would not want to touch one. It generally waits on tree trunks for its unsuspecting pray. Yet apart from the inch long "Bull Ants" with their nasty bite that was about all we encountered. The rain had put pay to any other insects being out and about, especially the Tarantula (which we had hoped to see). Actually in May, we had seen any Tarantulas here either.
That night the lodge was treated to alcohol fuelled party by Maggie & Tara which got progressively louder as the evening wore on. As they had spent most of the day in the boat sleeping and not looking for animals, so they were certainly not in any small way tired and their voices boomed out across the lodge in the small hours.
The next day was another early start (5.00am) and we all said goodbye to Moises, who was staying at Bonanza to help with the platform, build a boat and paint some signs. Our group headed off down river to the town of Boca Manu and the entrance to the Biosphere Reserve as Maggie & Tara slept off their night excesses in the boat. We stopped briefly at Boca Manu for petrol and then turned the corner leaving the pebble strewn Rio Alto Madre de Dios for the more windy and deep Rio Manu.
The Rio Manu was surrounded by deep, thick rainforest and we soon arrived at the Biosphere Park entrance. Here we coughed up the $50 entrance fee and we all hurried around the office using the facilities and looking at a local display of the local fauna and flora. Then it was back in the boat as the skies turned a deep blue and we were treated to the 30C humid rainforest weather for the first time since leaving Cusco.
The rainforest either side was quite impenetrable to my untrained eyes, but Edward and Lourdes kept their binoculars trained on the banks. The river itself was transporting huge felled trees down river so navigation was quite a challenge and pearched on these semi submerged branches were little blue & white Swallows, Neotropic Cormorants and White-Necked Herons. As the river wound its way downstream it also deposited huge sandbanks on the tight bends and here bright beaked Black Skimmers and the occasional White Caymen jostled for position as the sunrose higher in the sky. Our destination was the Machiguenga Lodge a further five hours up stream. The Machiguenga Tribe live further up in Manu, away from the Biosphere Reserve, so access is severly restricted. However under the conditions of the Park, they were allowed to build and run one lodge for tourists in the Reserve. There are only five lodges in this part of the Reserve. They have a family rotation policy, so every two months a different family leaves the village to manage the lodge. The lodge contained six buildings, with accomodation for the tourists, surprising comfortable bathrooms, a dinning room, communial lodge where the tribe sold bags, bows & arrows and necklaces and the family casa.
We arrived late afternoon at the lodge and met the chief and the management family, before setting off with Edward for a sunset walk into the jungle. This time Edward concentrated more on the flora, explaining the Strangulation Fig (a parasitic tree), the Erotic Tree (a tree with unusually shapped roots), The Walking Tree (a tree that 'walks' or moves by growing new roots in one particular direction, which it then uses to move towards the sunlight, discarding the roots at the back - perhaps Tolkein wasn't so ridiculous after all) and a host of other plants, many with interesting medicinal attributes.
As the sun drpped below the canopy we turned our attention back to the insects and as our torches came on the proliferation of Wolf Spiders was again apparant and the beams picked up their eyes like city lights seen from a plane. Edward immediately said, "look for the blue coloured eyes, not these white ones - as the blue belong to the Tarantulas." It was towards the end of the trip with the lodge in sight that he at last spotted one. This was a big one, waiting next to the entrance of its burrow. However, as we (especially a now fully awake Maggie & Tara) charged over to see it, it quickly retreated back underground. No amount of coaxing could get it out, including the gift of a live Cricket at the entrance. After a while we gave up and with just a glimpse of some large hairy legs, we all agreed to try the following night.
Back at the lodge Edward filled us in on the planned activities for the main day of the tour tomorrow, with the customary early start of 5.00am, whilst Maggie & Tara discussed how they were going to acquire some alcohol here in the middle of the jungle.
Amazingly it was a loud long night again as Maggie & Tara met a well prepared Anthropology student from Chicago who was living with the Machiguenga. He did have some alcohol, but things got out of hand at 1.00am when they had a huge fight and Tara kept up Jessie and Katherine most of the night with her blow by blow accounts. When it came to 5.00 am Chris and I were the only ones on time, and after a quick breakfast, we were all off by boat (most passengers arriving rather the worse for wear, considering their night's activities).
We negotiated the sunken trees on the Rio Manu in this beautiful misty morning as we headed towards the two famous Ox Bow Lakes, Cocha Salvador and Cocha Otorongo. These Ox Bow Lakes are of real interest to Biologists, and Edward explained that they were formed by the altering path of the Rio Manu isolating the original bends of the river and leaving behind deep lakes that occasionally get replenished with fresh water during the rainy season. These isolated Ox Bow lakes, quickly become a magnate for the jungle's wildlife including one of the rarest of Amazonian creatures, the Giant Otter.
The Giant Otter was close to being driven to extinction by hunting until it was protected and numbers have steadily risen from a low of around 500 to about 5000 today. These beautiful large creatures are most at home in the Ox Bow Lakes, however as Lourdes pointed out there are no guarranteed sightings and the last group she bought here we unlucky. We pulled into the river bank and then had to walk for about 30mins into the jungle before we arrived at the Cocha Salvador which was submerged in mist. Here there was a floating barge made from two canoes that we boarded and sat down on the wooden benches. David and Henry then paddled us slowly around the lake. Tara quickly lay down on the decking and promptly fell asleep.
Cocha Salvador was quite long, narrow and shaped like a banana. As the mist lifted, it revealed a dark green lake surrounded by over hanging jungle and tall Sabre trees and with semi submerged trees in the water. Again the bird life was prolific, but it was the chattering and splashing noises that attracted our attention, for slowly emerging from under the overhanging foliage swam a group of three or four Giant Otters fishing. They were trailed by a host of birds, Cormorants, Herons and Ringed Kingfishers, feeding on their fishy left overs. For the next two hours we paddled along side this group as they frolicked, swam, fished, played, ate. Then to our surprise one got out of the water and onto a low log and we had a great view of exactly how big these animals actually are. What was truely surprsing was the loud noises they made during this time, including the fish bone crunching they made whilst they ate. They certainly appeared to be the most agile and successful of fisherman.
At last the mist fully cleared, however by this time it was time to leave and we left the Otters behind and moved onto Cocha Otorongo, a smaller Ox Bow close to the camp. It was mid morning now and quite a bit hotter than the previous days and we climbed up to the huge canopy platform next to the lake. The view was glorious with the ox bow lake in front and the jungle behind at canopy level, however despite a few turtles we saw nothing of significance and we returned to the Machiguenga lodge for a delicious traditional lunch of chicken, olives and rice wrapped and cooked in a banana leaf.
By the time we came to our afternoon walk, the previous late night was taking its toll on some of our companions and it was a much smaller group that together with Edward headed off down river to a place with primary forest that is renowned for its monkeys. We ended up seeing three different types of monkeys that day, the Spider Monkey, the Woolly Monkey and the Squirrel Monkey. The Spider Monkeys were in a small group of three moving at the top of the canopy and seemed quite content to gaze at us down below. The Woolly Monkeys, of which I had not properly seen before, where in a much larger group feeding quite close to the river's edge. They are powerful primates but paid us below scant attention as we scrambled below them to get some photos. The Squirrel Monkeys were by far the smallest and most entertaining. They were fifty plus in an enormous group that crossed our path at just over head height as we walked through the jungle. They were noisy, jumping and chattering if we were not there. At times they were close enough to touch.
In the evening at the lodge we were all reunited for dinner, but afterwards it was just Chris and I who felt up for that evening's walk and the third attempt to see a Tarantula. Actually we didnt have to wait long as Edward spotted a juvenile male Tarantula in an old web by the walkway. He was male he said, because he had two little hairs portruding out of his rear. However, he was only about a third of the adult size (still impressive though). On we went, past hordes of Wolf Spiders including a gigantic one camaflaged on the path about the size of a saucer. This size was unusual, Edward remarked. We also spotted a flat worm, an unusal type of Praying Mantis, another gigantic Scorpion Spider and another juvenile Tarantula. However when we arrived at the same burrow as yesterday, Edward again saw the beast quickly retreat into its hole and again we couldn't coax it out for a photo. This timeEdward suggested that we continue the walk and return later using my red light torch, so this light would not frighten the spider. The rest of the walk was a little uneventful, although an owl that hooted or screamed like a distressed child was rather noteworthy. On our return I used the red light and sure enough, at the entrance to the burrow sat a very large black and grey Tarantula. It was obviously nervous as within moments of my camera flash going off, it was back in the burrow, but we had seen and recorded it. Although now as I look at the picture, its true size is not conveyed.
That night witnessed another alcohol filled Maggie & Tara party into the small hours. Blissfully I slept through it all and was awake for the final day of my trip and the first leg of the return trip home for the rest. Edward had promised a lot of animals if we got an early start, so I banged on Tara's door to make sure we hit the departure time. Lourdes unfortunately had contracted a nasty fever that night, but insisted on struggling on.
The river was very misty again, but the quantity of bird life and animals on the river beaches was substancially more than what we had seen before on this trip. The Black Skimmers were especially active, darting over the waters with their outsized red and yellow beaks open, as they skimmed the rivers for their prey. Soon there were White Cayman beached on the sands, tortoises sunning themselves in lines on logs and even a blue headed Heron. Then Lourdes excitedly whispered "JAGUAR". Sure enough, to our right on a raised river bank just below the dense folliage was a well disguised Jaguar. How Lourdes managed to spot this animal, and with a fever, I do not know, but Henry soon had the boat turned around and we cautiously approached the majestic cat. The Jaguar just eyed us back for the next twenty five minutes allowing Henry to get the boat as close as he dared, avoiding the sunken trees that lay close to the river bank. At last we were some twenty feet away when he finally stretched, got to his feet and lumbered off into the jungle, giving us a final glance as he disappeared. Well this sighting was better than anything I had hoped for, and this was a site I never expected to witness. It was one of those rare experiences that elates you and that you relieve again and again after the event. We were all enthrawled, including Edward who said he had only seen fifteen Jaguars in Manu in the past eight years.
The boat headed on downstream and as the sun rose higher the wildlife became fewer. No matter as within a short space of time we exited the Biosphere Reserve and were back in Boca Manu for petrol. We all disembarked to wander around the village. Maggie & Tara, left to find some alcohol, and I wandered with Edward towards the post office, when we came across a young Red Howler Monkey, playing amongst someone's laundry. It was a shame to see the majestic animal as a pet, but Edward said that maybe it had been orphaned and found by a villager in the jungle. At that moment Tara came bounding out of a local shop and picked up the Howler. The monkey looked completely at ease and played with her, eventually grabbing her nose.
It was about three hours later that we approached the Bonanza lodge that would become my home for the next ten days as I would leave the tour here. We were just within 500 meters of the beach when the heavens opened in a torrential deluge. This was odd as this was the dry season. We huddled on the boat for a while, Lourdes shivering away, until with no end in sight we decided to walk to the lodge. I soon met up with Moises and a new boatman Jonathan. Moises was pleased as he had finished painting the boat before the rain. The rain continued well into the evening and after dinner we played a few games as the wine, beer and then rum emerged. The rest of the group all had a 5.30 start in the morning and I thought I would get up and say goodbye, so it was an early bed for me. But the party went on and on, keeping everyone else awake and creating a notority for Tara and Maggie that I guess is still mentioned at the lodge to this very day.
My Time at the Bonanza lodge
It was misty and drizzling morning when my travelling companions all left. We said our goodbyes and I was left on the waterfront with Mr & Mrs Huamani Choquepuma and Moises. We had one more group still in the lodge for a few more days, but I think they were trying to get some extra sleep after Maggie & Tara's exploits so I stayed out of their way.
The lodge itself was a comfortable place. There were four cabins surrounding a communal dinning area and some comfortable bathrooms at the back. At the front were some staff sleeping platforms and hammocks. All of this was built in a well manicured jungle garden filled with flowers, papaya and banana trees and some platforms for placing food for monkeys. Oropendulas (a large brown and yellow bird that has nest looking like unique hanging droplet) crow noisily whilst brown and blue hummingbirds plough the flowers and large black and red butterflies drift in and out of the trees. All and all it is quite magical, especially when the Squirrel Monkeys visit which they do on the odd occasion.
In the rain it is a different story, and all you can do is shelter inside. This was the dry season, but due to a strange year or the effect of global warming, the last five weeks had resembled the wet season and the mud was almost in swamp-like proportions on the trails around the lodge. Yet the rain continued to fall and over breakfast, I now discussed with Mr Huamani Choquepuma and Moises my stay at Bonanza lodge. As agreed with Ryse, I would come and record the animal visits to the clay lick on the Bonanza property from the platform, however it was now clear that the platform had still not been built as the weather had been too wet. Too wet to even cut the wood. Also as a consequence of this weather, the number of visitors to the lodge was much lower than usual and Mr Huamani Choquepuma had been unable to get the paintbrushes and paint necessary to mark the trails from these visiting trips. So that was not such good news, as the two jobs I had been given in Cuzco by Ryse, I would now be unable to start.
We spent the rest of breakfast discussing the animals I had seen at the reserve and what I could see at the lodge with Moises. So at least I could continue my animal photography. Then (as the rain started stopping) Moises took me off to the river for my first lesson on washing clothes in the river. He was an expert and I got the hang of it rather quickly dispite my adversion to let the soap run off into the river, not that this bothered Moises. It actually took some hard srubbing to get the dirt out of my trekking clothes and if I knew then that it would take five days for the clothes to dry, because of this strange weather I would not have bothered, anyway at least it was done. Back at the lodge I found my food and decided to cook lunch, however it quickily became apparant that I was expected to provide the food for Moises. Not that that was a problem, it was just if someone had told me in Cuzco I would have bought more. Quickily I rustled up some spagetti and tuna and then Jonathan (the boatman for the other group) told me he had no food, and then Mr & Mrs Huamani Choquepuma asked if they could join and all of a sudden, I started to worry about my carefully budgeted food stock that I had bought just to last me for ten days.
Of course it was not that I could just pop down to the shops. The nearest place downstream was Boca Manu, three hours south by boat and Shintuya, two hours north. "No problem!" Moises said, "we will fish for dinner everyday." Well that sounded great, however when I asked Mr Huamani Choquepuma for vegtables and fruit later, as his son had recommended, he replied that the weather had destroyed the vegtables and the fruits we not in season. Oops.
With that in mind, the afternoons fishing took on an added significance. With the exception of three dozen eggs, everything I had brought was dried. Like pasta, soup, peas, lentils, popcorn, rice plus the necessities like coffee etc. I had a few tins of tuna and some carrots but that was it. I aslo knew that if I was feeding three people minimum per day my food would not last long. So under threatening skies we left and walked down river to an isolated pond, surrounded by palms where Haxins (a prehistoric bird, that I am convinced is mad) wheezed and whistled. "Can we eat those?" I asked Moises and he replied "no, their meat stinks."
The fishing lines we had were wound around little pieces of wood, with pebbles attached as weights and a rather large hook. Jonathan produced some gigantic looking white grubs as bait he managed to find in a rotten log. Suri they were called. "First we fish for Sardinas, which we use to catch some thing bigger," Moises explained in his pigeon English. And within a few minutes we had several tiny silvery Sardinas writhing on the rocks.
Off we clambered, down to a bigger isolated lake where we cast out lines, now with half a Sardina. Soon a troop of Squirrel Monkeys were watching while a few meters down a Cayman sunbathed in the dying sun's rays. First Jonathan, and then (surprise, surprise) me, caught a large fish. Long and thin, it had the most fercious teeth, so much so I let Moises extract the hook and then dispatch them. We now certainly had enough for the three of us, although we weren't sure whether it would just be us.
We got back to the lodge as the sun set and immediately took the opportunity to cook in the last rays of sunlight. The lodge has no electricity, so its candle light and torch light - but there was one solar panel which I used to charge my camera batteries, when the sun shone. Frying the fish was the only alternative and in true South American style we had the carbohydrate overload of fried potatoes and rice as the accompanyment. It was tasty if a little oily.
Bed was relatively early and I awoke early to a cloud filled and rain threatening day. We therefore decided to tackle the trail signs we had been asked to write and paint to highlight the numerous trails surrounding the lodge. However without the right paint brushes and paint this was a futile experience and we had to give up eventually, especially as all the wood was also sopping wet. At least the birdlife and the insect life at the lodge thrived when the sun came out. Several Oropendulas were eating papayas from the tree opposite the dining room and I positioned myself and my camera so I could get a good view.
For lunch we tucked into an omlete and then the heavens opened again. This really was most unusual and it contrasted completely with the weather we had experienced in the reserve. The muddy trails around the lodge testified to the extent of the rain in the past month, where as those in the reserve were bone dry.
That day turned out to be a wash out and we didnt even go fishing that evening so dinner was just a mundane veggie affair. That was until the orginal group returned from an overnight treck. They were exhausted and wet, but at least they still had their cook and their food, and after a few quiet words Moises did a deal with him. If the cook was able to use some of my food, he would prepare for us a two course meal. Great.
A great vegtable soup later followed by a vegtable spagetti and I was content and full and Moises certainly looked happier. It was an early night as well, as the group, plus Jonathan were leaving the following day, leaving just the two of us in the lodge and Mr & Mrs Huamani Choquepuma on the farm ten minutes away. We took to wondering when the next group would arrive and as the weather had been so bad the solar panel had not generated sufficient energy to work the radio and speak to the office in Cusco, therefore we were in the dark.
After the group had gone, I went to prepare some lunch, only to find that the cook had taken far more of my food than I had specified. All my soup had gone, all my dried vegtables had gone and several other things were missing. "No wonder the dinner was so good," Moises added. Oh well the was nothing else to be done except go to a town for supplies. The rest of the day was spent speaking with Mr Huamani Choquepuma trying to organise a boat, a driver and some petrol. It rained again.
It was about now that it started to cross my mind, that I may not accomplish anything here. The weather was truely awful and I began to wonder if I would ever see the sun again whilst i was here. My clothes were still wet, the mud caked my shoes and seemed to coat everything. I felt like I was camping in South Wales not the Amazon. All through this Moises kept a concerned eye on me asking through a small gap in his rain ponchos if I was still enjoying myself and trying to plan animal excusions that we always seemed to have to postpone because of the rain.
That night the food was again carbohydrate dominated and quite unappealing as the rain had prevented fishing again. At least we had drinking water and coffee and tea. Then we heard from Mr Huamani Choquepuma that he organised the transport to Shintuya for early next morning - and then I started to realise that I had another problem - money, or more accurately a lack of it. Actually I had several US dollar notes in my pocket and a 50 Sol Peruvian note (about $20), but other than that very little and I started to regret buying a t-shirt and an animal guide book in the National Park HQ. Still I wondered whether what I had would be enough.
In the morning Moises and I headed down to the beach to be greeted by two very young looking boys who would pilot our boat. They both looked like they had just got out of school. I was also told by Mr Huamani Choquepuma, I had to pay for the petrol, some 18 Sol, which seemed a lot for a boat ride, but then what did I know about boats. Finding a way to change money in Shintuya would be essential! We pushed off from the beach, wobbling in the narrow wooden canoe which Moises had recently painted (using all the paint for the signs, I now found out). It was slow going up river but sure enough, we soon made it to Shintuya which was really a truck stop and a petrol station for the water bourne traffic. Before I had only seen the town from the water front with its petrol drums dominating the steep incline of the water bank and rubbish strewn everywhere. Actually the main town wasnt much different with many buildings seemingly still being constructed, and a smattering of shops, restaurants and bars, serving the local logging community.
Moises and I embarked on a fruit and veggie search, and it quickily became apparant that none of the shops had any of these. To compound these problems, no one would even contemplate changing my dollars even at the advantegous rate I was suggesting. Finally we arrived at the last shop, and to our relief it a few vegtables and some apples. The store owner obviously realised our predicament and priced the produce accordingly. Bargaining seemed to be futile and I resigned myself to getting as much green stuff as possible. She would also at first not change my dollars, but did change her mind later offering a rate more akin to Mexican Pesos than US Dollars. Again I had to give in, yet when I offered my last $5 note, she rejected it anyway on account of a miniscule tear on the top right hand corner.
Oh well I thought and I was so looking forward to a restaurant lunch. We stumbled out of the shop with our bags containing what little I could afford and started to wander down to the boat when I suggested that we stop at the restaurant and at least have a coffee, a beverage that I did have enough money to buy. We did and then Moises said he had a little money and bought some bread. The next minute I found out he had enough for a small Carbo fuelled lunch of potatos and rice in butter, and we greedily devoured that. I made a mental note to pay him back.
Back in the boat, Moises suggested we stop at another village downstream so he could say hello to his sister and see if he could borrow some money off her. She and her family were very welcoming producing crackers and Coca Cola and then giving us bananas when they heard about our fruit situation. Alas, she had no spare cash. At least we now had quite a store of food and as we arrived back at the lodge, we were welcomed by short spell of late afternoon sunshine. I went off to the kitchen and started producing a huge vegtable stew.
Early mornings and early nights are now almost routine. Bed at 8.00pm and up at 5.00 with the dawn, and strangely I feel quite refreshed. This morning however it was cold. Much colder than usual and it was difficult adjusting to a cold breakfast (but a delicious one) of banana and apple with yoghurt. I reckoned we could last a further four days of this, if we didn't eat too much.
Later on as we were clearing everything up, it started to rain heavily again and Moises and I just sat inside and practiced our English and Spanish respectively. By 11.00am it had thankfully stopped and Moises suggested a trip to the clay lick and off we went. It was good to get back onto the animal trail again, although on the way to the clay lick we only saw an unidentified hawk that we startled. The clay lick itself was quiet as we sat and waited it soon became apparant, that the animal activity proven by the hordes of footprints had already happened that morning and we had arrived too late. Soon our thoughts turned back to fishing.
In the end after two hours, we decided to return to the lodge and collect the gear. On the way we saw a visibly terrified Iguana running for cover but that was about it until we approached the lodge when we bumped into Mr Huamani Choquepuma running our way shouting "quick move, I can hear the rain!" Sure enough twenty seconds later I could hear it approaching in a low distant roar that slowly grew louder and louder. Without thinking I ran and dived into my room, just before everything was drenched. "Dry season indeed," I thought and this downpour again lasted all afternoon.
As night fell we abandoned the fishing again, as huge pools of water lay around the lodge and the mud got deeper and deeper. This was turning more into a survival course than I had ever imagined. It was also getting colder and colder. That night I took more blankets from the other cabins and put on my Cusco clothing, my thermals and my beanie. Who would have believed I would be this cold in the tropics.
Up at 5.00am, Moises confidently felt it would be dry today so we decided to return to the clay lick at a sensible time and see some animals. We set off at 6.30 am for the thirty minute walk to the clay lick through Mr Huamani's property. Mr Huamani was already hard at work on the farm and his wife greeted us with a cackle and a stream of Quechua, which I of course did not understand. Both of them speak Quechua, the languange of the Andean peoples and the Inca languange as their native tongue. Mr Huamani Chquepuma can talk a little Spanish, but that is it. His pet Guan (a large pheasant like bird) noticed us and came over aggressively trying to peck our legs. It was trying to protect its nest. I had been trying to pursade the Humani's to call it Allan after the president Allan Garcia, but they dont seem to keen on the idea of giving it a name.
Into the jungle we went, squelching through the mud which in places flowed over into my rubber boots and then climbing over the many fallen trees blocking our path. This was hard going now, but at least it was dry. The number of trees that came down in the rain was astonishing and the path in some places was almost totally blocked and Moises had to hack through the undergrowth with his machette. This was probably when I got a tick on me, which I didn't discover for several hours, and when I did it was disgustingly bloated with my blood. Moises just laughed and called it my new friend.
We followed the same track as we had done the previous day and it was when we were crossing one of the yellow dirt filled rivers that we first smelt the pigs. Peccary have an unmistakable smell that I first encountered in May with Ryse. It is an almost pure amoania that gets the more powerful the closer you get. I understand that the pigs release this aroma when they are frightened and its potency lingers for ages. Moises felt they were quite close and we edged on as quietly as possible, whilst he whispered to me that I should respect these animals as they are equiped with quite sizeable tusks and are held in high respect by the native communities, who regard them as very dangerous.
We edged on along the river bank and through the dense foliage could make out shapes moving on the otherside of the bank. The pigs were now just visible, eating noisily, grunting and crunching their way through fruits and nuts which they had dug out of the ground. All of a sudden there was a large squeel and the thirty or so took off, crashing through the jungle, releasing their foul aromas, before I had chance to get a photo let alone a sight of them.
"They must have smelt your repellent!" Moises remarked as we got back onto the track to the clay lick. A bit further on as we approached the clay lick, the mud on the track was so thick and sticky I felt I would loose my boots. It was now edging its way up my trekking trousers. As we arrived at the clay lick, unfortunately squelching our way loudly into the small clearing, a few large unidentified birds took off. Now I just started to think this would not be our day and then Moises casually smelt the air and turned to say "the Peccary are coming!" Sure enough within a few minutes the tell tale strong foul aroma was detectable. Within minutes the pigs were appearing still grunting and squealing. "They have babies" Moises whispered and through the saplings surrounding the clay lick I could see the pigs making their way into the center of this muddy puddle. I managed to get some photos and then decided (against Moises advice) to move to the edge of the lick where the view was not so restricted by the saplings. As I moved Moises hissed at me to be careful and when I got to the edge the pigs were startled again, but this time only retreated a few meters. There were many females and young all dining on the clay to replenish the minerals their diet doesnt give them. All of a sudden I heard Moises whisper a warning and I turned around to see (what Moises later said was) a juvenile male slowly approaching me from about three meters away. I now realised I was in between this male and the females and young at the clay lick. "This could be awkward" I thought. However it did not seem to either suspect a threat or even be aware of my presence. It was chewing loudly and the closer it got the easier it was to make out its small tusks, so I raised my camera and shot of a load of pics. The pig now looked at me somewhat bewildered and continued to chew before ambling off. Unfortunately, the light was so bad that the photos were not so great, but the experience was the main thing. Suddenly there was a loud squeel and the whole group took off across the clay lick, mud splashing everywhere.
Well that made up for the weather and as soon as it fell quiet, I took Moises' machette and started clearing the samplings in front of where we were sitting so I had an uninterrupted view, should they return. They did not as it happened, but in the next hour a pair of rare White-necked Guans appeared, and slowly climbed down to the clay to eat the mineral rich mud. This was great and they were so absorbed with the clay that I managed to get close to them. That was before the heavens opened again and we got drenched. This time I put on a rain poncho, but it wasn't the most water tight clothing I had ever worn. Moises on the other hand had forgotten his, so he was soaked. After thrity minutes, when we hoped the rain would pass, we decided we would be better returning to the lodge despite the forty minute trek in the rain.
We arrived back absolutely soaked and this was the right decision as it was also turning quite cold. All the animals had disappeared and I just went straight to the stove and made a coffee. The rain continued and it was to be another long rain soaked afternoon, cold as well. Moises suggested we went fishing in the rain, but just as we left it started to thunder and then we had lightening, so we changed our minds and headed back. That night it was vegtable soup and rice again followed by an early bed, wrapped up in blankets fit for a blizzard.
The next morning was overcast and cold and I decided to stay in bed. I could hear Moises walking around, but thought I couldn't be bothered to get out. Normally I had been up around 6.00am, but today 7.30 felt like a huge lie in. When I did struggle to the dinning room, Moises announced he was going to visit his father in the next village, two hours walk south. He appeared not to invite me, so I said I would stay in the lodge anyway I had plenty to write up on my computer if I could get the solar panel to work and some private time sounded good.
I ended up resting for the remainder of that morning. The sun made a short brief apearance and the solar panel kicked into life so I able to charge my camera and computer. The Oropendulas and the Jays were very entertaining and I got my tripod working for some Hummingbird shots. After lunch Mr & Mrs Huamani Choquepuma emerged and sat down with me for a three way Spanish-Ingles-Quechua convesration that seemed to go well. They certainly have a great sense of humour. Mrs still wears her Andean clothes of a white and red patterned shirt with green blouse with her hair ponytailed all the way down her back to her waist and then tied. On top she has a brown hat a bit like a cowboy hat with no rim. This atire all seems to fit in with her cackled laugh and as she cant pronounce Rupert, so she calls me Misster. Mr Huamani wears his blue baseball hat and a pair of tracksuit trousers which he seems to have worn for several years, together with a black Bonanza t-shirt. He has the largest smile permanently fixed to his face. After a while he did ask me "why don't you have any hair?" All Peruvians have a mass of hair, so baldness remedies here are unheard of. "Pourque, yo tengo muy intelligencia," I replied (because I am very intelligent - in my bad Spanish). He laughed even more when he realised the significance of his head of hair.
Of course, it was not long before the rain started again. I asked Mr Huamani Choquepuma whether he had heard from the office, as Ryse was due to arrive on the 26th July, tomorrow and I planned to return with him on the 30th. But Mr Huamani Choquepuma just remarked he had heard nothing as the radio telephone was down, due to the lack of solar energy/power and then he said he thought Ryse's next trip was the 7th August. Now this news really concerned me. Despite the fact I had no or little fruit and veggies, my dried food would not last that long and then I realised I had not enough water to go past the 29th at the latest. I had to have a word with Moises when he returned.
The rest of the afternoon was quiet, I managed to see some good wildlife especially birds. When Moises returned in between the heavy showers we spotted Tucans, Hummingbirds and the lodge was visited by a troop of twenty or so Squirrel Monkeys. Alas it was too late for fishing so it was another somewhat boring dinner and early bed. My stock of food was again dwindling.
Over breakfast I discussed with Moises my concerns of getting back to Cusco. He said he would mention it to Mr Huamani Choquepuma. It was about mid morning when we decided to go off fishing this time in the north of Bonanza. We went out to the beach at the front of the lodge and then took a small canoe and paddled up the little stream to a convergence of rivers. It was then by foot for the rest of the trip. We made a small detour into the jungle to a felled tree that Moises knew off where we hacked at the trunk with his machette and pulled out some huge beatle larva (Suri) to use as bait. Back to the river side we were treated to a rare view of a King Vulture flying overhead as we negotiated the mud, fallen trees and the stony ground. I was finding some of the mud quite difficult to get through and it was on one such occasion in a particularly difficult stretch when Moises was quite a way in front, that he started waiving at me fanatically. By the time I had caught up with him he mentioned that he had distrubed a Puma on the river bank. It had leapt up from a lying position on top of the riverside plants and jumped into the river and swam across. I wasn't sure about this, but we patiently looked for it for a while on the opposite riverbank. However it was only when I saw its imprint in the riverside foliage and a huge footprint in the mud, that I had to conceed that I had missed a Puma. What a shame. Moises said he only had a brief glimpse.
Further on we reached this pool that Moises said was the best for fishing. It was now 1.00pm and I was so hungry, but all our attempts yelding nothing. We decided to try further up and it was then that Moises landed a fish. It was the same type of fish he had caught when we were with Jonathan, but unfortunately it proved to be the only one we caught that afternoon. Soon we gave in and headed back for a lunch of crackers and jam, the last of both.
After our late lunch, the skies cleared and Moises suggested we went birdwatching on Mr Huamani's property. As the sun set we wandered around the field, viewing a fantastic array of birds including Red Flycatchers, Tucanettes, Guans, Macaws and many others. It was great and I must say I was so amazed at the variety on his property. The Huamani's invited us to their house for a drink. It was a traditional wooden house on stilts with no electricty, a wood fire stove and really only the very basics for life. They have chickens and turkeys under the house, two banana trees and one coconut tree. Unfortunately I saw had no fruit. That night we finished off the veggies and the fruit with the fish. Moises told me that night that I would have to return to Cusco by public bus (32 hours from Bonanza) and that Mr Huamani Choquepuma would lend me the money or change my dollars. Unfortunately Moises mentioned that he was going to have to stay at Bonanza, and cut wood for the platform and help Mr Huamani Choquepuma construct the platform before he could leave. This was a bit of disappointment as some level of company during the trip that involved a three hour boat trip and two bus changes would have been nice. Mr Huamani Choquepuma then appeared before I went to bed, confirmed that there were no tours and that tomorrow he and Moises would start to build the platform and that we were all to meet at his house at 7.00am to start. So it was an early bed.
I was up at 5.30, and tried to make as large a breakfast as possible, if we going to be doing manual labour all day. Eggs and rice was all I could find and soon we were ready and at the Huamani's as the sun (yes the sun) came up. Mrs Huamani Choquepuma soon invited us in to her dinning room and kitchen for another breakfast she had prepared on her wooden oven. Chicken (and a forty year old one at that, judging by how tough it was) with rice and we were given huge bowls. Soon we had the petrol, the chainsaw and our lunch (more chicken and rice in banana leaves) and off we went. We walked almost all the way back to the clay lick with Mr Huamani Choquepuma and Moises carrying the chainsaw, until we found a collapsed tree that Moises said had the right "hard wood". So there in the forest we started cutting it up. I unfortunately suffered two horrificly painful ant stings, whilst Moises and Mr Huamani Chquepuma started cutting up the tree trunk. The chainsaw was welded without any thought for safety equipement, naturally. Both sat on the log cutting it with bear feet and no glasses. When they offered me a go, I politely declined.
At 12.00 we stopped for the lunch and then Mr Huamani Choquepuma said we would have to finish it tomorrow as he had run out of gas, so we returned to the lodge. The weather was now a great improvement. That had been difficult to tell deep in the jungle, but back at the lodge I celebrated with my first cold shower for a while and put all my clothes ( some wet for six days) in the sun. Moises disppeared off to the river and I was chatting to Mr Huamani Choquepuma, when suddenly Moises appeared out of breath.
A group had arrived at the beach. Ten tourists plus William Huamani Choquepuma and three staff were arriving. As the radio had been out of action we had no advanced notice. The three of us panicked and immediately went to work, with Moises and I cleaning the cabins and making the beds and Mr Huamani Choquepuma fixing the bathrooms. The group arrived and soon were settled whilst I made friends with the new cook and managed to agree a swap of my remaining pasta for some fresh fruit. Moises spoke with William and we suddenly found out we were leaving tomorrow after lunch. Mr Huamani Choquepuma agreed with Moises that they would finish the wood tomorrow morning and that I would pack.
That night we joined in with the new group, had a great meal with fruit and vegtables from their cook just as my stove ran out of gas. Rather lucky. I was also down to my last few glasses of drinking water.
The next morning the group was up early and Moises left to help Mr Huamani Choquepuma as agreed. I start writing up my diary and then packed and to everyone's relief the weather was fantastic, easily the best day I had experienced on this trip to Bonanza.
I gave my spare dried food to Mrs Huamani Choquepuma (which wasn't much) and then we boarded the boat all headed up stream for the long journey back to Cusco. The group itself included four Americans, fresh out of college, three volunteer workers from Spain who were teaching homeless children in Cusco and three quite unfriendly girls from Quebec. Everyone was in early twenties or late teens, making me feel somewhat old. They were on a four day trip to Bonanza lodge, a truely breakneck tour considering the distances involved.
William (Ryse's brother) was certainly a very able guide in the family tradition, however because of the size of the group, he was unsure whether he could take Moises and myself all the way to Cusco, and said if it was not possible, we would have to take the local bus from Pilkopata. That would be a 16 hour journey overnight, on positive hair raising roads that would be even more tricky after these rains. This was a prospect I was not keen on. Also I still had no money. William didn't have enough to change my $20 note, neither did any of the group, so I was going to have to wait until Atalaya or Pilkopata.
The trip upriver was made all the more difficult with 16 people in the boat. The level of the river, surprisingly (considering the volume of rain we had experienced) had declined and several times we got grounded and some of us had to push with the boatmen and guides. However the birdlife was spectacular and we had an exceptional view of two huge King Vultures in a tree sitting over a rotting animal corpse, two rare blue Herons and several blue and yellow Macaws.
We stopped on a sandbank to camp, as in the morning we were going to view a clay lick. This was a different one to the one I visited with Ryse, and William assured me it was closer and better. In the evening we found out the one of the tents didnt work, so I volunteered to sleep in the boat with the guides which was somewhat cramped due to the narrow benches but not as cold as I had feared.
In the morning we walked along the sand bank to the clay lick, only to be joined by thirty other tourists. "It is the high season," explained William. However he was right about the clay lick. It was much closer, with far more parotts who flew around circling the clay cliff in their hundreds for thirty minutes before landing to dine on the clay. It was great.
We were soon off in the boat for the final trip of 12 hours to Cusco. Pushing the beached boat over the rapids was now common, but the weather remained good so my clothes did dry (a novelty). We passed an unusual sight of thirty juvenile cormorants in a group on a sandbank, watching a couple of adult birds fish. One caught a huge catfish in front of us (although we were still some distance away) and I managed to get some decent pictures.
After four hours we arrived at Atalaya, and William said he thought the bus could take me and Moises to Pilkopata, but no further as the extra weight would not be safe on the slippery mountain roads. So we took the 40 minute ride to Pilkopata, where we were to get off and the rest were to have lunch. However when we arrived, William said the roads were not as bad as he and the driver had feared and he would take us the whole way back to Cusco. Especially good news as I still couldnt change my dollars.
Eight hours later we arrived in Cusco. I was exhausted, but after everything it was a memorable journey and the following night Moises and I went out for a few beers to celebrate.
Later I found out that Lordes, who had been ill in the Reserve had been in hospital for six days with a bad kidney infection. Happily she made a full recovery. Ryse also had been in hospital with his 3 year old daughter for five days and had been unable to meet me in Bonanza, and unable to telephone because of the weather.
The unseasonal weather caused atrocious conditions in the areas around Cuzco where close to 200 children lost their lives due to the unseasonal cold. A state of emergency was declared by the Peruvian Government.
In 2014 I returned to Bonanza and the Manu National Park Reserve Zone as a 50th birthday treat. I was reacquainted with all the Huamani Family and Moises and took a party of nine friends and family with me. On this trip I also saw another Jaguar, more Giant Otters, four Tapirs and a Puma. Mostly these were glimpsed from the exact platform I was meant to have been on some five years before.
I hope that this will not be my last visit to Manu or my last trip with the Huamani family.