Explore The jungle
The massive river system around Iquitos offers some of the best access to Indian villages, lodges and primary rainforest in the entire Amazon. For those with ample time and money, the Reserva Nacional Pacaya-Samiria is one of the more distant but rewarding places for eco-safari tours; but there are also towns up and down the river, most notably Pevas, which is en route towards Brazil. If you want to go it alone, colectivo boats run up and down the Amazon River more or less daily, and although you won’t get deep into the forest without a guide, you can visit some of the larger river settlements on your own.
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Reserva Nacional Pacaya-Samiria
Reserva Nacional Pacaya-Samiria
The huge RESERVA NACIONAL PACAYA-SAMIRIA comprises around two million hectares of virgin rainforest (about 1.5 percent of the total landmass of Peru) leading up to the confluence between the ríos Marañón and the Huallaga, two of the largest Amazon headwaters and possessing between them the largest protected area of seasonally flooded jungle in the Peruvian Amazon.
Most people visit the Pacaya-Samiria for half a day as part of a tour package from Iquitos, but Lagunas is a good place to find a local guide and do a relatively indepenent safari, if you can afford it (expect to pay at least $75 a day without lodge accommodation). If you visit the park independently, allow a week or two for travel, and unavoidable hitches and delays en route. You will still need a local guide and a boat; the best bet to find these is to scout around the ports of Iquitos, Nauta or Lagunas. The reserve office in Iquitos provides maps and information on the region. You should come well prepared with mosquito nets, hammocks, insect repellent, and all the necessary food and medicines.
The reserve is a swampland during the rainy season (Dec–March), when the streams and rivers rise, and the rainforest becomes comparable to the Reserva Nacional Tambopata in southeastern Peru or the Pantanal swamps of southwestern Brazil in its astonishing density of visible wildlife. It is fine to visit in the dry season, but there are more insects, you’ll see less wildlife, and the creeks and lakes are smaller.
This region is home to the Cocoma tribe whose main settlement is Tipishca, where the native community are now directly involved in ecotourism. They can be hired as guides and will provide rustic accommodation, but can only be contacted by asking on arrival. Visitors should be aware that around 100,000 people, mostly indigenous communities, still live in the reserve’s forest; they are the local residents and their territory and customs should be respected. These tribal communities are also a source of detailed information on the sustainable management of river turtles: in recent years some of the communities have been collaborating on conservation projects.
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Indigenous communities around Iquitos
Indigenous communities around Iquitos
With all organized visits to Indian villages in this area, you can expect the inhabitants to put on a quick show, with a few traditional dances and some singing, before they try to sell you their handicraft (sometimes overenthusiastically). Prices range from S/5 to S/35 for necklaces, feathered items (mostly illegal to take out of the country), bark-cloth drawings, string bags (often excellent value) and blowguns; most people buy something, since the Indians don’t actually charge for the visit.
While the experience may leave you feeling somewhat ambivalent – the men, and particularly the women, only discard Western clothes for the performances – it’s a preferable situation to the times when visits were imposed on communities by unscrupulous tour companies. Visitors are now these Indians’ major source of income, and the Bora and Yaguar alike have found a niche within the local tourist industry. Some good independent contacts can help you find or organize the right trip: the Iquitos tourist office has a list of registered freelance guides and is usually helpful in providing up-to-date contacts.
