Pacaya Simira National Reserve, Peru

Nick and I did a 7 day canoe trip into Peru’s largest national reserve. Situated deep in the Amazon rainforest, it was quite the adventure to even get there.

We first took a 1 hour plane ride from Lima to Tarapoto (which would’ve been a 24 hour bus ride). From Tarapoto we got on a “collectivo” of “Combe” as they are called here. A Combe is basically a compact 15 passenger van. They often leave from smaller towns where larger buses do not frequent. It is a very easy and cheap way to travel smaller distances from town to town. We took that Combe, full loaded with 15 other passengers,4 hours up over the windy, high jungle mountain road to a town called Yarimaguas. From Yarimaguas we took a 100 meter long speed boat another 4 hours up the Amazon river to a town called Lagunas. We spent the night in Lagunas and the next day our guides and us rode 30 minutes on a moto trailer to the Payara Simira National Reserve! Then we were off.

We had two guides, Leandro and Manuel. They both only spoke Spanish so it was a great experience being fully immersed in that even if I struggle to understand them at times. They sat in the front and in the back and did all the rowing. It was an all inclusive trip so they would also cook us three meals a day and provide all the food and water we would need.

Our first day was the longest, we were on the river for 4/5 hours. We went along a chocolate river and got our first glimpses of life, flora and fauna in the jungle. Everything was so green! It was so hot on the river, the sun was so direct on top of the heavy humidity. About halfway through a very very hard rain hit. Our guides tucked us away with the luggage under a heavy plastic tarp. We stayed that way for an hour or so while our beloved guides got soaking wet and paddled us to our first cabana. I was sleepy so I just took a nap to pass the time. We arrived at our first cabana, which is one of the posts for the equivalent of park rangers for the reserve. Nick and I did a water color then we did a bit of fishing. We met other tourists on the speed boat, Emily and Ed from the UK and Roman from France. They joined a different agency but you all stay at the same huts so it was nice to have other company. We mostly just saw birds this day.

The second day started with breakfast of a fresh caught fish, some fried plantains and coffee! Our guides packed up the boat and we were off. We only were on the river a couple hours this day before arriving at our second cabana. This one much more rustic, being built from trees in the jungle. All of these huts have a toilet and you just dump water in the toilet to make them flush. Nick and I did another water color then we had lunch. The guides said it was okay to take a swim here, that nothing would bite or eat us so we took a much needed dip. After lunch we went on a jungle walk, learning about the medicinal trees found there. About halfway through the rainforest once again showed us its power and dumped on us. This had to be the hardest rain I’ve experienced, we got absolutely drenched. We wore knee high rubber boots because it was so wet and muddy back there but they soon filled with water. It rained off and on the rest of the night so we played some card games with the other tourists and had some more good food consisting of eggs, rice, fish and plantains. Today we were able to see some river dolphins, sloths, more birds, big spiders and monkeys.

The following day we had breakfast and coffee and were back on the boat. Our other friends would be turning around that day since they were going 5 days. We paddled maybe 2 hours down the river and stopped at another post. We saw more river dolphins and monkeys and sloths. The one apparently had wifi but the guard was away getting more supply’s so it was locked and the wifi was off. We had lunch around the building, seeing some more huge spiders. Nick and I went for another swim then after lunch we went in another jungle walk. We walked to an even bigger tree which the guides had built a rope swing off of one of the giant vines that came off. We all took turned swinging on that then headed back. Our other friends turned back around at this point and we went about 20 minutes further up the river to a spot our guides had previously built out of nearby trees. We had dinner, played some cards with Leandro and Manuel then went on a night canoe trip to hunt for Caimens. No caimens were found but Manuel spearfished and got 20+ fish.

The next morning we ate some fish that were caught the night before and went on a nature walk through the jungle. We got back and ate lunch and another big rain storm moved through. After lunch we went fishing without much success on our part then we packed up camp and went back to the place we had lunch at the day before. The guards had returned so it was open and the wifi was working, he brought a few chickens along with him too. We all had a very delicious egg soup. At midnight we woke up to take a bath prepared with ajo sacha leaves, it is supposed to cleanse the body and take away all the bad spirits, leaving you with good luck for a free years, figured it was worth a shot.

The next morning we met a gal from Israel named Gal. She would also be going back so we’d be on the same itinerary from there. We had a breakfast of chicken and rice. It is a special treat to be able to eat chicken out there as it is not as plentiful as the fish! Nick and I did some fishing in the morning and I caught a pretty decent sized piraña!

After breakfast and coffee we headed back to El Pantión. We had lunch then went out on the canoe with Manuel, we paddled to a place where we walked through the jungle for about a half hour with the fishing poles. However, the water had risen too much and all the fish were in the middle where we couldn’t reach. We went back and fished on the boat for a bit before heading back for dinner. After dinner we went for round 2 of Caimen (alligator) hunting. We found one and slowly approached it, Leandro was in front and had his spear ready. He launched his spear at the Caimen but it didn’t stick. A five foot long Caimen swam away 10 feet from our boat, making a large splash. Leandro’s pulled in his spear and one of the throngs was completely bent. We spent another half hour or so looking for more without success before going back for the night.

Day 6 we went back to the same spot we went on day 1! Seeing more river dophins, birds, monkeys and sloths on the way. Nick and I took out the canoes after lunch and paddled around. It sure was a lot of hard work, especially going back up stream. We had some fried piraña that night and it was delicious!

Day 7 started early, we were up at 5 and left by 5:30 to get back to the start. We saw a few different groups of monkeys, river dolphins, birds and sloths! We had some tortillas, a type of omelette, on the go and stopped at a beach to eat some spaghetti and drink some chucha, a fermented corn drink. We went another hour and made it back! We loaded everything up and were headed back to Lagunas! We spent the night there and then took the 4am speed boat back to Yarimaguas!