photo courtesy of electrictreehouse.com Yes they are real, and we have seen them! There is a story for the more manly in here too, don't worry. It involves criminals and crocodiles... !
During our trip along the Rio Napo from Coca to Iquitos our first stop was in a tiny town called Nuevo Rocafuerte, the place to find a local guide to take you on a trip into Yasuni National Park (without having to pay the crazy prices quoted by travel agencies in Coca).
During our trip along the Rio Napo from Coca to Iquitos our first stop was in a tiny town called Nuevo Rocafuerte, the place to find a local guide to take you on a trip into Yasuni National Park (without having to pay the crazy prices quoted by travel agencies in Coca).
Yasuni National Park
Starting our trip with Roni at the helm We met Roni Cox while walking around Nuevo Rocafuerte (NR) after only ten minutes. He pulled his motorcycle over to us and asked (in Spanish, of course) if we wanted a guide (himself) to Yasuni National Park. While that is exactly what we were looking for and he seemed super cool, we weren’t too quick to accept. We had been reading a few too many horror stories about people going into the jungle with fake “guides” who essentially take people down the river to their friend’s place and rob and/or murder them. I don’t think any of these stories came directly from NR, but after the weirdo motorbike robber encounter in Coca, we've been a bit more on our toes. We told him that we were actually looking for Frederico (a guide that a Park Ranger recommended to us) but we would consider his offer and come by his house later that day to let him know. We knew that there was a College in town (down the only street) that trains guides so we went there and asked if they knew Roni. They sure did and said that he was great.
admiring the sunset from our lancha Within a few hours we managed to meet a couple of solo travellers, María-José from Chile and Rodrigo from Argentina, who were also looking to go into the park and after some consideration the four of us decided to go for it!
Roni turned out to be a great guide, very enthusiastic and funny. The four of us had a blast riding in the smaller lancha (boat with outboard motor) through the Yasuni River and into a large lagoon called Jatuncocha (Quecha for "large lake"). We spent 3 days and 2 nights in the park, hiking for a few hours each day, learning about the plants and birds, watching the pink river dolphins breaching in the river (SO COOL!!), and fishing for piranhas before dark. After eating dinner and playing a couple rounds of cards (ninety-nine, or noventa y nueve en Español), we took the lancha out to do some caiman watching! We really didn’t have too much chill time, always on the go and keeping watch for some rare creatures! Mandrew had a great time snapping photos of birds as we passed by - he said it was a lot like the video game "Pokemon Snap" or something ... On the last day we did end up seeing the giant river otters, which was a great bonus!
Roni turned out to be a great guide, very enthusiastic and funny. The four of us had a blast riding in the smaller lancha (boat with outboard motor) through the Yasuni River and into a large lagoon called Jatuncocha (Quecha for "large lake"). We spent 3 days and 2 nights in the park, hiking for a few hours each day, learning about the plants and birds, watching the pink river dolphins breaching in the river (SO COOL!!), and fishing for piranhas before dark. After eating dinner and playing a couple rounds of cards (ninety-nine, or noventa y nueve en Español), we took the lancha out to do some caiman watching! We really didn’t have too much chill time, always on the go and keeping watch for some rare creatures! Mandrew had a great time snapping photos of birds as we passed by - he said it was a lot like the video game "Pokemon Snap" or something ... On the last day we did end up seeing the giant river otters, which was a great bonus!
Chelsea listening to the tree spirits... When we got back to NR we parted ways with María-José and Rodrigo, sadly as they were a lot of fun, and started looking into plans to get further down the river, eventually to Iquitos in Peru which we have been told can take anywhere from 3-11 days on a barca (cargo boat). We had been hearing rumours that there would be one leaving from Pantoja (the first small town on the Peruvian side of the border) on Saturday or Sunday (it was Wednesday at this point). It's always a bit hard to tell with this kind of info in these small, isolated towns - we actually thought near the end that we may have somehow started this rumour ourselves - so really weren’t too confident. At any rate, we'd had enough of NR and decided to make our way across the border and into Pantoja to try our luck.
Rio Aguarico - Crocodile hunting
Chelsea & Lastaña in the canoa Upon arriving in Pantoja, we confirmed that there was indeed a cargo boat to arrive on Saturday and depart early Monday morning - we'd have a few days to kill. A few other travellers we ran into told us they'd found a great deal for another trip into the jungle - less than half the price of our previous trip! Although we hadn't planned on another adventure so soon, we couldn't say no.
We left Pantoja early the next morning in two canoas (dug-out canoes) heading up Rio Aguarico (a river running along the Ecuador/Peru border): Nick (U.S.), Marcos (U.K.) and Piotr (Poland) with their guide Pedro in one canoa, and us, Ernesto (Argentina) and Diana (Colombia) with our guide Lastaña and driver Filipe in the other. The ride out to our first camping spot took 6 or 7 hours upstream the Rio Aquarico through to some communal reserve land on a lagoon called Lagartuncocha (Quecha for "long lake"). The day was fun but also extremely painful on our butts! The canoas were very simple carved out tree trunks with a few planks set across to sit on. Their peke-peke motors had a small engine and a tiny prop at the end of a long pole - the drivers Filipe and Pedro had to hold onto these for the entire time to direct our boats, dodging the odd tree trunk in the river.
We left Pantoja early the next morning in two canoas (dug-out canoes) heading up Rio Aguarico (a river running along the Ecuador/Peru border): Nick (U.S.), Marcos (U.K.) and Piotr (Poland) with their guide Pedro in one canoa, and us, Ernesto (Argentina) and Diana (Colombia) with our guide Lastaña and driver Filipe in the other. The ride out to our first camping spot took 6 or 7 hours upstream the Rio Aquarico through to some communal reserve land on a lagoon called Lagartuncocha (Quecha for "long lake"). The day was fun but also extremely painful on our butts! The canoas were very simple carved out tree trunks with a few planks set across to sit on. Their peke-peke motors had a small engine and a tiny prop at the end of a long pole - the drivers Filipe and Pedro had to hold onto these for the entire time to direct our boats, dodging the odd tree trunk in the river.
our very own jungle meat When we finally arrived at our camp spot, we set up our tents (Piotr and Marcos their hammocks) and then set out in the canoas again to check out the lake, hoping to spot some caiman and other creatures. Nick was hoping to spear a caiman during the trip and Ernesto was excited to spear some fish. There are some HUGE fish in these rivers, one type is called "paiche" – a super long and scaly fish that we’d seen in some museums about the Amazon. You can see them surfacing from time to time and one time our boat got rammed by one which was exciting! They can grow to be up to 15ft long and weigh over 400 pounds! I didn’t fully expect that we would be actually hunting a caiman or paiche, but there was a lot of excitement in the eyes of the hunters that night.
Our boats went in separate directions, paddling only so as to sneak up on creatures. None of the passengers in our boat had much interest in actually hunting anything, but the guides didn't seem to care and proceeded to search for something to spear - I guess they were hungry. After a couple hours of failing to spear fish, Filipe set his sights on caiman, much easier to spot (at night their eyes reflect brightly and are easily spotted with a strong flashlight) and much more easily approached. Sure enough, after a couple attempts Filipe got one! It all happened so quickly – once we had approached to within a few feet of a decent-sized caiman, Filipe threw the spear in the water, struggled to grab the end as it was flailed around by the struggling beast, then he slowly pulled it up to the surface and chopped it in the head a bunch of times with a machete. At least it didn’t suffer too much. It was 4-5 feet long tail to head, pretty fair-sized.
Our boats went in separate directions, paddling only so as to sneak up on creatures. None of the passengers in our boat had much interest in actually hunting anything, but the guides didn't seem to care and proceeded to search for something to spear - I guess they were hungry. After a couple hours of failing to spear fish, Filipe set his sights on caiman, much easier to spot (at night their eyes reflect brightly and are easily spotted with a strong flashlight) and much more easily approached. Sure enough, after a couple attempts Filipe got one! It all happened so quickly – once we had approached to within a few feet of a decent-sized caiman, Filipe threw the spear in the water, struggled to grab the end as it was flailed around by the struggling beast, then he slowly pulled it up to the surface and chopped it in the head a bunch of times with a machete. At least it didn’t suffer too much. It was 4-5 feet long tail to head, pretty fair-sized.
a feast for all... with some rice for Chelsea When we got back to camp we found out that the other boat had speared a caiman that they claimed to be double the size of ours, but it had broken the spear and got away (sad). They did, however, catch some fish to eat for dinner. After dinner of piranha, rice and plantain (same for every meal, every day) our guides tossed the caiman on the fire, scraped off the scales, took it to the river to clean, before bringing it back to the fire to smoke it overnight. They had set up a smoking rack over the fire using branches pegged into the ground and more branches over top to lay the meat on.
Most of us went to bed shortly after dinner (10:00pm) and fell asleep listening to the cicadas and other birds and insects, but Nick and Piotr talked Pedro into heading back out to see if they could find the caiman that got away. They returned at 1:00am with another one altogether, smaller than ours but still with a lot of meat. At this point, for some reason, I started wondering if this was even legal. I had thought so at first because when we first arrived in Pantoja some locals let us sample some smoked caiman as a treat, and I am sure this sparked Nick’s interest in the hunting trip. But something didn’t feel quite right to me, especially since we were in a Communal Reserve. In the morning we confirmed with our guide that yes indeed, it is illegal (poaching)! Only the indigenous tribes that live further up the river are allowed to hunt and eat caiman. But that said most people still do it anyway since they are everywhere and such a great source of meat.
Most of us went to bed shortly after dinner (10:00pm) and fell asleep listening to the cicadas and other birds and insects, but Nick and Piotr talked Pedro into heading back out to see if they could find the caiman that got away. They returned at 1:00am with another one altogether, smaller than ours but still with a lot of meat. At this point, for some reason, I started wondering if this was even legal. I had thought so at first because when we first arrived in Pantoja some locals let us sample some smoked caiman as a treat, and I am sure this sparked Nick’s interest in the hunting trip. But something didn’t feel quite right to me, especially since we were in a Communal Reserve. In the morning we confirmed with our guide that yes indeed, it is illegal (poaching)! Only the indigenous tribes that live further up the river are allowed to hunt and eat caiman. But that said most people still do it anyway since they are everywhere and such a great source of meat.
Diana learning the improvised song & dance We spent the next day heading upstream to an indigenous tribe called the Secoya. None of us were entirely excited about the visit since it was a little awkward right from the start. A woman came to greet us but took our guide aside and whispered with her for a few minutes, and then our guide took Diana aside (because she speaks the best Spanish) and sent her to ask us something. Diana said that the lady offered to get the village (about 5-6 families) to dress up in traditional clothing and do a traditional dance for us if we would pay some kind of tip. So there it was, right off the bat, our relationship with the families was separated by our perceived wealth and we wouldn’t be able to really delve much further into their culture than that. None of us really wanted to see any dance, but we knew that it would be considered extremely rude to say no to anything.
They told us that the dance would take about an hour, but I have been learning to double (or quadruple) every estimate for a more accurate measure. The dance didn’t even start for an hour in this case, and when it did, it was obvious that there was no traditional dance at all and they were simply making up something and walking in a circle chatting and laughing with each other, wearing Hawaiian-type outfits but you could see the Nike swish on a few of their tops and some red paint on their faces. There didn’t seem to be anything traditional about it. And to top it off, an old man came and sat next to Nick and I which at first I thought was cool, I could ask him about some of their history or culture, but instead he just insisted that we give them more money and so on.
They told us that the dance would take about an hour, but I have been learning to double (or quadruple) every estimate for a more accurate measure. The dance didn’t even start for an hour in this case, and when it did, it was obvious that there was no traditional dance at all and they were simply making up something and walking in a circle chatting and laughing with each other, wearing Hawaiian-type outfits but you could see the Nike swish on a few of their tops and some red paint on their faces. There didn’t seem to be anything traditional about it. And to top it off, an old man came and sat next to Nick and I which at first I thought was cool, I could ask him about some of their history or culture, but instead he just insisted that we give them more money and so on.
Ernesto showing off his catch We ended up each giving two dollars, which is a fair amount of money here, and we hoped to leave asap. Unfortunately, Pedro and Filipe had already taken off in another canoa with some village kids and didn’t return until after 2:00pm, 5 hours later. We hung out in an empty shelter, took a nap, ate some food and chatted amongst ourselves while Ernesto fished for two more buckets full of fish (piranhas, sardines, tilapia and corvina). At this point, we'd come to the conclusion that this wasn't a trip to the jungle for our benefit - we were simply helping fund a hunting and social visit for our guides. As usual, you get what you pay for.
Finally at 3:00 after Filipe and Pedro ate some lunch and rested for awhile (allllllways so "tranquilo" - relaxed - here), we headed back out in our boats to find a new camping spot for the night. We didn’t end up too far from our previous spot, though slightly more toward home. We set up camp again, got a fire going and cracked our bottles of agua ardiente ("burnt water", a very cheap liquor made of sugarcane). The evening was nice and relaxing, and we set up another stand over the fire to smoke Ernesto’s fish from the day. In the evening, Diana, Lastaña and I stayed at camp chatting in Spanish for a few hours while Andrew, Nick and Piotr took a canoa to explore the area again. The next morning they told us about a small caiman that they grabbed out of the water and took photos with, before letting it go again.
Finally at 3:00 after Filipe and Pedro ate some lunch and rested for awhile (allllllways so "tranquilo" - relaxed - here), we headed back out in our boats to find a new camping spot for the night. We didn’t end up too far from our previous spot, though slightly more toward home. We set up camp again, got a fire going and cracked our bottles of agua ardiente ("burnt water", a very cheap liquor made of sugarcane). The evening was nice and relaxing, and we set up another stand over the fire to smoke Ernesto’s fish from the day. In the evening, Diana, Lastaña and I stayed at camp chatting in Spanish for a few hours while Andrew, Nick and Piotr took a canoa to explore the area again. The next morning they told us about a small caiman that they grabbed out of the water and took photos with, before letting it go again.
local kids honing their spear-hunting skills Since there was a lot of rain during the night and our campsite was swampy we woke up early and packed up our camp, aiming to have breakfast on a sandy beach on the river toward home. While we were travelling, we noticed that Nick, Marcos and Piotr’s boat was flagged down by the Ecuadorian military when we entered Rio Aguarico. Our boat kept on going because we had all of the caiman meat and didn’t want them to find out.
We found a good sandy beach to dock and get a fire going for breakfast (rice, plantain and fish, plus an extra treat of pasta). Soon the other boat made its way down the river but with an extra passenger - an Ecuadorian military man was hitching a ride back to Pantoja. His main job on the river, he told us, was to catch illegal poachers and send them to jail. He proudly showed Nick some photos of a poacher bust they did a few days before where a guy had illegally hunted and ate a peccary (a wild pig, which we had also been served in Pantoja a few days earlier).
We found a good sandy beach to dock and get a fire going for breakfast (rice, plantain and fish, plus an extra treat of pasta). Soon the other boat made its way down the river but with an extra passenger - an Ecuadorian military man was hitching a ride back to Pantoja. His main job on the river, he told us, was to catch illegal poachers and send them to jail. He proudly showed Nick some photos of a poacher bust they did a few days before where a guy had illegally hunted and ate a peccary (a wild pig, which we had also been served in Pantoja a few days earlier).
playing it cool ... We were all on our toes, trying to play it cool. He did end up taking a look at our canoa with our guides, but somehow they averted his attention away from the big bucket of caiman meat that was covered under a tarp. He also asked us what we had been eating while we were camping, to which we replied only rice, plantain and piranha.
Breakfast was very quick this time since we didn’t feel like spending more time than necessary with this guy. We packed up and headed out right away, hoping to make it back to Pantoja very quickly. When we got away from the other canoa with the man, I asked Lastaña what would have happened if we got caught, and she said we would all be in jail, and could be for up to eight years! PHEW! That was a close one… I could have been the only vegetarian ever to be put in jail for poaching crocodiles in South America.
Breakfast was very quick this time since we didn’t feel like spending more time than necessary with this guy. We packed up and headed out right away, hoping to make it back to Pantoja very quickly. When we got away from the other canoa with the man, I asked Lastaña what would have happened if we got caught, and she said we would all be in jail, and could be for up to eight years! PHEW! That was a close one… I could have been the only vegetarian ever to be put in jail for poaching crocodiles in South America.
touch, but don't kill! =) After about 4 hours we made it back to Pantoja, safely, with the welcoming sight of the barca docked in town. We got in before the other canoa so quickly hid the caiman in someone’s house and unpacked our gear. After three muddy days in the jungle we were eager to take a shower and wash our clothes, so Andrew and I got a room in the hostel in town ($5) and did just that.
After six days of fun in the jungle, a bunch of unforgettable experiences, and a few new exotic meats for Mandrew to add to his list, we're ready to continue our trip down the Rio Napo. Wish us luck!
Salud!
Chelsea
After six days of fun in the jungle, a bunch of unforgettable experiences, and a few new exotic meats for Mandrew to add to his list, we're ready to continue our trip down the Rio Napo. Wish us luck!
Salud!
Chelsea
Yasuni Photos
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Peru Jungle Photos
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