# Peruvian Amazon 1 -- Iquitos and Rivers



## moloch05 (Feb 4, 2010)

I am just back from a fabulous trip to the Peruvian Amazon. I wanted to see the Amazon all of my life so this trip was a real dream-come-true. The trip was also special since two of my old high school friends went along with me. Our last trip together was to the tropical Mexican states of Nayarit and Jalisco in ... shudder ... 1974. How time flies! I found out about this trip from Young Cage, a participant on FieldHerpForum. Young and his son Matt visited with me in Australia a couple of years ago. Young contacted me and a number of others and arranged this trip with Margarita Tours (Ecotourism, Education, and Rainforest Expeditions in the Amazon Jungle of Peru, South America). I would highly recommend this company for both inexpensive and exciting reptile trips to the Iquitos area of Peru. The tour was a dedicated reptile trip and Margarita Tours offer these a few times each year. A trip like this is the best way to see a large number of reptiles in a short period of time. Any one person will see only a few reptiles in the forest but collectively, we found many species. At Madre Selva, indigenous kids also bring in animals and exchange these for T-shirts. Their ability to spot small, hidden animals in the forests was phenomenal. 

We visited two of the Project Amazon field stations: Madre Selva and Santa Cruz. These stations are affiliated with Margarita Tours. Santa Cruz was located about an hour by fast water taxi from Iquitos but Madre Selva was much further away and about a 12 hour boat trip down the Amazon. I found the time on the water when in transit to Madre Selva to be just as exciting as walking in the forest. The night trip on the river between Madre Selva and Santa Cruz was absolutely magical. It was an unforgettable experience to sit on the upper deck and watch the moon set into the Amazon, smell the moist tropical vegetation and catch occasional glimpses of various nightjars and potoos or see fishing bats streak across the bow lights.

I will prepare a number of posts of the animals that I encountered. In this post, I will cover the time on the water and show pics of Iquitos and the field stations.

I flew from Los Angeles to Lima and then Lima to Iquitos on LAN. Service was good, particularly on the LA<>Lima connection.







Iquitos is the gateway to the Peruvian Amazon. Once upon a time, it was a booming city when rubber was valuable. There are many old and beautiful buildings along the waterfront of the Itaya River.






The Amazon is in drought this year. Normally, the Itaya River would be up to these houses in January, the wet season, but this year the river was about 3m lower than usual. The Itaya River is visible in the distance. Iquitos is bordered by the Itaya River and this flows into the Amazon a few kilometers downstream.
















Transport in Iquitos was primarily by these modified 3-wheel motorbikes:






We travelled down river on the Nenita, a new boat operated by Margarita Tours. This style of boat was typical of other transports on the river.






On the trip down river to Madre Selva, the clouds of the wet season built up in the afternoon and we received a torrential downpour. Drought in the Amazon is a relative term. It rained most days, just not as much as usual. The bigger problem was a pour snow melt in the Andes that feeds the Amazon.





Later in the afternoon, it cleared and the river was as smooth as a lake. I like these shots where the river reflects the surrounding habitats:
















This is a confluence of a tributary with the Amazon. Some were "white water" (e.g., muddy) rivers like the Amazon:






Others were "black water" (e.g., stained with tannins). Their clear water swirled and then mixed with the muddy Amazon:






Confluences always seemed to have many fish and were good places for both Pink and Grey Dolphins. These freshwater dolphins were common even near villages. I could never catch one breaking the surface but here is a pic of the ripples where a dolphin had just surfaced.






One of the characteristic sights along the river was of giant Ceiba Trees that were full of the pendulous Russet-backed Oropendola nests. These are giant Icterids that made quite a racket when singing. 











The Iquitos region is an isolated city with no roads in or out. Access is by air or water so the rivers are the highways that people use for transporting everything.











We passed a number of villages of the Indigenous people.











We stopped at one of these. The people organize a hut with their various artwork and crafts. I think that their kids are so cute.






This little girl was such a sweetie. She had a pet marmoset that loved to sit and preen her hair. Other kids would occasionally grab it. The little monkey would scream until they released it. It would then bound back to the girl and climb to her head where it looked happy again.






Girls with a Three-toed Sloth:






Red Howler Monkey:






Uakari:






After travelling for a number of hours on the Amazon, we turned south into the Rio Orosa. The fieldstation Madre Selva is located a few kilometers upstream.






We spent four nights at Madre Selva. This was the dining hall.






The Nenita was berthed nearby:






We visited a cocha (e.g., oxbow lake) one day. Normally, we would have been able to access this like with a kayak but the water level was too low this year. These oxbows are the places where Black Caimans hunt at night. We did not see any this year but did find the smaller Spectacled Caimans.






Some of the fish from the cocha:











Our second stop was at Santa Cruz. This station was a recent acquisition by Project Amazonas. The habitat was primarily second growth forest although there were small patches of primary forest along some of the creeks. Access to Santa Cruz was via the Rio Napo, another tributary of the Amazon.











These beautiful vines were common along the Rio Napo:















The infrastructure was much more basic at Santa Cruz than at Madre Selva:






Finding reptiles in the forest meant spending a great deal of time on the trails. I tried to walk at night until about mid-night but some of the guys stayed out even longer. Night was the most productive since the nocturnal animals were active and the diurnals could sometimes be found asleep on the vegetation. The tour participants would bring the animals back to the stations where they could be photographed by everyone. These are a couple of shots of some the people studying what had been located to try and work out the identifications. Frogs were particularly difficult due to their diversity and variability.






This is a pic of my friends and I (left to right, me, Ed and Ted). I used to herp the deserts of California, Arizona and later Mexico with these guys. The last time that we were together, we were preparing for university. Now, Ted and Ed are retired (I am so jealous!). Ted was a US Fish and Wildlife Biologist and Ed worked for the US Forest Service.






Sunset on the Rio Orosa:







Regards,
David


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## melgalea (Feb 4, 2010)

wow, i have always wanted to go to the amazon, what a gorgeous place.and stunning photos.. do u hav to be careful of getting diseases or anything from the water and stuff there. 
cheers
mel


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## Snake Catcher Victoria (Feb 4, 2010)

Cant wait to see the herps David, love the pics of the monkeys and the sloth.
The uakari and the red howler were tame like the marmoset yes?
And what sort of pet does a sloth make?
What an experience this must have been.
I recognise some of those fish from my local aquarium as well.
Ya, im green here mate.


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## Sock Puppet (Feb 4, 2010)

That would have been a sensational trip to a very special part of the world. I'm green with envy, would love to herp over there (& go fishing!!!). 
Did you see any poison arrow frogs? Or am I jumping the gun a bit here? OK, I'll wait for the herp posts.....


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## ShnakeyGirl (Feb 4, 2010)

I'm so jealous, the Amazon and South America are one of my dream destinations!


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## moloch05 (Feb 4, 2010)

Thanks, Mel, Baz, Tonsky and Shnakey.

Mel,
I am sure that there are things that could be "caught" from the river. I took anti-malarials and had a yellow-fever inoculation. I think that the most likely problem would simply be E. coli.

There was a rather unpleasant little catfish known as the Candiru that lived in the river. You can read of its unsavoury habits here:
Candiru - Vandellia cirrhosa

Piranhas lived in the river and one afternoon, a guy caught some from a kayak in the area where the Nenita was birthed at Madre Selva.

Electric Eels lived in the river and creeks within the forest. We saw a few.


Baz,
The howler and uakari were also tame. I can't say what a pet sloth would be like. They don't seem to be the sort of animal that would become tame but maybe they stay in the Cecropia Trees around the villages.

Fish were wonderful. I also saw many familiar species. Fish like Corydoris catfish, Plecostemus, Black-skirt Tetras, other tetras were common. Some people saw Angelfish just like what we see in pet shops. Margarita Tours offers fish trips. I think that these would be interesting except that they are pillage and plunder trips. The participants are able to organize export permits so keep everything and ship these back to the States. We saw some of them in action on our last day on the Nenita.












Tonksy,
I saw several species of dart frogs. Three of these were absolutely gorgeous. I will have pics in later posts but here are previews. I will include these and other photos in subsequent posts along with info about them:
















Fishing would be superb. My friend, Ed, took along a small rod, reel and lures and soon hooked a small Arawana that jumped repeatedly. Fish were everywhere. One night, several of us ventured up a side river in a canoe. Fish were jumping and the girl behind me said that she was going to have to try and catch one. A moment after saying this, a large fish jumped into her lap. She screamed and we all had a good laugh. 


Regards,
David


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## xavarx7 (Feb 4, 2010)

wow i love the dart frogs.. cant wait for you to post some more pics of the dart frogs


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## Sock Puppet (Feb 4, 2010)

Thanks for posting the frog preview pics, David, I am very much looking forward to the subsequent herp posts! Those dart frogs are stunning, I especially like the first one with the red head & nape. 

It's interesting what you say about the fish & fishing there. Being a keen fisho & aquarist myself (although I only keep Aus natives now), I always find fish/fishing stories & info fascinating, especially if they're from exotic locations. I don't see too many Arowana in the local shops, but they are very similar to our saratoga. In fact they are both Osteoglossids, a primitive fish. It would have been a treat seeing some of our commonly seen aquarium fish like plecos in their natural habitat!


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## itbites (Feb 4, 2010)

Amazing adventure! Fantastic pics as usual,

thank you so much for sharing them with us David.


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## -Matt- (Feb 4, 2010)

Absolutely AMAZING David! I truely am envious of you. Looks like such an incredible place with a huge diversity of wildlife - love the primate pictures. I very much look forward to the herp pictures (from the sneak peak I've seen we are all in for a treat!)


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## borntobnude (Feb 4, 2010)

WOW. thanks david your pics and story are sensational as always .my 11 yr old daughter nows wants a pet marmoset


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## DanTheMan (Feb 4, 2010)

Fantastic! What an amazing, diverse place. Certainly looking forward to more! Interested to know the names of the snakes you found that I've seen so far, I could pick the Boa's & Viper's, but I'm pretty clueless when it comes to exotic species.


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## moloch05 (Feb 5, 2010)

Thanks, all.

Tonsky,
As you know, the Arowana can grow to a large size. The fish diversity along with everything else was just amazing.


Rodney,
My kids feel the same about the marmosets. They are such cute little primates and they obviously become very attached to their owners.


Regards,
David


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