Old Girls’ Travel Bursary 2007

Harriet (centre) with friends

Harriet Jordan

The Amazon Rainforest. Wildlife, exploration, wilderness, biodiversity, culture, new friends, challenges, opportunities, personal development and the chance to make a difference. Just a few of the reasons that myself and 36 other YEs decided to venture into the unknown and spend almost 5 weeks of our summer holiday in the heart of the Peruvian Amazon. We travelled into the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve and shared an experience we will never forget.
Some had been travelling through the night, but eventually we all arrived, over tired and over excited, and immediately began sharing our hopes, expectations and some small reservations about what lay ahead. We were hit by the climate. It was about 2 in the morning and it was hot and humid, we were all sweaty and naturally slightly embarrassed, until we remembered that the next 5 weeks were going to be like this and we quickly forgot about the attractive shine we had acquired!

Another revelation was the culture shock. It was apparent as soon as we departed the plane - the airport in Iquitos consisted of a three-sided building with 1 baggage reclaim belt. We then jumped on the bus to the hostel and everyone was silent and enjoyed the natural air con provided by the windowless and door-less bus!

The next three days provided us with many new experiences. We started to get used to the blistering heat and humidity with a constant state of sweating and immersed ourselves in the Peruvian culture. We shopped in the “Anaconda” market which had been built on stilts and offered a very exotic shopping experience with the opportunity to buy dried, varnished piranhas amongst other locally produced goods.

Our evenings were spent on the boulevard overlooking the Amazon where we chatted to the locals and watched the Peruvian street artists. The boulevard was one of our favourite places as it was so vibrant and felt truly “Peruvian”. The attention we drew from being “English” and “gringos” was initially quite overwhelming, but we slowly became used to it and built up extensive Spanish skills in the form of “No gracias” and “Adios”!

We spent three weeks of our expedition in the depths of the Rainforest, and during that time we took part in a series of activities. Each activity presented us with fresh physical and mental challenges but also opened our eyes to fantastic new experiences which we had never thought possible before starting out. No cut, bruise or blister ever deterred us. The day to day reality of canoeing alongside caimon or cutting through virgin rainforest was more than enough to keep us going.

The expedition began in earnest when the team transferred from dry land to our river boats, the Clavero and Lobo de Rio. These would be our homes and base for the travelling up the river and the 22 days spent in the reserve. Half of the expedition were based on each boat, but the two travelled to the reserve together. The accommodation wasn’t huge, but we soon became very attached and loyal to our respective boats and crew.

The journey upstream lasted 4 days. In that time we watched the mile and a half wide, raging Amazon calm and narrow to a humble 50 metres in the reserve. Civilisation slowly fizzled out along the banks, whilst the wildlife multiplied and diversified with every hour. This dazzling display of life and colour intensified with each passing turn.

Near the edge of the Pacaya-Samiria reserve we left the white water Amazon for a black water tributary, the Samiria. Where the two rivers met, a startling line of black and white whorls and eddies divided the two, marking the change in water.
The first of our 2 bases was at Tacsacocha, well into the reserve. Here, the 2 boats split after a day of basic canoe training to start the scientific part of the expedition, the reason we were there. The sheer concentration of wildlife around us was breathtaking, but it would only get better as the expedition progressed…
Collecting turtle eggs was possibly the most rewarding activity, as we were taking them to an artificial nest site where they could hatch safely.
It was always disheartening to land on a beach and to find that the turtle eggs had already been taken by poachers. However, the satisfying prospect of finding an undisturbed nest kept us motivated to continue on to the next beach.
We took it in turn to cut a seven kilometre long transect through virgin rainforest to lake Cocha Pobra. This was a gruelling experience as we slipped into waist deep pools of mud and endured the discomfort of sharp spines in our arms and hands as we brushed past the vegetation. After three weeks we got huge satisfaction from reaching our objective, and on the way we were lucky enough to see monkeys, snakes, groups of peccary and on one occasion we caught sight of a jaguar resting in a tree. Although this was our hardest transect it was undoubtedly the best.

One of the highlights of the expedition was the time we spent in the Jungle and wild camp. We sailed and trecked to a remote location and had to fend for ourselves for five days. Here we carried out monitoring activities, equipped the camp site with makeshift tables and benches and caught pirhanas from the lake for our dinner each evening. Although the noise of the rainforest kept us awake at night, it didn’t bother us. It served as a reminder that we were 200 kilometres from civilisation.

Science was an integral part of the expedition; where else in the world offers the astounding biodiversity that we witnessed in the rainforest everyday? The science work we undertook measuring the biodiversity of the reserve could be seen first hand as three jaguars were seen in one day, at least 5 or more primates were identified on transects and the number of snakes sighted has increased from year to year.

The science work was varied, from leisurely drifting down the river, monitoring dolphins, manatees and turtles, to the fast paced caiman catching where the struggling caiman were pulled into the boats, bringing us face to face with up to 3 or 4 metre caiman. 9 hours of transects totally immersed us in the rainforest, with monkeys overhead, run-ins with snakes and spiders and some challenging, very muddy terrain. Macaws and Turtle eggs gave us the perfect opportunity to take in and fully appreciate the amazing sunrises and sunsets.

The reason for doing these activities was for one, sole crucial purpose, to conserve the incredible Pacaya Samiria National Reserve. It is for this reason that we took such pride and diligence in science work- without the work continually being done this incredible reserve may not survive, permanently changing or even destroying this unique habitat and depriving future generations of the amazing experience that we were lucky enough to have.