Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve

On Monday, August 30, after navigating upriver on the Marañon River in eastern Peru, the 33-meter long Ayapua, with 19 Earthwatch volunteers, several Peruvian biologists, crew and assorted personnel, arrives at the mouth of the Samiria River. The Marañon is one of the major tributaries of the Amazon River. We are just above its confluence with the Ucayali River, where the Amazon proper begins, though it is sometime called the Salimões.

The water level in this Peruvian area of the upper Amazon basin is at a 40-year low, so we cannot enter the Samiria where we had hoped. We will still be able to conduct field research with small auxiliary boats. We traveled upriver for two days with a flotilla of seven small boats tied to the Ayapua. We will stay on the river for twelve days. Accommodations are very comfortable and the crew is friendly and very helpful. The food is wonderful. We eat lots of river fish and chicken with rice and fried bananas with delicious sauces. It's different every day.

A crewmember is securing our bow to a tree on the Marañon. From October to December the river level will rise and flood the lowland forest, known as várzea. These trees have high water marks at about 2-3 meters.

The shore of the Marañon shows signs of low water near our boat. We must navigate around submerged trees and snags every day to get to our study areas. The expert boatmen can do this even in the dark of night when we search for caiman.

Morning banana delivery at the Ayapua

Resident tarantula on the Ayapua

Our job is to help the resident biologists collect and record data about wildlife populations in the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve. Other volunteer groups have been doing the same throughout the year and more will follow us. Biologist Tula Fang accompanies us while volunteer Sandra records the 58 pink and grey river dolphins we counted this day.

Sandy poses at the base of a “flying buttress” tree. These bizarre roots can occupy a space of 30 feet wide, although the trunk might be only three feet in diameter. This was on the shorter, 4-kilometer transect.

Few flowers are in bloom in the forest right now, so this was a welcome sight. Of course, the best photo opportunities were lost as they were so fleeting: colorful yellow, orange, blue, or black butterflies that flutter closely by but are gone after 3 or 4 seconds; a flock of 20 brightly colored macaws that flush from a tree top; the graceful and playful movement of dolphins that surface momentarily and grunt only a few feet from the boat; a tamarin monkey gliding through the jungle canopy, almost indistinguishable from the leaves and tree limbs. These are continual sightings throughout the day, and bring great pleasure, if not good photos.


Our guide Alfredo poses with three happy campers, Kim, Tessa and Tom.

Alfredo and I emerge from the forest after a 6-kilometer trek where he spotted families of different species of monkeys. I later entered the data into the database that reflected 101 animals counted that day on our trek in the jungle. As he watched the treetops, Rose and I watched where we placed our feet so we would not trip on a vine and fall or step on a snake. There were two 3-foot long snakes on the trail.

Iquitos, Peru

Located on the upper Amazon River, Iquitos was founded by Jesuits in the 1750s to serve the local indigenous people. By the 1870s there were about 1,500 people. Then rubber trees were discovered and the process to create products quickly developed. Within a decade the population increased 16-fold, creating a rubber boom fever that brought entrepeneurs from Europe and the U.S.

By World War 1 the rubber industry collapsed due to the discovery that seeds could be planted systematically on the Malay Peninsula. In Amazonas the trees were scattered throughout the forest. A plantation was much more profitable. Oil was discovered in the 1960s, creating another economic boom. Tourism is also an important industry here.

Many of the buildings in Iquitos date from the rubber era, such as the Casa Morey where I am staying for a couple of nights. By bedroom is huge, about 300-400 square feet, with ceilings about 20 feet high, to better ventilate in hot weather. It has been recently renovated and has excellent air conditioning. My balcony window looks over the waterfront area. The river is so low in this season that people are planting corn in the river bottom.

This building is similar to my hotel. Pablo is one of the Earthwatch scientists who took some of us on a walking tour of the Belén market this morning.

Catfish and cilantro at the Belén market

The mototaxi is the most common way to get around town. They say there are 30,000 in Iquitos.

Here is a view of the almost dry Amazon River a couple of blocks from my hotel.

This will be our home for the next two weeks in the jungle. The Ayapua was built in 1906 in Hamburg, Germany. It has been renovated and is air conditioned. The purpose of the trip is to join a group of 20 volunteers from different countries to assist scientists in collecting data for their research in the 5 million-acre Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve. About 95,000 indigenous people live in villages surrounding the reserve. The area teems with wildlife which we will be surveying.
This will be my last post until my return to Iquitos on September 11. We will have minimal contact with the world until then. Ah, sweet nature!

Temples of the Sun and the Moon

(Click on images to enlarge)
The Temple of the Sun (Huaca del Sol) on the south bank of the Moche River near Trujillo, Peru, is a Moche structure about 1,500 years old. It is the largest single pre-Columbian structure in Peru. Although about a third of the original structure has washed away, it is estimated that it once contained about 140 million adobe bricks. It has not yet been excavated.

The nearby Temple of the Moon (Huaca de la Luna) is smaller, and was built in successive stages over 600 years. Each century represents another layer of construction. Excavation began in 1991 at the top level, and only three levels have been uncovered so far. It appears to have been used as a ceremonial and religious center, which includes human sacrifice.


The top layers have been degraded by looting, rain and wind. But the third layer seems relatively untouched. This shows the remarkable polychrome friezes in their original state. They have not been restored, only cleaned.

No open spaces were found. After completing the friezes, they were walled in with adobe, which accounts for the preservation of shapes and colors. This is a land of dry desert. But occasional weather, including El Niño years, have taken a toll on the surface layers.



Below is the view from the highest point on the huaca, looking toward the Huaca del Sol and the Moche Valley. On the desert below are excavations of living quarters of the Moche people. These are very recent, some only begun this year.