Thursday, August 14

Location: Boca Manu, Manu Reserve, Peru

Today's weather: 27°C.

This morning I got up at 6am – and it was a BIG struggle. It feels like such a long time since I've been able to sleep in, although it was just a week ago. Today we would journey back down the Manu river and to the airstrip ready for Rob, Paula, and Tino to fly back to Cuzco the next morning. Rick and I would be staying a few days longer. But, in the meantime, it was necessary to repack my bag once more and get things ready to leave. Breakfast was at 6:30am, and at 7:00am we left for a long rainforest walk. Pancho and Alliu would collect our things, take down our tents, and put everything into the canoe. They would then meet us at some point downriver.

The walk was the most scenic that we'd yet had. Though Tino still kept on pointing out more birds, which was fine for everyone else in the group – but I was feeling as if I'd seen enough birds and was no longer very interested. I named my malady "Just-Another-Bird Syndrome", and just hung out behind everyone else as we progressed along the rainforest trails. I felt that I'd be a lot happier if a jaguar suddenly popped out of the bushes, hissing and snarling at us, because THAT would be exciting (and at least I'd get to see a jaguar) – but it never happened. So I just trudged along quietly.

The forest trails crossed some small streams and ditches, which we had to cross by walking across on logs. I thanked my sense of balance, and steadied myself by grabbing hold of nearby branches and poles. Paula wasn't quite so lucky – she slipped and fell in some mud, but fortunately landed on her feet. At one point we came across a spot where a herd of peccaries (wild pigs) had crossed over. It was easy to see, because of all the deep muddy hoofprints which had cut into the small riverbank, and the mud that was splattered over nearby plants. Peccaries travel in herds of about 50. They are hunted, but they can be very dangerous – when the herd charges at you, its best just to get out of their way! Fortunately, the herd didn't happen to be around at the time. We stopped a while later to eat a snack, sitting on some logs alongside the trail, listening to the insects, watching the trees, birds, and even some lizards. We saw more monkeys playing in the treetops, and a red squirrel scampering down a nearby tree trunk.

Finally, after more than two hours, we reached the end of our walk. It was at Cocha Otorongo, where we'd visited a few days before. Alliu and Pancho were in the canoe waiting for us – so we climbed in, glad to have a rest from walking. Pancho fired up the outboard motor, and we headed back down the Manu River towards Boca Manu.

The rest of the day was spent in the canoe. Lunch was passed to us and quickly eaten (I think that this was the first time I'd actually asked for seconds. Rick, who normally asked for seconds, now asked for thirds!). Afterwards, I sat back comfortably and read a book – thankful for the breeze (of the moving canoe) which was helping to keep me cool. I rested one leg on the side of the canoe, and draped my hand into the water alongside me as we sped along. Strangely, everyone else was doing the same. We watched caiman, turtles, and another capybara along the riverbank as we journeyed downriver.

Eventually, we arrived back at the Ranger Station where we'd camped on our second night. We stopped briefly because Tino wanted to find out the results of a soccer game which had just been played between a Brazilian and a Peruvian team. But, the Ranger Station was deserted – the Italian soccer star, Paulo Rossi, had just passed through with a tour group, with the rangers also deciding to tag along. We continued on, and reached the airstrip at Boca Manu an hour later.

Boca Manu airport is a small jungle airstrip established to provide easy access to the reserve and village. It was once also "discovered" by Colombian drug lords who used it as a transit point for drugs going into the United States – but this ended in a gunbattle when the Peruvian military raided the airstrip a few years ago, capturing over 5 tonnes of cocaine. Military personnel remained at the airstrip for several months and they were the ones who built airstrip's current structures.

The airstrip is exactly that – an airstrip in a clearing next to the jungle. The only building is an open-sided hut with benches to sit and wait. The building also contains a single glass case with a meagre array of local tourist goods. We pitched our tents at a small camping spot close to the airstrip, located a small way within the forest. Tino advised us not to go walking in the grass around the airstrip without boots and long trousers. He said the grass was inhabited by chiggers – a small insect which injects its eggs beneath the skin of unsuspecting mammals. The eggs then develop into larvae which must be painfully dug out of the skin with a needle or knife!

After helping with the tents, I returned to the canoe and watched as some local people fished using some very unusual techniques. One person was throwing bits of old spaghetti into a shallow part of the river, close to the riverbank. Another person stood over the water with a machete, periodically slashing through the water to strike at any fish that had come to nibble on the spaghetti. The technique certainly looked impressive – but it wasn't very effective. No fish came to nibble at the spaghetti, and none were silly enough to get in the way of the machete. Another fisherman nearby using more traditional methods was having better luck (even if his fish were only the size of sardines). Rick tried fishing as well, but didn't catch a thing – though he claims to have seen a small snake swimming through the water.

A half hour later, we jumped into the canoe which took us across the river for our evening swim/wash. It wasn't as nice as in the main reserve area – the river bottom was rocky in some parts and slimy in others. But we appreciated the opportunity to get clean.

After dinner we started chatting. Seeming as this was to be the last night with the entire group together, we reviewed our adventure and compared notes about what we'd seen. We also got Tino talking a little about the problems with eco-tourism in the area. Some of the tour operators were good, but others were just in it for the money and didn't care what damage they caused. He said that it was necessary for strict rules and training to be applied to all the tour operators now working in the area, combined with a cap on the number of visitors to the reserve. Otherwise, he feared, it would cause problems.

By nine o'clock we were feeling tired. Since there is little in the rainforest to keep people up late, we went back to our tents and went to sleep.