ADVENTURE IN THE PERUVIAN JUNGLE

In the city of Iquitos, we had the pleasure of visiting the Amazon Rescue Center (CREA), which carries out its work with the support of the private sector… in order to carry out rescue, rehabilitation and release of endangered aquatic mammals and wildlife in Loreto.

Recently we had the pleasure of visiting our natural wonder, the Amazon River, and staying in an inland jungle lodge, where we really enjoyed its facilities and the nature that surrounds it, the chosen lodge in this case was the Heloconia Lodge, which for a few days was our home surrounded by our nature, these were days of total disconnection and learning.

In these 3 days in the jungle we met the Yaguas, a community that lives on the banks of the Amazon River, where we were greeted with a tropical rain, which forced us to take shelter under one of the buildings, but which we enjoyed with all our senses, we left soaked but it is a natural phenomenon that we see very little in Lima, when the sky opens and lets its waters fall as if it were a shower, as soon as the amount of rain dropped we were invited to Maloca, which is a circular house with a roof of large palms that protected us from the rain and where they told us their history, their customs and they showed us their dances, we witnessed the vitality of the patriarch of the community who, at 81 years old, can still fire his blowgun with excellent aim.

We had the opportunity to visit one of the cochas or lagoons near the lodge and be able to fish some piranhas, which we returned to the water once we were able to learn a little more about their species and behavior, we also saw some piwichos on top of the trees and , upon returning to the lodge, we could see some pink dolphins hunting their food, a magical moment, shortly before returning to the lodge we suddenly found a river snake moving on the surface of the water, which we could admire for a few seconds before continuing our way.

There are 2 types of walks that we could do, a night walk through the jungle that is only for the bravest, here with the indications of our guide we could see some animals that are not admired in the day, such as the Goliath tarantula, it is larger that the hand of an adult person, nocturnal birds and other animals are also heard, is a very great stimulus for all our senses.

The other walk is done during the day, where it can amaze you with the synergy of nature and how all animals have a function within their environment, here we saw the bullet ants always walking firmly towards their anthill (you should always be careful with these ants since their bite is compared to the pain generated by a bullet), we also saw how the leaf-cutter ants each carried a piece of leaf to their den, we found a millipede resting on one of the leaves of a bush and also a tiny frog red in color, but just by touching it could kill an adult, the poison from its skin is used by some communities to poison the darts they use to hunt.

In the city of Iquitos, we had the pleasure of visiting the Amazon Rescue Center (CREA), which carries out its work with the support of the private sector, mainly the Dallas World Aquarium Zoo, the Amazon Research Institute and Acobia-DWAzoo, in order to carry out rescue, rehabilitation and release of endangered aquatic mammals and wildlife in Loreto. Here we were able to learn about the history of the manatees that came to this rescue center, either because the villagers hunted their parents, they were recovered from the hands of these animals traffickers or someone who had them in captivity as pets, in CREA they rescue them and rehabilitate, the little ones are fed with a special milk that comes from the Dallas World Aquarium Zoo which helps them to nourish and grow until they are ready for the moment they go to the youth area to continue with their rehabilitation and later liberation, they also work with the community for rescue and liberation, so that they become aware and form ties with the rescued animals and be able to modify customs that come from times past, such as hunting these animals for food, we also find some parrots, sloths and turtles from the region that will not be able to be released since the damage generated to them makes it impossible for them to return to their natural habitat , but they are very well cared for within CREA, it also has a forest where we will find different trees and plants and they will teach us the medicinal properties of each one, one of the most beautiful parts was that they recovered some of the trees that fall due to storms and transform them into works of art, giving them the shape of animals and guardians of the forest.

Iquitos is a city with many places to visit and a lot of history to learn, and from this blog we want to motivate you to visit it and enjoy our Peruvian jungle, you can find some offers for this destination by clicking here.

I hope you liked our little adventure through our Natural Wonder, the Amazon River.

See you on our next blog!

The Peruvian Shades team