Tame macaws sit on visitors' shoulders at Peru's Tambopata Research Centre. Photo / Creative Commons image by Flickr user cammaert
Tame macaws sit on visitors' shoulders at Peru's Tambopata Research Centre. Photo / Creative Commons image by Flickr user cammaert
A river safari to a remote Amazon animal sanctuary is magical, writes Lorraine Brown.
Forget your Copacabana Beach trip to Rio de Janeiro. I've discovered an unforgettable jungle sojourn.
Our chosen mission is to take a seven-hour trip in a narrowboat up a tributary of the Amazon to stay at the Refugio Amazonas Lodge in Peru, to photograph and observe the wildlife, and visit the Tambopata Research Centre to learn how scientists are successfully increasing macaw parrot numbers.
Our group of 14 explorers, each with just 5kg of luggage, are met at the Puerto Maldonado Airport by two naturalist guides and transferred to a dugout longboat canoe. The droning outboard is hypnotic and with canoe sides of only 2ft high, it's not a good idea to nod off.
The boatman measures the water depth with a pole and uses sign language to communicate where hidden tree stumps lie along the Tambopata River. A dozen scraping sounds are heard against the hull and the guide asks for volunteers to remove shoes and push the boat out over the shallows.
Small turtles and caimans (crocodiles) bask on the riverbanks. Our guide points out a giant capybara. These mammals are the largest rodents in the world.
Fishing floats are attached to nets below, waiting for a catch of sea bass or catfish. Flying overhead are multicoloured macaw parrots. We watch as vultures swoop and circle, on the lookout for an unwary lunch victim.
Further up the tributary, we unwrap an Amazonian type of banana leaf, tied with a strip of bark to reveal a rice dish - it's a surprisingly flavoursome lunch.
The long narrowboat stops at an outpost and our group climbs the almost vertical steps to sign a register and get our passports stamped "Tambopata National Reserve". On inspection, it's a perfect picture stamp of an elusive and endangered jaguar, not often sighted in this area. The register signing is to discourage goldminers setting up camp along the riverbanks and causing erosion by using explosives.
Rooms are open to jungle noises. Photo / Jeff Cremer
Waiting in the passport line, I notice a menacing pinktoe tarantula entwined in an overhead beam and shudder; thank goodness it's safely out of human reach.
On arrival at the Refugio Amazonas Lodge we are given a small roll, which in the low light I mistake for an asparagus roll. How embarrassing to take a bite at a firmly rolled damp facecloth! Far away from civilisation we are not expecting such comfort.
The generators stop at 9pm, plunging the lodge into near darkness. Low lit kerosene lamps and candles guide us to the bathroom. Showers at the lodge are cold and night temperatures are 18C in September. Beds are single and encased by mosquito nets. Just to make sure, I spray the outside of the net with mosquito repellent.
Bedroom walls are unscreened and open to birds calling and jungle noises, such as the elusive howler monkey.
Next morning we trek to climb a 25m man-made steel viewing platform, for a perfect view of the forest canopy. Cheeky spider and squirrel monkeys swing in the brazil nut trees. Our rainforest guide points to a 300-year-old kapok tree and a kina tree which has quinine in its bark and is used as a treatment for malaria. There are unusual tree-dwelling porcupines and sloths lying on branches ... just being slothful.
A Dusky Titi monkey in the trees near the Tambopata Research Centre in Peru. Photo / Creative Commons image by Flickr user David
Another boat transfer today, to the Tambopata Research Centre and Lodge, where a scientist's passion for increasing macaw parrot numbers is akin to a religious following.
This bright rainbow-coloured parrot normally lays four eggs but after hatching only feeds two babies and ignores the other hatchlings. The Research Centre collects the abandoned chicks and hand rears them. This has increased macaw numbers significantly. Volunteers from all countries live on site and assist scientists with research programmes.
One evening I find a friendly macaw crouching comfortably on the open beam in our bedroom. A group of these tame birds greet us at breakfast, they sit on our shoulders, eager to share a bread roll, harbour a fondness for butter, and a love of being photographed.
Most mornings we rise at 5.30am for breakfast and at 7am don gumboots and set out walking in the National Reserve.
On the forest floor, it's hard to avoid stepping on thousands of leafcutter ants, carrying leaves to make a tasty mushroom fungus. If you stop, look and listen, you will see a toucan, or hear a tapping woodpecker.
Everyone concludes this is a magical place to visit. Where else in the world can you find tame parrots to share your breakfast?
CHECKLIST
Getting there:Air New Zealand begins flying three days a week from Auckland to Buenos Aires in December. From there, use a local carrier to get to Puerto Maldonado, Peru.
Details:Peru Nature organises tours to the Tambopata Research Centre.
