In Search of the Elusive Jaguar

After numerous weeks in the mountains and at altitude, we felt that a trip to warmer climates was overdue. The Manu Biosphere is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is considered to have the greatest diversity of plant and animal life on the planet. To reach the 'Reserve Zone' where the greatest level of animal life can be witnessed is no easy feat though. A twelve hour bus ride from Cusco took us high into the mountains and then down through cloud forest on muddy and rutted dirt roads. Along the way, we caught a glimpse of a family of woolly monkeys shaking the trees and generally misbehaving beside the road. We also saw the national bird of Peru, which has the unfortunate, but also amusing, name of 'Cock of the Rock'. It is a beautiful bright red bird with a strange head - see the photo.

Black Centipede

The second day we arrived to the small jungle town of Atalaya where a longboat (motorised canoe) was waiting for us. The seven hour trip down the Madre de Dios River was relaxing and interesting, with shallow stretches causing the canoe to scrape along the river bed and floating trees threatening to break a hole in the wooden hull. The vegetation started to grow thicker and greener and we saw several caiman (crocodiles) within close proximity of the canoe. The birdlife was plentiful, although it's fair to say that bird-watching isn't going to become one of our greatest passions. By the end of the day we had reached the last outpost of Boca Manu, right on the edge of the Manu Reserve Zone.

Cock of the Rock Bird

The next day as we cruised up the Manu River in the canoe, it was clear that we had entered an area where there are no communities or development. The river was brown and the forest on either side was thick all the way to the river's edge. Another five hours and we were at a small group of cabins built into the jungle floor - this was our home for the next three days and two nights. We were no more than 100 metres from the river but the dense vegetation left the campsite in a permanent state of darkness. With no electricity, going to bed at night was a tranquil experience, listening to nothing but the myriad of sounds coming from the jungle around us. We saw nobody else outside our group of four during those three days. It rained quite frequently and heavily during our stay in the jungle and having an afternoon nap in the cabin with the rain teaming down outside and thunder resonating through the forest has to go into the top ten arvo naps of all time.

Massive Tree

We left with an expectation of walking into a real life zoo, but the reality is that animal life in the Amazon jungle doesn't just parade around in front of you and often many hours can be spent sitting beside a river or on a raised platform in the trees staring through binoculars searching for activity. That being said, we were lucky enough to see five different species of monkeys playing in the trees, black caiman and white caiman cruising by the boat or lying on the river banks, turtles, an otter catching and eating a yellow piranha, countless numbers of birds including macaws, toucans, hawks and kingfisher, rodents the size of your average family dog, a tarantula (during a night walk - a bit scary!), centipedes, frogs, water snakes and all sorts of little creatures. The main object of our attention was the search for the jaguar, of which we were told there are 600 living in the 2 million hectares of national park. Much rainfall didn't mix well with the jaguar's habit of getting some sun on a branch beside the river though and during the seven day trip, the jaguar remained elusive. Oh and of course we had no problems finding a billion mosquitos per square metre.

Otter Feeding on Piranha

We returned to Boca Manu where the river had risen over a metre from all the rain but the trip upstream to Atalaya the next day was a long one, with the current working against us. Despite the extra water, several times PT had to get in the river to assist the local guys push the canoe through shallow sections that couldn't be negotiated with the outboard. After a final night in a jungle lodge surrounded by monkeys who were ravaging the local banana trees, we made the drive back to civilisation with a sense of just how dense and mystical the Amazon rainforest can be.

Our Accomodation in Manu Biosphere

Searching for Action

Transport Around Manu Biosphere

White Caiman

Woolly Monkey