Jungle Animals

I was in the Peruvian Amazon recently to attend the final “achievement days” with the students, teachers, parents, and community members of our projects along the Ucayali River. It was the beginning of the rainy season and the river was already rising quickly, but was still not high enough to get into the community of Nuevo Miraflores by boat. I should explain.

From Iquitos it is a two and a half day boat trip to Tamanco. From there it is an hour motorized canoe (known as a “peque-peque” for the sound of the four horse power engine) ride to a path leading into the jungle from the shore of the Ucayali. During the rainy season this becomes a small river of its own. But on this trip it was still a muddy jungle path, so at that point, the river is not high enough to get into the community of Nuevo Miraflores.

It is also at that point that you are reminded that the animals that I saw on nature shows when I was a child, animals that I only met in imagined adventures, are very very real. Again, I should explain.

The Amazon always reminds you that you are not alone. It is loud with the cacophony of birds, insects, monkeys, and all the life that is packed into a tremendous expanse of chaotic, twisting, green. But all of those animals generally avoid humans (with the exception of the insects, who treat us more as a buffet than a threat). However, on this trip, I learned that distance can be closed quickly.

Sr. Juan, a community member in Nuevo Miraflores who generously offered to pick me up in Tamanco, had some strange cuts on his shin and calf. It looked like he had been hit by the propeller of his small peque-peque motor so I asked him what happened. He casually recounted how a couple of weeks earlier he accidentally stepped on the tail of a crocodile when walking to the community. He luckily had his machete and was able to defend himself.

I later was speaking with one of our teachers who told me that he was standing next to a tree when an anaconda wrapped itself around his legs and began to squeeze. He also, luckily, had a machete handy and was able to stop the attack. At least it wasn’t a jaguar!

Thanks to these stories, I was extra aware of two things when hiking into and out of Nuevo Miraflores: 1) my surroundings and 2) the fact that I was living one of the adventures of my childhood imagination.