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Loreto is the largest yet least populated department in Peru. It is covered by dense vegetation and by primary and secondary jungle with low hills and slightly rolling landscape, crisscrossed by the many rivers of the Amazon River basin, which is born at the confluence of the Marañon and Ucayali Rivers.
Iquitos, the capital of Loreto, is the main port city on the Amazon River and the largest city in the Peruvian jungle. Different indigenous people groups like the Cocama, Huitoto, and Bora first inhabited the area. Then came the Jesuit missionaries who founded the city. At the end of the nineteenth century was when Iquitos experienced its greatest economic glory due to the rubber industry. The economic bonanza meant that luxurious buildings like the art noveau Palace Hotel and the Iron House, designed by the famous French architect Gustave Eiffel, were constructed there.
In contrast to these buildings, you find the homes in the Belen neighborhood that are constructed on top of rafts and pylons to protect them from the flooding of the river. One of the best attractions in Loreto is navigating on the rivers and lakes and enjoying the beautiful beaches.
The Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve (2,080,000 hectares), the largest reserve in Peru, is located 183 kilometers from the city and is home to numerous plant and animal species, many of them in danger of extinction like the charapa river turtle, the giant river otter, the black caiman, and the river dolphin.
Likewise, the Allpahuayo-Mishana National Reserve (58,000 hectares) protects the largest concentration of white sand forests, or varillales as they are known in the Peruvian Amazon rainforest. This happens to be one of the best areas to go for bird-watching. //In addition to these national reserves, there are also numerous private reserves, which have been created to satisfy all tastes.
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Nauta
It is located on the left bank of the Marañon River, seven miles from the confluence with the Ucayali River.
Founded in 1830, it is one of the oldest population centers in the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest. Due to its strategic location as a linking point between the Marañon and Ucayali Rivers (to see the two rivers unite is an extraordinary sight), it has gained importance, and has become the main trade and communication center. There are basic tourist services in Nauta.
Amazon River
The Amazon River springs up more than 5000 masl / 16.404 fasl in the snowy mountain peak of Mismi in Arequipa and crosses extensive amounts of tropical jungle in an approximate 4500 km / 2796 mile-route. It has more than 500 navigable tributaries, an average depth of 50 meters / 164 feet, and a width that varies from 4 to 6 km / 2 to 4 miles. A large part of its meandering has no definite course; it has formed a complex of smaller rivers that constitute a network of canals with numerous islands.
It is the river with the largest water flow in the world and makes up an enormous hydrographical network, unique for its size and huge amount of water. The Spanish, Francisco de Orellana, discovered the river in 1542. It is most accessible from the city of Iquitos where the Amazon River Tourist Corridor is located, in a huge animal and plant life biodiversity and where different types of boating expeditions take place, including a visit to the source of the Amazon River and a trip to the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve.
Some of the excursions even reach as far as the borders of Colombia and Brazil. It is also possible to visit Boras, Yahuas, and Witotos de Pucaurquillo indigenous communities as well as some farming communities.
Nearby, there are tourist lodges to suit all tastes, from the most comfortable (air conditioned rooms) to the most rustic. These oases in the middle of the jungle represent a launching point for hikes to seek out medicinal plants, visits to indigenous communities, and bird-watching expeditions. Likewise, it is possible to take a walk on the Canopy Walkway, a bridge suspended over the tops of the trees, from where you can appreciate the beauty of the Amazonian fauna.
Pacaya Samiria National Reserve
183 km / 114 miles southwest of Iquitos. The shortest route is Iquitos – Nauta by highway and then a trip on the river from Nauta to the village, Comunidad of 20 de Febrero (15 hours by boat or 4 hours by chartered boat). To be able to enter, you must request permission from INRENA and pay the corresponding fees.
Comprising a large part of the provinces of Loreto, Requena, Ucayali, and Alto Amazonas, it has an area of 2’080.000 hectares making it the largest in the country and in South America. It is also known as the most extensive area of protected floodable forest (vareza) in the Amazon Rainforest. It is bordered by two large rivers: the Marañon in the north and the Ucayali – Puinahua Canal to the south.
Inside the reserve, there are three river basins: the Pacaya River basin, the Samiria River basin, and the Yanayacu-Pucate River basin. There are also numerous lakes, gorges, canals, and oxbows. It has an annual monthly temperature between 20ºC (68ºF) and 33ºC (91ºF) and an annual rain fall of 2000 to 3000 millimeters, which allows for its huge biodiversity: 449 bird species, 102 mammal species (among them the pink dolphin), 69 species of reptiles, 58 species of amphibians, 256 fish species, and 1024 species of wild and cultivated plants. The reserve is a refuge for different endangered species like the charapa turtle (Podocnemis expansa), the spider monkey (Ateles sp.), the giant river otter (Pteronura brasiliensis), the red macaw (Ara macao), cedar trees (Cederla odorata), and others.
Furthermore, there are diverse protection and natural resource management projects like the one aimed at repopulating the taricaya and the charapa river with turtles in the artificial beaches of the reserve. It is truly amazing to watch the final stage of the process, the freeing of the newborns into the rivers, gorges, and lakes of the reserve. The level of involvment of the local population is remarkable. On the edges of Pacaya-Samiria on the banks of the Marañon and Ucayali Rivers, more than 42.000 people live grouped in ninety-four communities and another 50.000 inhabit the 109 villages in the buffer zone. Almost all of them make a living from fishing, farming, or hunting and wild fruit and greens picking.
Allpahuayo–Mishana National Reserve
This reserve of barely 58.000 hectares protects the largest concentration of white sand forests or “varillales” known in the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest. Here live numerous one-of-a-kind species of plants and animals. Protected here is also a specimen of forests flooded by the black waters of the Nanay River, unique to the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest. This reserve contains an enormous and peculiar biological wealth and numerous endemic plant and animal and restricted distribution species stand out, many of them still without scientific classification. Up to now, there have been more than 1780 plant species, 522 butterfly species, 155 species of fish, 83 species of amphibians, 120 reptile species, 476 bird species, and 145 species of mammals registered; the most important ones among them are the equatorial sakis (Pithecia aequatorialis) and the black titi monkey (Callicebus lucifer). New plant and animal species are continually being discovered. Among the birds, there are two dozens noteworthy species living in the white sand forests, unknown in Peru until just recently. In the last five years, four new bird species have been described by scientists associated with white sand forests. Three are ant eating species (Herpsilochmus gentryi, Percnostola arenarum, and Myrmeciza castanea) and the other eats flies and other insects (Zimmerius villarejoi). There is a fifth one that now has a scientific description (Polioptila clementsi). To these, we have to add another dozen bird species that were unknown to Peru until recently like the beautiful pompadour cotinga (Xipholena punicea) and the saffron-crested tyrant-manakin (Neopelma chrysocephalum). |
