Pucallpa, Peru - Polarsteps

After the altitude and the cold of the mountains, we looked forward to heading off to the warmer and lower realm of the rainforest. 🌴🌳 Our first stop was Pucallpa, a large city in the middle of the rainforest. The area around here is severely degraded due to agriculture and (illegal) forestry 😢. We visited this dusty, ugly centre of timber commerce for two reasons. Firstly because from here on, we could take the boat to Iquitos. Secondly, because Frank's new job has an office here and we wanted to use this opportunity to meet Frank's new colleagues.🤗 We spent several days with them, touring the sites where Form International is working on reforestation projects. These days, we made a monitoring plan to investigate how we can best promote the survival and growth of the different species. It was great to meet all of them and we are super curious to see how the reforestation is going to work out! Such a great privilege to be working on projects like these! 🥳 The remainder of the time we spent in Pucallpa, which was suffering from a cold front while we were there. We finally had a nice hotel with a swimming pool, but could only use it for one day due to this. Grrr!🥶 We also visited a beautifully oxbow lake. These lakes come about due to changes in the course of the river, leaving the old course blocked, forming a lake. These areas are extremely species rich and we saw river dolphins, loads of birds and even some "free" sloths! 🦥 After a few days, it was time for us to move on to Iquitos. We planned to take a cargo ship, where you can hitch a ride by stringing your own hammock. The only thing is; nobody knows when they leave. When on Friday morning we found a boat, they told us they would leave that afternoon. Since we still had plans, we rejected this offer, to promptly be offered that they could also leave a day later. Confusing. In the end we boarded this boat, only to find out that it actually only left on Sunday. Cargo boating is a confusing business...

Country Guides:

Peru