SOTALIA | 6 DAYS 5 NIGHTS
A TRIP TO THE HEARTLAND OF PACAYA SAMIRIA NATIONAL RESERVE
Day one: Our car driver along with one of our Guides will pick you up from your hotel by 5pm to travel via highway to Nauta city. This will be a will a 1.5hrs car ride. We will stay in a small hotel in the city and we will have to get up very early the next morning and start our trip to the Pacaya Samira National Reserve.
We will navigate the waters of the Maranon River for approximately 180km - 3.5hrs- by speedboat until we reach Santa Rita de Castilla village where our local Guide will be waiting for you with a smaller wooden boat, which will take us to the Samiria River. From Santa Rita de Castilla will take approx 20min to get to the 1rst Control Station of the Samiria Basin, where we must present our permits and register our entrance to this Protected Natural Area. After having done so, we will continue our journey to the community of San Martin de Tipishca, a community that belongs to the ethnic group Cocama Cocamilla, which will be our base for our excursions. We will arrive at this place by 1pm.
After settling in one of the villager’s house, we will take a short break while we wait for lunch.
This afternoon, we'll make a tour by the community and learn about life of the local population. We will know about their crops, culture and customs.
We will take our boat to go to a creek close to the community where we can see pink and gray dolphins. This will be a wonderful opportunity to swim close to them. We will also be able to see a variety of birds that live around.
We will contemplate the beautiful sunset and then return to have dinner.
We will take a well-deserved break until the next day.
Day two: We will wake up for breakfast. Afterwards, we need to get the camping gear ready and then take our boat and travel to the heartland of the Pacaya Samiria National Reserve.
Before noon, we will arrive at a beautiful lagoon with abundant bird life and river dolphins. With the help of our local guide we will find an appropriate place for camping. We will do our campfire to prepare our lunch.
Today in the afternoon we all will have a fishing excursion. It will be very easy to catch some piranhas, surely will also catch other species but piranhas are our goal. This lake is a good place to go fishing.
Supper will be prepared of the fish we catch.
We need to return to our campsite before dark. Have dinner around our campfire while enjoying the sound of the forest.
After our meal, we will make a small boat excursion to look for caimans that tend to be along the banks of the lake. We will try to catch some of them to take pictures while holding it.
Day three: Our morning wake up will be with a birds’ symphony and it will be a good opportunity to go bird watching.
Breakfast will be a typical food from the jungle
Then we will navigate along a small river until getting to a spot where will be our next campsite. On the way, we will be able to see more varieties of birds, some species of monkeys and if lucky, some giant river otters.
Our cook will prepare lunch while we set the tents. We will take a short break.
This afternoon we are to do an excursion around our campsite. In most of these trails we have found the footprints of jaguars, tapirs and other land mammals. It is not easy to find them, but we will do our best efforts to achieve it.
We will return to the campsite before dark, enjoy dinner and then make a new hike along the banks of the river in the seek of fish. This will be an opportunity to practice fishing with spears.
Day four: We need to wake up at breakfast time. After another breakfast in the middle of the jungle, we shall undo the tents, pack our luggage and get ready for a hike that will last for around one and a half hour approximately from our campsite to the banks of the Samiria river.
There will be a boat waiting for us in this place that will take us to the 3rd Control Station of this basin.
Lunch will be prepared on the banks of the Samiria River.
Once we get to the Control Station, we will register again. Depending on what the Rangers and our Official Guide say, we can spend the night in this station. It would be a good opportunity to interact with the Rangers, learn about their job and maybe do some activities together with them.
There is a lake nearby the Control station and we can head there during the night to look for snakes, anacondas, and night birds. If we are lucky, we could find some big mammals.
Day five: We should start heading back to the community of San Martin after breakfast. It is going to be a whole day journey, navigating down stream and get to San Martin by sunset.
Our dinner will be served as soon as we come to the community.
Day six: Depending on the available type of transportation, we will be able to depart out from the village of San Martin by 4am or later.
We will travel throughout most of the day (depending on the type of transportation, we can have from 4 to 8 hours journey) to get to the city of Nauta, where our car will be waiting to take us to the city of Iquitos.
Note: Time of arrival to the city of Iquitos 4pm approx.
$959 Per Person
Based on a group of 2 people minimum