PeruNorth's musings on events & destinations in Northern Peru, Amazonia ... and beyond. Detailed tour reviews.
PeruNorth arranged a 10-day itinerary for Canadian mother & daughter, Irene & Marie-Ann in Jan 2018.
Staying at Gocta Lodge, they explored Chachapoya ruins of Kuelap & Revash.
Also hiked to Gocta Falls, visited Yerbebuena market & mummies at Leymebamba Museum.
Ended the trip with 5 nights staying in a Bedouin-style tent beside the beach at Vichayito.
Here is what they say:
‘We had a great time and really appreciate all the help you provided in booking our vacation …
The Spectacled - or Andean - Bear (Tremarctos ornatus) holds a special place in PeruNorth's heart, being the emblematic large mammal of northern Peru's dry forest and cloud forest.
It is fitting, therefore, that we should give this attractive and endangered species some blog time!
Like Iquitos, Santiago de Lagunas (to give the full name) is a jungle town founded by missionaries, in the Amazonian province of Loreto; and like Iquitos, it is a jumping-off point for visiting the surrounding rainforest, especially the Pacaya-Samiria Reserve.
But, even though Lagunas is nearly 100 years older than Iquitos, having been founded in 1670 by a priest, Juan Lorenzo Lucero, it has a fraction of the population and receives a fraction of the visitors.
A natural highlight of an Amazon cruise or lodge stay in Loreto is the interaction with Amazon River Dolphins (Inia geoffrensis), known in Spanish as boto or bufeo.
One of PeruNorth's first forays into Northern Peru was in 2006, to see first-hand Catarata Gocta, which had just been claimed as the third-highest waterfall in the world. At that time, we learned that Gocta was just one of many drops from this one plateau in the Amazonas province.
In the subsequent years, another of these waterfalls, Yumbilla, had been surveyed by Peru's Geographical Institute (IGN), and found to have a total drop 125 m (407 ft) higher than Gocta. So, it went to top of our list of must-see natural attractions.
A new bird species has been identified in Cerros de Amotape National Park in Tumbes: the White-necked Jacobin (Florisuga mellivora), a member of the hummingbird family measuring 12 cm (4 in) in length, on average. Adult males have a blue head and breast, a dark-blue hood, iridescent upper parts, and a white abdomen and tail. And, as the name suggests, they have a white crescent on the neck.
Carlos Fitzcarrald was born to an Irish-American father and Peruvian mother in 1867, and raised in the city of Iquitos, which became the heart of the Rubber Boom.
Venturing deep into the Amazon in the 1890s, Fitzcarrald discovered a trove of rubber trees in the region of Madre de Dios that now holds Manu National Park.
