In recent years I have visited Peru multiple times with the objective to climb and ski several mountains. In order to do that, I had to acclimatize each and every time and as a result, I have done several multi-day treks as well. However, the country has much more to offer than mountains. Not too far from Cusco, Manu National Park is home to an abundance of animals in the Amazon. Since variety is the spice of life, I decided to visit this park for 6 days in between several ski trips.
Manu National Park, an introduction
Manu National Park is a national park and biosphere reserve located in the regions of Madre de Dios and Cusco. It protects a diverse number of ecosystems including lowland rainforests, cloud forests and Andean grasslands. The area of 1,716,295 hectares is divided in a restricted use zone, cultural zone and reserved zone with the first one being by far the largest with restricted access for native communities and researchers only. Trips to the park are therefore limited to the cultural and reserved zone.
Together with six others, I would spend two full days in the cultural zone. On both the first and last night of the tour, the Amazon Pona lodge would be our home. In between we would stay two nights at Casa Matsiguenka and one night in the Papaya Eco lodge in order to explore the reserved zone, supposedly the best area in Manu to spot wildlife which is why all of us chose this itinerary.
The cultural zone consists of several villages which are connected by the 190 kilometres Manu road that starts in the highlands and ends in the lowlands where the mouth of the Manu river is located. As a result, a visit to the cultural zone doesn’t feel very wild and/or remote since you’re driving on the road and pass villages on a regular basis.
Since access is easy by minibus, trips to the cultural zone are relatively cheap and you’ll see quite a few tourists in this part of Manu, aside from the animals. An advantage of the cultural zone is that the road winds through the forest, so animals can be found in close proximity. On our trip, we quickly spotted several birds, including the Black-tailed Trogon, the Andean cock-of-the-rock (Peru’s national bird) and the rarely seen Quetzal.
Besides many birds, the park is also home to several types of monkeys (Capuchin monkeys, Squirrel monkeys, Woolly monkeys, Howler monkeys and Spider monkeys), insects, reptiles, mammals like tapirs and anteaters and some big cats. The list of cats include the elusive jaguar, puma, jaguarundi, ocelot and margay. Big cats are usually the most difficult to spot but, at the same time, most sought after animals. Our group was no different. Every single person wanted to see the jaguar even though everyone was very aware of the odds. Given the size of the park and the area we would cover during our trip, it was like trying to find the tiniest needle in a gigantic haystack…
After lunch we saw other minibuses parked next to the road, indicating the presence of animals. Capuchin monkeys, Spider monkeys and a Woolly monkey were all spotted in the nearby trees. Ever since we had left Cusco at 5:30 am, my stomach had not settled. I had already had an emergency stop on the way to the cultural zone and while everyone was enjoying the sight of the Woolly monkey and Spider monkeys, I was doing my own business behind a bush. What a great timing!
On return, I could just photograph a urinating Woolly monkey from behind, before it left out of sight. But, with a temporarily settled stomach, I enjoyed the curious Capuchin monkeys before we moved on towards our accommodation for the first night. The Amazon Pona lodge was described by Moises, our guide, as rustic. This turned out to be a fair description for both this and all the other lodges during our stay in Manu. Cold showers, very thin walls, no electricity after 9pm and a shared dining room with a few cockroaches running around, turned out to be the norm. But, in a beautiful setting with the sound of the bush to support your sleep, they all fitted a trip like this perfectly.
On our way to the reserved zone
The group consisted of two couples, one from London and one from Sydney, two women from Brisbane and myself. Very early morning on day two, we headed to Atalaya where we exchanged our minibus for a boat, our mode of transportation for the next four days. The feeling of the trip changed immediately. Where we felt close to civilization the whole time on the first day, we suddenly were surrounded by impressive nature without a village in sight. We were venturing into the wild!
The majority of the next couple of days would be spent in a long motorized open boat with a basic roof to provide shelter in case of rain. We were lucky with the weather and were basically treated with blue skies (aside from fog one morning) the whole trip. The final destination or deepest location in the jungle was Casa Matsiguenka, close to Cocha Salvador. In order to get there, we had to cover quite some distance, both up- and downstream.
Several hours were spent on the Madre de Dios river in order to reach the Manu Wildlife Center where we had to register and got a presentation about the rules in the park. Another couple of hours on the Manu river were needed to reach the lodge. In the evenings, just before dinner, we usually had a nightwalk to see which creepy crawlers were surrounding us. Most of the time during our visit to Manu National Park was spent on the boat. We had several breakfasts, snacks and lunches on the boat while trying to spot animals at the same time.
The staff consisted of our guide, Moises, a cook, two boatsmen and the driver of the minibus. Moises was by far the most present and liked to get attention. From the start of the trip , he seemed to be interested in joking around and didn’t care too much about the park’s regulations. While we were specifically told not to imitate sounds made by the animals, Moises kept trying to call them, without success though. Given the sounds he made or trying to make, I can’t blame the animals to hide wherever they were. Let’s say that Moises made some weird noises…
During the nightwalks he also liked to treat animals as if they were toys. He almost torn some frogs apart, fed a spider to another spider and pretended to throw a snake at me. One frog was treated like a model for National Geographic. Moises had put his flashlight on one side of the frog, while taking photos with his phone from the front. Both the flashlight and phone were about an inch away from the frog’s face. Not sure whether this is the right way to treat animals. The Manu Wildlife Center had not mentioned anything in their regulations about it but somethings are simply common sense. To summarize, our main guide was not a very responsible and professional guide to use an understatement…
Cocha Salvador
Day three was the only day that wasn’t all about getting from A to B but was actually spent around Casa Matsiguenka and Cocha Salvador, a big lake home to several families of Giant otters. Around Casa Matsiguenka wasn’t that much to see unfortunately. We saw the leg of a tarantula (the animal was hidden, not torn apart by Moises for a change…) and visited an empty claylick. It was funny to see us all lined up in the hideout quietly looking at an empty wall for about ten minutes before we all decided this was absolutely pointless. When Moises pointed out that the parrots usually come in July and August, we knew we had wasted at least an hour or so on this roundtrip which could have been spent in a better way…
By now it became clear to all of us that spotting a lot of animals, if you exclude the insects, up close was unrealistic. Moises got very excited when he saw an animal from 50 meters, showing how rare it would be to see a mammal from within 10 or let alone 5 meters. In case any of us, including staff members, spotted something, we didn’t hang around to see what might happen. No, after a minute or so, we moved on. The box was ticked and up to the next one. It didn’t add to the total wilderness experience, even though Manu has all the potential for an amazing experience. The remoteness and size of the park, the rustic accommodations, travel by boat and the presence of a huge variety of animals all add to its potential. Unfortunately, we only utilized a small percentage of it…
Since good animal sightings were rather scarse, every member of the group seemed to struggle to some extent at times (I even found out after the tour that the most polite members of our group were not really satisfied with the offered services, even though they never showed it during our stay in the park). Some birds and a caiman here and there were not enough to satisfy our appetite and being stuck with the group’s itinerary didn’t help either. Most of us were used to travel independently and you could tell. Everybody had their complaints about the guide and wanted to do things on their own if the situation would allow. Unfortunately, it didn’t…
Having mostly seen animals from far away and covered behind a few branches of huge trees from a wobbly boat, we shifted our focus at times to the beautiful flora of Manu. Especially at night, we spotted many impressive mushrooms that lit up perfectly in the flashlight. The park is also home to many very old and large trees of which we noticed a few during our walks. Besides the flora just mentioned, day three had more beautiful nature in store for us with a visit to Cocha Salvador.
One of the main assets of Manu National Park is the presence of Giant otters. Cocha Salvador is said to be home to several families of these interesting creatures. From Casa Matsiguenka it was either a short boat ride or a one-hour walk to this spectacular lake. Once there, a basic version of a catamaran was used to quietly move across the lake to hopefully find an otter or two. We arrived together with another group at the catamaran, all with our hopes up high. During our morning session we spotted countless Hoatzin birds, a few macaws and Squirrel monkeys but, unfortunately, the Giant otters decided to hide themselves. While the guide of the other group provided his clients a wilderness experience with some fine storytelling by sharing information regarding the background and behavior of the animals, Moises was simply having fun with the other staff members…
After a rather unsuccessful morning session, we took the boat back to the lodge to get some rest and have lunch. In the afternoon, we went back for our revenge. I guess Moises also felt the sightings had been quite limited so far and a close encounter with some Giant otters would lighten up everyone’s mood. Around 3 pm we found ourselves back on the catamaran, this time it was just us. With mixed feelings, both hopeful and skeptical at the same time, we started to explore the lake again…
It was very pleasant to be all alone on the lake but after seeing many birds, we really wanted to spot something else and preferably a bit bigger. However, the Giant otters seemed to be hiding again. Most likely they were frightened because of the sounds produced by Moises. When we had finally given up on seeing any otter, the staff spotted some movement in the far distance. We have to give Moises credit here. Even though he acted like a lost teenager most of the time, he could spot animals from very far. This time was no diferent and soon we found ourselves within proximity of a group of Giant otters, finally…
Since it was dark by now, the best possible picture was an extremely blurry one so I decided to take a video of the Giant otters. Check it out here:
Returning slowly to civilization
Having spent a full day around Casa Matsiguenka on day three, time had come to make our way back to civilization. Day four and five would be spent in the boat in order to reach Atalaya again, from where the minibus would take us back to Cusco on the last day. Moises probably felt he had delivered with the sighting of the Giant otters and started to talk more and more about beer and parties. A visit to a small community along the river was mandatory. Why? Well, there was a shop that sold cervezas. Middle of the day, the staff, with Moises in the lead, was having beers. From here, things got worse…
It seemed the safari was over and it was all about entertainment from here onwards. From the beginning of any guided tour, the guide sets the tone for the remainder of the trip. If he shared knowledge of the animals and their behavior from the start, was strict about all the regulations and was clear about it, was serious in all aspects, his behavior more often than not will radiate at the clients and they will sort of follow with similar behavior. It affects the atmosphere of the whole trip in my opinion. Moises clearly set the wrong tone from the beginning and really didn’t seem to care anymore from the start of day four. As a result, we all lost interest too and became more and more cynical. Sightings got even more scarse and the boat rides seemed to be for transport only. Whenever we did see an animal, we simply noted it, passed by and continued. Disappointing is the word here…
The route from Casa Matsiguenka to Atalaya, which we covered in one day on the way in, was split into two on the way back. As a result, we arrived early at the Papaya Eco lodge. Since we had a few hours to kill, most of us went for a swim in the river. Moises went crazy in the river. He was jumping around in the water and walking on his hands and rolling around in the sand. Clearly, one or two beers had a significant impact on our guide. The rest of us struggled with the very strong current but enjoyed the refreshing water in the heat of the day. Once we were back at the lodge, Moises proposed to spend the night in a hideout next to another claylick. After the previous debacle, I decided not to join and went to bed early. The next morning I found out, they hadn’t seen any animals again and that it had basically been a waste of time. Typical…
The following and last day in the reserved zone, was just to get us back to Atalaya and the Amazon Pona lodge where we stayed the first night. Most of us fell asleep on the boat and only woke up when the boat got stuck in low water. We bought some snacks in Atalaya and arrived at the lodge around 3 pm. We had a final nightwalk and Moises was keen to find us a new route since we had already been on a nightwalk in the area on day one. This was the perfect moment for his machete to be put into extensive use. He started cutting bushes and trees as if animals don’t have a habitat. When he finally opened a completely new route, we all concluded the path wasn’t safe. Since dinner was about to be served, we had to return to the lodge. In the end this was another fine example of conservationism…
After dinner, Moises was really drunk and started telling suspicious stories. At some point it became quite pathetic to see a grown-up acting the way he did, especially when you take into account that he was our guide. Not sure whether this behavior scores points with younger groups like backpackers, but he definitely didn’t impress me in a positive way. Time had come to go to bed and forget about the last couple of days and focus on the positives, “bad thoughts out, good thoughts in…”
Final words
What could have been an absolutely amazing trip, turned out to be a mediocre one at best. As is probably clear by now, the guide disappointed all of us. He could have done a much better job. We never stopped for more than a few minutes when we spotted an animal. He never shared any information regarding behavior of animals and, aside from many other unprofessional things mentioned before in this post, he drank alcohol in the middle of the day. The latter is really a no-go for me. Sure, he can enjoy a drink in the evening but not while he’s at work.
The reserved zone of Manu National Park feels really wild due to its remote location and transportation by boat. This does mean however, that quite some time gets lost to get in and out of this zone. A 6-day trip is actually a 2-day trip. On top of that, the sightings are both limited and far away. So, when you’ve visited other parks in the world, any form of disappointment will be difficult to hide. Where you’ll see lions up close in Africa or spot caimans and capibaras within meters in the Pantanal (and even a jaguar if you’re lucky…), it’s difficult to be satisfied with the arm of a monkey 50 meters away. And don’t expect to see cats. At this moment 21 different jaguars have been spotted in Manu. Given that you’ll only travel along the river and only during the day, the odds to win the national lottery are probably a multitude bigger…
Any visit to the reserved zone of Manu National Park would be worth it for a couple of hundred US dollars (as long as that includes a decent guide of course), but not for what we all had to pay. Unfortunately, independent travel to the reserved zone is currently not allowed. Otherwise, that would be the way to go. In case anybody wants to experience the Amazonian jungle, I’d recommend a visit to Cuyabeno in Ecuador for a third of the price of a similar trip to Manu.
Click here to see more pictures of my trip to Manu National Park!
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