Trip - 5 Days Solo Packrafting Expedition in the Amazon Jungle - Search for the Perfect Canal

This is Jeremy for Incan Expeditions and I'm back in Boca Colorado on the Mother of God river in the Peruvian Amazon. Hang on to your hats and glasses as we head into the Amazon and we're doing it solo style. This solo rafting trip will take us over a hundred miles through Peruvian jungle from the town of Boca Colorado to Laberinto. It's gonna get mucky. It's gonna get sluggy. The obstacles start small Alpacka Raft versus razor grass and get worse. get the machete or turn back It's one of the two. I've brought my hammock but I'm gonna have to cut my way in. I'm on a scouting mission searching for canals which are just big enough for me and my boat. and I find it It takes me to a beautiful Oxbow Lake. It's the perfect canal.. until.. We've got over a hundred miles to go so let's get to it. Day one and I set off. I've got my whole trip in front of me. I'm somewhere between Manu National Park and Puerto Maldonado. The river is moving along just fine although sometimes it feels like a moving lake and then I hit a slow section and start to paddle through it. A local couple notices and they decide to stop to help. Thank you, see you later! So.. this guy just gave me a tow for a little bit and he thought I wanted to get on board and I said no no I'm just doing my thing and he said ok. I see my first stop ahead. There is a canal which parallels the river. And we're gonna try and go through this. That canal is about 260 meters that way. So let's do it. I pack up and head in curious to see if it's doable. I find some tapir tracks and decide to follow them. Maybe they've got the right idea. Unfortunately, it leads me to knee-deep muck. I start hacking my way in but it looks bad. I'm so determined "I'm not giving up yet" ..for about 20 minutes. All right, I'm not doing any more The problem is there's not enough trees. That means more sun gets to the floor and more of this crap grows. I slip. I'm trying anything I can to get back. I'm using this fallen tree as a bridge. I've overexerted myself. and I've lost my way. I'm anxious to get back to the river where it's 10 degrees cooler. Well that killed me. Let's not work so hard ok? I'm back to the river and I'm beet red, exhausted. I've got to cool down. I bet you it's 3 p.m. It's hot. That's why there's nobody out here, no animals, no birds. not the time to be out today We finally get to see the canal. Unfortunately, it's the end of it So let's go over there and check it out. Further down river I find the exit to this canal I hoped to reach and I paddle in. On the banks I find Horneros which are looking for food. Well I was talking with a local here his name's Carillo and he's got a boat he could take us up there take you know it goes up like 10 kilometers and he says he gets wider actually up there and he's making jokes saying that the piranhas are gonna eat me and there's electric eels. That's cool. I know that piranhas don't eat you it's just uh, in the movies But we were joking. He's a cool guy. He lives up here about three kilometers so next time I'm gonna paddle up there and stop in at his house and see if he wants to work a deal so he can carry us up the river and we'll just float out like I'm doing right now. I paddle back out to the Mother of God and then a few feet down I find another detour. I can just barely maneuver some of the obstacles in my way. Up ahead it looks like it opens up. The water temperature here is much warmer compared to the river and I know that piranhas are just beneath my boat. If anyone wants to know if you can packraft in a piranha lake we're doing it now. There are a couple of the Taricaya turtles behind me. The yellow spotted Amazon River turtle can live up to 70 years and these butterflies are after turtle tears which contain salt a mineral which is very hard to find. I find a skimmer whose diving for fish I'm sure he doesn't want to be in the water too long. I find a small town which wasn't marked on the map. What is the name of the town? Pacal Pacal uh huh Pacal That's it Very nice. It's gonna be in the video. Very nice. Now the whole World will know it, hah. Yes, Youtube star. Youtube star. See you, thanks. Where are you going? Laberinto? Yes! Oh, you're still going down. Yes, yes long way to go still. Long way to go. Long way to go. Thank you, you're very friendly. Have a nice trip! Ok, thanks! I paddle ashore hack my way in and hang my hammock. Day two and I'm back on the river. It rained most of the night and it's still drizzly. I paddle into a shallow sandy beach and I swarmed by black skimmers These skimmers have lower mandibles which are much longer than the uppers This allows them to skim the surface of the water and to scoop up fish. Well I'm gonna call this "Skimmer Beach". It's obvious I uh.. I pissed them all off so.. we'll get going. Back there we had "Skimmer Beach" and we'll call this "Snowy Egret Beach". In fact, what we have here are Snowy egrets and Roseate spoonbills. Have a look at the juvenile spoonbills with the Snowy egrets. Then overhead I spot a Crested Caracara, one of the largest Falcons in the World. It's time for lunch so I pull up to a beach but there's some rustling behind me. Squirrel Monkeys! Black-capped to be exact Saimiri boliviensis or peruviensis These guys eat fruits, insects and even tree frogs but when there's none of that around they'll even drink nectar. Their daily activity of foraging keeps them active and social. If you want one as a pet you better have a big yard. I decide to have a look at the creek to see if I could raft it. Instead, I find a rusty mining rig. Back to the river and around a bend with skimmers whizzing by and it's still drizzly. It's getting cold. I've still got a long way to go A few kites are riding a vent right up above me. It's late in the afternoon now and it's time to set up my camp. So I just started hacking my way inside of the canopy. Let's go finish the job. I would always prefer a hammock over a tent but sometimes it requires more work. I often have to cut my way into the interior to find the trees. Inside the forest I'm safe from any flash floods. I also get to spend time with the night birds, the crickets and whatever else It's about 12 to 13 feet which is about right for the hammock. Day 3 Last night I had a tapir come straight towards my camp and I yelled at it so, and it freaked him out so he went another direction then later that night I heard him down at the river. He broke a branch and fell right in the water They're real big they're the biggest things out here. imagine a little rhinoceros barreling through the forest breaking whatever's in its way and you'll know that's what it is. Oh look. Breakfast It comes right to me. Breakfast for one. My search continues. Well I found another canal but it's not primary forest which is what I'm looking for so let's see if there's any better ones further downriver. So I found another one that goes this way. The entrance is there and it looks like it goes for a ways according to my GPS map so but we gotta get through some crap over here but let's check it out. Up ahead there's more hacking and it's too much work. And this one probably goes to Laguna Endara but again I'm not feeling very ambitious These uh you can see the bamboo. They must be falling all over along this thing just like this thing here so on to the next one. Reminds me of one of those blow-up doll things that you see at gas stations. you know the guy that does this. Only a few days in and I'm already losing it. I don't know why. By the way to go from this to this you need a prefilter. In this case I'm using a Millbank bag which takes some of that crap out. And then from this I'll pump it into here using a filter. And this guy's got this one blocked. In this area there are lots of canals. Some seem better than others but I haven't found that perfect one yet. It's time to camp again so I pull up to a sandy beach. Definitely Gringo. Maybe Ocelot? Ocelots are medium-size cats from a half up to a meter in length. There's the cat scratch right? That's what cats do right? They poop and then they scratch. Here's one of my cooler campsites. Check this out. Here's my door but look, I've got a step up. Day 4 and I start with some coffee next to the river. Good morning. We're more than halfway to Laberinto but we still have a couple places to check out so let's get rafting. So I found another one. let's have a go. Maybe this is it the canal I've been searching for. At one point I have to take a section of my paddle out because it gets too narrow but the size of this canal is perfect. It's just deep enough for me to get through. any motor boats are gonna have a real hard time getting up this thing. I'm loving it already. the shade the sounds This is the Disneyland Jungle Cruise. This is exactly what I'm looking for something shady so I'm not burning up and with lots of birds and uh I'm pretty sure there's piranha in uh here So I'm about a mile in when I find a path. So I docked my boat from the canal which continues because I went over and I found this and it looks like We've got it all to ourselves. So let's check it out. I think what I'm gonna do is take this canal up further and see if it connects to the lake because the canal does have a flow out so it might be coming from this lake that way we can just paddle in and not have to drag the boat over Alright. I go deeper and my curiosity grows with every few feet that I paddle in. it it's just me and the forest. No time limit No rules This is what packrafting means to me. I can get a sense of the age of this canal by looking at the tree roots. I don't think anybody has been here before. with every turn there are more overhanging trees vines and Kingfishers. A fallen tree blocks my path but it's cool. Two miles in and the sky opens up. And now I'm headed into thicker vegetation. Well It looks like it's time to get out the machete or turn back It's one of the two. I manage to get a view of the lake by standing on the packraft. I decide to just pull my boat through without my machete and it seems to be working. I've made it. This Lake has no name as far as I know. Here we are. lilies, dragonflies and Hoatzin up in the tree, Stinkbirds "Stinkbird" refer to its foul odor which comes from fermenting swamp vegetation in its gut. Do you hear the Horned Screamers? Well as hard as it seemed to get here I got a better feeling about the smaller lake. and besides I see a spoil tip there from mining and way back there there's another spoil tip so who knows they were here and they drove some some of the animals out. I don't know but let's try the smaller lake that means I had to go back through the lilies and the reeds and back through the canal and then get out where I got out before so let's do that before lunch. Now heading back out of the canal there's a slight flow outward You can kind of see, this is it. which is twice as good as coming up against it. Again, I'm back in it. my element I really don't know if anybody's been up here before or how long it's been. So here's how it's gonna go canal campsite and lake. My next objective is to paddle this smaller lake. I also have fairly clear water compared to the river and little fish. There's a little Caiman. This time I'm being watched by a small Caiman. he's small but where there's small ones there's big ones. and a little flycatcher I want to get out to the lake but it's this stuff and I don't even know how or you know, that would take some work to get across it and because but it the whole lake is like that it has this ring of grass which is tough but anyway and it's not the Caiman. okay There's little Caiman in here. There's probably big ones in the big lake. It's not that it's just too much work and I'm spent. Enough excuses. Let's give it a shot. I decide to go ahead with it anyway. I often debate myself which gets me through solo trips. But the little grass, it looks like it's really shallow So wish me luck. The grass meristems look like they're at the surface of the water so maybe it's shallow and maybe I can walk across. Almost there here's what I did. This is like a razor grass. Alpacka Raft versus razor grass And look how clear the water is Compare that to the river. Wow, what a difference. Now paddling this hidden and forgotten lake I find a pair of Wattled jacanas easily identified by their giant feet which allows them to walk on free-floating aquatic plants. I paddle to one end of the lake to take in the view and then to the opposite side to see what I can find. I can hear more Hoatzin parrots and parakeets And I'm constantly surrounded by dragonflies. I paddle right into some water hyacinth and I just sit there. Some Hoatzin in the distance are disturbed and I think I know what it is. and here we go.. It's another troop of Black-capped squirrel monkeys and they're coming out of the woodwork. One by one they trek through the trees and occasionally notice me. This is their afternoon retreat and they're munching berries along the way until they disappear into the forest. I find my hole and slither back across the grass. My daily duties are done and I set up my hammock and tarp. For this shot I could hear the Caiman but couldn't find them. Now I see two. Can you find them? With the sun going down it's dinner time and I share a little bit with the fish. Day five I realize this path was formed by Caiman they're round bellies flattening the leaves along the way. I'm now heading back to the river and I've got an eerie feeling. and there's this bird that seems to be warning me. Up ahead I see it and I approach with caution. Did you see the Caiman? He was big. You know Hollywood's done a good job at making out these piranhas and caiman and the jungle out to be a nightmare but in fact it's not like that at all, at least not here. I know there's man-eating crocodiles in other parts of the world but here in Peru, in the Amazon everything's scared of everything and most of all of you They're not after your boat, your mosquito net, inanimate objects. They're not gonna go after that. They're not going to go after anything bigger than they are because it's not an easy target for food. Tic-Tac bath kit But there are some who lie about how it really is down here. Maybe they want to sell their movie or their book. It's in their best interest. Don't let this keep you from visiting. Also, if you're planning on an expedition any misinformation can be dangerous or it can be deadly. If someone says they've done it I sure hope they have otherwise it could steer you in the wrong direction. I'm standing at the Inambari river and Mother of God river confluence. kind of cool spot Two major rivers join the Madre de Dios to the left and the Inambari to the right. Welcome to the land of spoil tips. There's no gold in these piles. The reason they put these sticks in here is so that when the river rises the boats don't run into the piles. Just ahead, it's my final stop. Well here we are arriving in Laberinto, 100 miles later. If you'd like to do any of these trips send me an email. Thanks for watching and don't forget to subscribe for any upcoming new expeditions.

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Views: 18,632

Rating: 4.9050446 out of 5

Keywords: solo camping, solo expedition, jungle rafting, packrafting, solo packraft, amazon expedition, packrafting expedition, amazon camping, hammock camping, amazon rainforest, solo rafting, puerto maldonado, cusco amazon tour, oxbow lake, new expedition, lost lake, Alpacka Raft, Kokopelli, MRS, jungle camping, caiman, caiman rafting, Amazon river, jungle adventure, yt:cc=on, Jungle Survival, Amazon rafting, packraft, pack raft, packrafting the amazon, solo packrafting, rafting

Id: 26Awvjyh8zU

Length: 26min 12sec (1572 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 11 2019