Been a while since my last post, been caught up in the instant social media gratification game but I actually missed pretending knowing how to write and decided to blow a few sparks of life into this old webby of mine. I’ll be posting more and showing you what’s been up lately! First a little look back on the winter… :-)
In february 2019, my girlfriend and I went to Peru to visit a couple of different places. One of them was the “Tingana Reserve” and if you ever get a chance to visit Peru, you’ll most likely hit up the unavoidable turist attraction called Machu Picchu and while there’s probably alot of “Tingana’s” around the Amazonian forest, I can highly recommend paying this one a visit. Mainly because it’s the only amazonian place I’ve visited but also because it’s family owned and very well organised. Here’s how we got there and what you can expect:
As “per usual” I was in San Bartolo (a little surfer/offroad getaway 1 hour south of the Peruvian capital, Lima) for work. After finishing my work, my girlfriend and I flew to Tarapoto, a fairly big city in the northeastern corner of Peru. A place I’d visited a couple of years ago and was eager to not only visit again, but to show my girlfriend.
The flight is an hour from Lima and I recall paying roughly 50-100$ for a round trip ticket. From Tarapoto we had a taxi take us to Moyobamba (approx. 80 Soles / 25 US$), to the incredible hotel “Puerto Mirador“, coincidentally owned by one of my peruvian motorcycle friends. An amazing place and if you’re into complete relaxation, awesome food and a great view, this is your place to go.
Next day around noon we got picked up and taken to a huge nearby river, where the owner of the reserve awaited us in a small boat. His name is Juan, a true gentleman, very polite, informative and makes you feel right at home in a place far away from most’s home.
On my visit 2 years ago, I was brought in a small canoe down some super tight and interesting river outlets and at one point we passed an overhanging tree hut and I remembered thinking, “If I ever come back, I want to sleep there” and when I aired that idea to Juan (who off course was also my guide back then) he assured me it was doable. I guess he didn’t think I was serious. So when deciding to go back and this time bringing my über-adventurous girlfriend, I made sure to let them know I wanted to sleep exactly there, and I even attached a picture of the hut to make sure we were clear on my intentions. However, upon arriving at the reserve, we were brought to our on-land cabin, which off course was far from the wild tarzan hut I had promised my girlfriend.
After some talk, it became clear that the hut was by no means ready for us, BUT there was another treehut right next to all the cabins, that they could get ready for us. It had a nice queen size bed, mosquito net, huge spiders (it turned out) and an awesome view of the river, so we took it and had a fabulous night. The forest is SOOOO LOUD at night and by far the most magical ambience we’ve even been in.
I’m so happy we spend the night there and off course Vanessa, the french bi-product she is, brought wine, cheese and crackers!
The tour of Tingana took two days and we got to see all the agricultural details on-site as well as 2 canoe trips, and the whole ordeal including hotel pick-up cost us around 250 Soles / 75 US$ por persona. We did one canoe trip in daytime and one at night, and just as magical the ambience in the Tarzan hut, just as impressive was the night trip. The canoe is very small and you’re literally one hands width away from the water, so when we were told to be silent and try not to scare off the animals, and already really tired from a full day of impressions, we nearly fell asleep, and into the water, several times.
So relaxing, so soothing, so perfect.
After leaving this magical place, we spend the last day visiting the local “waterpark” and just cruising around town in one of the small moto-taxis.
