Setting Off

Midnight. China's all flooded- latest news. Alang (our Chinese explorer) has emailed that we may not even be able to get through to Gongshan, the start of our trek. Setting off at 6.00 AM tomorrow. Watch this space.In the meantime, this links to the last expeditionhttp://andestoamazon2008.blogspot.com/

Setting Off

Midnight. China's all flooded- latest news. Alang (our Chinese explorer) has emailed that we may not even be able to get through to Gongshan, the start of our trek. Setting off at 6.00 AM tomorrow. Watch this space.


In the meantime, this links to the last expedition
http://andestoamazon2008.blogspot.com/

The Land of the Celestial Jaguar

When a lone conquistador appeared out of the jungle claiming to be the sole survivor of an expedition that had found a gold rich civilisation in the plains to the east of the Andes, the Viceroy of Lima despatched two hundred and fifty soldiers lead by the redoubtable Juan Alvarez Maldonado to claim the Land of the Musus in the name of mother Spain. But, there was a problem; another man had already been promised leadership of the venture and he nurtured a grudge. Gomez de Tordoya set off with the sixty men who were still loyal to him, intent on ambushing Maldonado and on reaching the plains first.

The Land of the Celestial Jaguar is the story of how the two groups of conquistadors, having crossed the Andean cordilleras and trekked down the treacherous jungles on its eastern flanks, then met and fought over who would conquer the Musus, and how the tribes, through whose lands they had passed, dealt with them once the battle was over.

Check out the 2010 expedition :

http://trailofthesnowmonkey.blogspot.com/2010/02/so-you-want-to-find-snow-monkey.html

Alto Tuichi: More Pictures

wolf spider with egg sack ; Abundant on Rio Tuichi

Sandro pulling Ramiro up Serrania 1 using our £2 rope

Me looking desperate and bedragged by the Mal Paso San Pedro rapids

Lost in Taquarilla thickets at the top of Serrania 2: Julian making GPS plot.

Route Map

Here's a map of our route. Canoe Focus, the magazine of the British Canoe Union are going to publish an article about the trip. There was a map of the expedition route on google maps earlier on in this blog, but on Julian's advice I deleted it- as the area we intended to go into would have been prohibited because of the possibility of uncontacted Toromonas Indians living there.

More than before, I am convinced that there are still Toromonas at the headwaters of the Colorado and Enatahua. If any places are hard to get to, those are. In 5 days of trying we made only half the distance- a measly 10km. And there was still another 2800 metre Serrania to cross. The steepness of the terrain, the gorges, and the almost inpenetrable taquarilla bamboo and elecho 'bracken' on the high ridges make this such a difficult area to access- which is all the better for any Toromonas who might be living there.

Did we come across them? Not sure??? At various times when we were camped in the quebradas (ravines) going up and down the second Serrania, we heard screams/ shouts across the ridges above us. Were these just bird/ animal calls? Probably. But our guides didn't think so. Whatever the cries were, they certainly spooked Sandro and Darwin.

Expedition Pictures

The Rio Tuichi at the point where we reached it after our failed attempt to cross the serranias

Bagre catfish - I tripped over a nightline that the guide, Sandro, had set up, pulled in the line... and this is what I got... which was just as well as we were on the point of running out of food.

The tapir that swam up to us at the Mal Paso San Pedro

Charged by Peccaries

Agua Polo stream. This is straight from diary as it happened.

A herd of 500 or so white-lipped peccary. We sat on the riverside shingle while they passed not 6m away. We could see legs, glimpses of snouts and hear low, rhythmic grunting- almost inaudible, and the sound of marching hooves and breaking vegetation. We followed...

Fear- makes you want to go back to your monkey origins and climb a tree. Its the only way you could get away if thye all charged.

(In sight- 10 to 20) These peccaries are much blacker and, according to Sandro, a fiercer variety than the ones we saw near Chalalan.
...sounds like even more are coming our way... tusks clacking... low grunting... a sweaty smell... many more coming.
Theyve scented us. A few ran. Others behind bushes stand their ground. A big porker is lookig at me clacking his tusks (lifts his head, slams it down, his tusks CLACK).There is a partly fallen tree which stands at a diagonal to the ground, 10 metres to my right. This is our escape route.
Loud grunting, clacking. I think Sandro has moved around to outflank them- I can hear the ting of his machete...
more grunting, branches breaking, really bad smell... Julian just dropped his vieo.. and ran up the tree. I follow. Suddenly there are peccaries running past...