Whoever named the rainforest like this, we really cannot understand why on earth such an expression was chosen – after conducting an exhaustive long-term study of 4 days and 3 nights at and around the Rio Ucayali (one of Amazon’s two main source rivers) without a single raindrop, we conclude that the name rainforest is rather naive and should be replaced. As alternative we suggest to the scientific community “Selva de Gilber”.

“Selva” is nothing more than the Spanish term for the rainforest. Starting from Pucallpa, we did an excursion to some lonely places of the jungle. Since it is winter in this part of Perú (while logically at the same time it is summer in Lima), the whole area is flooded and hence can be accessed easily by boat. To do so we hired a guide named Gilber (60 years old, has lived all his life in the jungle), who took us with his “peque-peque” to lagoons, canals and over the VERY huge river Ucayali. During this trip, we slept in a lovely wooden cabin, covered with a palm-leaves roof and resting on pillars. Actually most houses here are built in that style due to the flood lasting several months every year.

The fauna is quite amazing: we saw sloths, monkeys, rose and grey dolphins, thousands of birds and millions of insects, who Esteffen didn’t like as much as I did (the exploration of the Amazon’s insects also continued during the night in our sleeping bags, especially with the high diversity of “cucarachas”). All the other animals are rather difficult to detect, but fortunately not for our guide, who is able to recognize a toucan in a distance of at least 30 meters while passing by boat and preparing a meal (which has always something with bananas – I think we ate at least 1kg “platanos” per day, so my mum was wrong when telling me that one banana each day is enough). Afterwards we needed 10 minutes to get to the point where we were able to see the toucan in a distance of less than 5 meters …. additionally Gilber also found an alligator in the middle of the night at our house, so obviously he can detect animals even while sleeping. The only explanation we have so far, is that he founded the “selva”, thus it seems justified to name the forest to his honor!

Apart from this, he is also shaman and simply knows every kind of flora with its medicinal effect and usage (e.g. the Ayahyasca). To survive against the mosquitoes, we were given a tea based on a plant which is very helpful against malaria. Since we are not infected until now, we are convinced that this beverage works and will sell our expensive malaria prevention to finance some high-risk bungee-jumping (if anybody translates this last paragraph to Esteffen’s mum, please be sure not to use any ironic meaning, we are of course totally serious about it).

Furthermore, we walked and swam through the tight jungle with lots of thorns towards the probably biggest tree of the world (a second time I went alone with our guide and almost drowned because of the flow in the river). Luckily Gilber always takes his machete and finds a path through the “selva”, so we took the advantage of it and we were given a crash course in how to fell a tree with a few machete hits – however, not as few as Gilbert needs.

For more information about our guide Gilber: http://www.sacredheritage.com/normita/index.html
And now we are in Arequipa and in the Canyon de Colca …. adiós!