Nauta
In Nauta, a small town in the Peruvian Amazon, located 100 km (62 mi) south of Iquitos, I got onboard a peke-peke for a trip up the Marañón, Amazon and Yanayacu rivers to the Amazon Wildlife Conservation Refuge, a private jungle reserve. The peke-peke is basically a modified dug-out canoe fitted with a small outboard motor. The motor is on a gimbaled (pivoting) stand with a long shaft to the propeller that enables the boat driver to lower and raise the propeller when necessary to clear debris, logs and sand bars in the waterways. The 40-mile trip from Nauta to the Refuge took four hours. It was a trip of a lifetime - smooth motoring and incredible scenery: river banks lined with palm trees, remote villages, fisherman, and river commerce. Unfortunately, there where no sightings of pink freshwater dolphins, the largest of all river dolphins, as there so often are where the Marañón and Ucayali Rivers converge, forming the Amazon River.
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