Amazon-Yavari-Mirim Trip

In November 2011, I had the rare opportunity to visit one of the wildest places in Neotropics by participating in an expedition to the Amazon in search of new species of fish by exploring rivers that have not been explored until now, upper Mirim, Arabella and Capybara canos (creeks). The expedition was organized by a well-known expert on fish and explorer, Heiko Bleher.

On Monday morning, 21 November 2011, i left Dublin for Paris then Bogota and finally Laeticia (COL)/Tabatinga (BRA) which were the starting point cities for this trip.

I arrived in Bogota, Colombia's capital, Monday afternoon (it was still Monday because they are 5 hours behind Dublin), tired and without a word of Spanish but very happy that I finally arrived in South America.
First impression of Bogota wasn’t too good, the road from the airport to the hotel, where i was to meet Heiko, crossed the city from one end to the other through the city centre. Most of the buildings were old and rundown. After i arrived at the hotel I was advised not to go out at night.
The hotel receptionist spoke only Spanish, the hotel owner told me that it is very hard to find someone who speaks a language other than Spanish, so trying to explain to the girl that I want a room for one night and her looking at me and smiling was quite funny. After a while she let me use the computer and with the help of Google translator I made myself understood, I got a room for one night and I left a message for Heiko to meet in the morning for breakfast in the restaurant, his plane didn’t land until 23.30.

The next morning, Tuesday, 22 November 2011, in the restaurant I met Heiko and the other two companions that came with us on this trip, Hartwig, a German living in Italy and Claudia a Brazilian living in Italy and Phucket. After the necessary introductions I ordered breakfast, traditional Colombian TAMALES that is polenta filled with meat and vegetable boiled in banana leaves.



After breakfast we went to the airport to take the 11.00 am plane to Laeticia.



Heiko is busy all the time, if he doesn’t check/reply to e-mails on his laptop then he documents everything on paper.
After 2 hours of flying I see the Amazon for the first time



and very quickly afterwards, 13.00 local time, the airport in the town of Leticia, which is right on the edge of the Amazon.



where we are met by Steven from UK that has a lodge in Laeticia, situated at 5 km outside the town



where we will spend one night before the departure on the expedition and one night before the return to Bogota. We couldn't leave for the lodge before we had a close look at this area of the Amazon





where we saw how the poor people live on the outskirts of the city.







After we had a good look around we left for the lodge where we checked out our room for the night. We had a huge meal because we knew that now was the time to eat as much good food as we could because in the jungle the food wouldn’t be so diverse.

The next morning, November 23, after breakfast we checked and packed our bags for the expedition and then we went to Laeticia/Tabatinga to do last minute shopping and to embark on our boat that was to be our means of transport for the next 7-8 days.





Tabatinga port, Brazil





Here I must mention that on a map, Laeticia, looks like it’s located a few kilometres distance from Tabatinga, in Brazil, but in reality the two towns have expanded so much that now are like a city divided in two, the main street of Laeticia continues with the main street in Tabatinga, you know that you have crossed from one country to another only when you see a piece of wood on the footpath that says ' Forza Nacional "... there is no border or border guards.
Until the boat driver went to buy 800 gallons of diesel for the expedition, we decided to have one last hearty meal until our return from the trip, in a restaurant in Brazil



Heiko has advised me to try the original Cola



After we finished eating, we boarded the boat and we crossed the river Amazon in Peru to get a peruvian visa, because the river Javari (local language) or Yavari (on maps) is the border between Brazil and Peru.
The town right across Laeticia/Tabatinga on the Peruvian side is called Santa Rosa but if it wouldn’t be for this sign



you wouldn’t even know that you crossed into Peru. There is no proper port in Santa Rosa, it’s just a wooden house that has this painting on it



The Visa Office was a room with a counter and a wooden bench and this room was attached to the house of the person who gave the visas.



After we received the visas, we stopped at the floating shops for the last supplies





Not long after we left Laeticia/Tabatinga/Santa Rosa the night fell very quickly



Here on the Amazon, the day turns into night very quickly, it takes about 20 minutes from daylight to change into full night. The day starts at 05.00 am and is dark at 18: 00.



The plan for today was to get to a village called Santa Rita before dark but it was not so, and besides that, at 19.00, it started to rain so heavy that we couldn’t see a meter in front of us, so we had to stop for a few hours until it stopped raining. In the photo above you can see the Indian guide with a flashlight, which works on the boats battery, illuminating the river, to see where we go. Around 10 pm, we arrived in the village that we were looking for, where we were greeted with great warmth by the village/tribal chief. They were Indians from the Jagua tribe and the chief had offered his home so that we could cook some food in his kitchen





and to hang our hammocks if we want, but because we had tents we've installed them between two huge trees that were near his house. After eating I put up my tent near one of the trees and when I finished I had the pleasure to see who my neighbour was for that night





a tarantula the size of my hand, with thick, hairy legs even hairier than mine! I checked that the entrance to the tent was secure because I didn’t want to wake up in the middle of the night with him keeping me warm. I didn’t think I’d sleep at all because I had so many thoughts in my head and I was full of adrenalin just thinking about how it would be tomorrow.

24 November, a cold and foggy morning, only now I realize why Heiko told me to bring warm clothes and thick socks, it’s a big temperature difference between day and night.





We said thank you to the chief for the hospitality and for letting us to use his house/kitchen to cook



and we continued our travels on the river





Speaking of boats, the boat in the next picture is the local bus, because the roads are almost non-existent and the ones that do exist in the jungle are used only by the trucks. Goods are transported on the top of the boat, people and animals inside



And this is the fast boat, not many can afford a trip with this boat



a few hours later we stopped for a walk through the jungle











After an hour of cutting lianas and other plants, which was exhausting, we returned to the boat. A while later on the left bank of the Amazon we saw a small waterfall and we decided to explore the creek





The holes that are seen in the bank are the caves where in the rainy season the males of the catfish family take care of the eggs deposited by the females and the fry until they leave.
Heiko has decided to climb up to the bank to explore the creek, it was very hard to climb the steep bank but when he came back down he did it a lot faster!





The water was very deep; the waterfall is located in the curb of the river. Until Heiko returned we did some fishing and took some photos



This type of fish is found everywhere and it is very tasty, we ate a lot of them during the trip. After Heiko returned we continued and we saw several villages/native houses





When we arrived at the entrance to the river Yavari (Javari local language) we stopped for lunch at a camp which one of the local tribe’s uses when going to hunt and have to sleep in the forest







Until the food was ready Heiko searched for fish around the camp but the water was too dirty and he didn’t catch anything



The fishing net that Heiko is using is made of a special material that the catfish and corydoras fins don’t get stuck in
After lunch we got on the road again and before it got dark we got to the next stop, a lake which is reached by a narrow channel from the river











In the last photo top right you can see how much the water level increases in the rainy season, those being the tree roots. After 15-20 minutes of navigating the channel we entered the lake itself, lake Fregatta





we put up the tents for the night





and we caught dinner, two types of PIRANHA, white and red belly





then we ate piranha soup, it was so good...





With full bellies and the renewed energy we went to search for fish













It is not easy to look for fish at night time, you have to be very careful about the caimans and snakes, especially anaconda and when you sort among the leaves and small branches, you have to have great patience not to throw away any leaf or branch that could have stuck to it a small fish or even a new one for science. After 3 hours of searching for fish we decided to get back into camp for the night. When entering my tent, on the tree beside me, i discover my neighbour for that night



A black scorpion, just my luck, I have a “neighbour” again.

On the morning of November 25, we boarded again and we started off on the next leg of the trip. As we left the lake we saw a pink dolphin





The dolphin is not to visible due to the fact that they come up to breathe only every 20-25 minutes, just for a few seconds and it's very hard to take good photos. Throughout the expedition I took a lot of photos trying to capture a proper photo of a dolphin but only the photo above was the best.
On the Amazon live two types of dolphins, actually one, the pink dolphin is part of the whale family, only the grey dolphins are real dolphins.
Another type of boat that we saw on the Amazon was this



This boat is in fact a family house, they live their entire life here and at the same time they use it for the transport of goods as a source of income.
Pedro, one of the Indian guides told us that he knows a shortcut that cuts across the loop of the river from side to side that saves us a few hours of travel on the main river so we decided to use it. We didn't even know when we got to the shortcut; the entrance to it from the river was a wall of greenery



but after a few minutes of cutting the branches with a machete we entered on what was the connection between the two sides of the loop





We barely entered the channel when it started to rain heavily and to our "joy" we saw that we’d have to get out of the boat to push/pull the boat over the trees that had fallen across the channel











After we managed to surpass all the obstacles the channel got wider and we saw in a few different places biotopes for catfish, one in stone and one in clay





And then we stopped at a creek where we searched for fish







in the three pictures above you will realize how much the water level increases in the rainy season, in the last photo I’m in the place where the water level is in the rainy season.
The creek was a blackwater biotope, on the bottom was a little sand and a lot of clay but there are no aquatic plants









A few pictures of what fish we caught in this creek, all are new to science
Tetra








Knifefish



After we finished exploring the creek we continued up the channel to the main river and then up the river until around 17.00 when we found the entrance to a small lake where we made camp for the night. When we entered the lake we had seen many caimans and I decided that if I’m here on the Amazon I’ll have to try to catch one, so after dinner i went looking for one, after 10-15 minutes I saw one in the water on the edge of the lake



and







I caught one, not a big one but hey it's a caiman, a spectacled caiman. After we all took some pictures with him I let him go and we prepared for bed.
It wasn’t a bad day, dolphins, two species of fishes new to science, a caiman

November 26, after a breakfast composed solely of fish, tiger shovelnose catfish, aequidens and piranha





we travelled on, full of adrenaline knowing that today we will reach the final destination, the confluence of Arabella and Capybara. After a few hours we reached the entrance to the Mirim River but before we could get up the river we had to stop at the Peruvian checkpoint for the passports to be checked



After we finished at the checkpoint we entered the Mirim River



After a while we found a creek that flows into Mirim and we decided to explore it





Where the creek flows into the Mirim has formed a turning point where I saw many holes made by the catfish in the loamy soil



As you can see in the pictures below, the water in the creek was very dirty due to the muddy riverbed





About after an hour of exploration and after we caught some fish we moved on further up the river. Along the way we discovered a nest of black caiman





after we've finished taking the pictures we let him go and we continued with he trip. Of course, before reaching the final destination we had to have some more obstacles to pass







After some time of pulling/pushing and cutting we managed to surpass this obstacle and after an hour we arrived at the final destination, the place where the rivers Arabella and Capybara meet to form the Mirim river.



While the guides prepared the food for lunch, Heiko prepared his little photo tank to take pictures of the fish that we had in plastic bags in the boat, the majority were new to science. I started to explore the river to see what fish can be found in this place, a few pictures of some of the fish we caught



















and for dinner, tiger shovelnose catfish



Pictus catfish



Piranha, contrary to what many know, that piranha attack people, this is not true, they only bite when they are removed from the water to escape. Heiko was swimming in the river when Stephen caught a piranha



The day flew by; we were busy taking pictures, exploring the river, fishing. Before I went to bed I had seen a few interesting insects, a blue Moth/ Night butterfly



a cricket with very long antennae, about three times the length of the body



and..???



Tonight without dangerous neighbours, I hope!?!?!

November 27, last night it rained very heavy, the beginning of the rainy season. After breakfast we started to pack everything to prepare for departure, after so much excitement and adrenaline to get up here, today we are grumpy knowing that from now on with each day passing we are approaching the day when we have to go back home. Throughout this expedition I had no problems with mosquitoes but only with



these tiny sand flies almost ate us alive with all our mosquitoes sprays, they are worse than the mosquitoes, we even got bitten through our clothes.
After we boarded and set off on the way back, i sorted what fish I was going to bring back with me and what fish we caught last night to photograph at the next stop



Around lunch time we discovered an entry to a lake



and we decided to stay here for the rest of the day. As usual for food, fresh fish









Last night we discovered a new species of Knifefish





a predator from Hoplias family



and a giant aquatic snail.





After we finished eating we went to explore the jungle, here everything is under water, about 10 feet from the ground up, in the rainy season. So you can imagine what it looks like when all forest is flooded and the fish come to lay eggs. A few pictures of the "Amazon biotope" for the aquarium











When we returned back to the camp, surprise! For dinner, Arapaima.







On the other side of the lake our guides had encountered a family of Indians that were fishing on the lake and have just caught an Arapaima (Pirarucu in the local language), indigenous people are the only ones who are allowed to catch this fish, which is protected by law and in exchange for some rice and flour they gave us some to eat. Anyway being a special dinner we drank some of the home made OAS vodka that I brought with me... ....Hey! Who turned off the lights!

28 November, today we all feel a bit low knowing that we are getting close to the end of this trip



After a few hours we decided to stop for lunch on one of the beaches of the Yavari River and until the food was ready we used the big net to try and catch some of the fish that live on this type of sandy “biotope”



After Heiko has prepared his little photo tank





we could see better what we caught. Some Candiru species









Fresh water sole, look how well it is camouflaged in the second picture





some tetra and a loricaria





After we ate and finished taking the photos we continued the trip. The evening came quickly and we decided to make camp on the river bank, not before catching fresh fish for dinner, besides the usual fish that we always caught this evening we had a surprise catch, Astronotus ocellatus



This is my new neighbour for tonight



another scorpion. Good night, Amazon!



29 November, today we woke up very early in the morning, we had to make sure that we got back to Laeticia tomorrow because we had tickets for the plane to return to Bogota on December 1. This is how a beautiful morning on the Amazon looks like



Today we knew that we had to spend most of the time in the boat being in great haste to return to Laeticia but after we ate breakfast in the boat and traveled about 4 hours without interruption, we were glad when we discovered a bigger creek which flows into Yavari river and we decided to explore it for an hour or two. The banks of the creek were very steep, 3-4 meters high, and the only way to move forward was to walk through it because the jungles edge was right down to the banks and was full of spiny bushes





The creek was full of trees/branches, the water only 10-20 cm deep and the bottom was mud of 30-40 cm depth that made the walking through it and trying to catch fish very difficult



In this creek we found a lot of holes for catfish that indicated that this creek is a favourite with them for breeding and I hoped that we would find a few even though the water level was low



Here Heiko is trying to see if he can find a catfish in one of the holes but the hole is much more deeper than his arm and it branches out, Heiko explained to me that all kinds of catfish are digging a lot of the holes like a mine gallery so that when a predator is trying to catch them they can hide or escape through another hole. A few metres further up we discovered a few holes in the creeks bank, 10-20 cm away from each other and in each of them at the entrance was a catfish



When I tried to catch one I couldn't, as I touched the water in the vicinity of the hole it disappeared inside. We tried to catch them by putting our hands in the holes but the holes were too deep, knowing that we wouldn’t catch any catfish like that, I tried a trick I used back home in Romania, get the water murky at the entrance and wait a few minutes to see if any fish come out and if it does, then try to catch it with your hand. After about 5 minutes







I caught one, the trick learned in childhood on rivers near my home town worked, a beautiful male Hypostomus cf. plecostomus.
After this success we returned to the boat and continued the trip.
For lunch we stopped on a beach where we decided to use the big net to see if we can find any stingray, they love the low water and sandy beaches where they can find shrimp and other food



but we had no luck, we caught only the same type of fish as in the previous day when we explored the beach.
Before we went further on, Heiko showed me how to proceed with the preservation of the fish species that we discovered on this expedition. Place the fish in a bag with a solution that contains 95% alcohol, write what place they were caught, the fish family they are part of, if you know, who has caught the fish and these bags are given to researchers who are studying them and give them names





After we finished packing the fish we travelled on and we didn’t stop until it got dark. We stopped on a beach where we made camp and before we went to sleep, on the shores of the river under some submerged branches we saw some fish that were hidden underneath them from the predator fish: Satanoperca Daemon





30th of November, last day of the expedition. After breakfast we boarded and headed for "home" knowing that today is the last day of the trip on the Amazon river. The atmosphere is a little dark in the boat, not too much talk, we know that our trip is almost over, the tiredness has caught up with us but we also couldn’t wait to return home to our families.
After a few hours of on the boat we arrived at the short cut that we used it on 23 November to get faster to the Santa Rita village on the Yavari River





now the water level was very low compared to how it was on the 23rd. At lunch time we got at the confluence of the Yavari River with the Amazon and we decided to stop to eat, not before we caught some fresh fish for dinner.
PIRAIBA



and piranah’s



The Piraiba we gave to Pedro, who has 5 children, to take home with him. From the piranha’s, the guides made CALDERADA, which was like a fish stew



After we finished eating lunch, we moved on and we did not stop until we reached the first town, Benjamin Constant, which was on the Brazilian side of the Amazon, the first sign of civilization after a week in the jungle. The first thing I did was to go to the market to buy some fruit and bread, after so much fish and rice anything else tastes extraordinary





In the market there was a stall full of different fish and a list with what species of fish are for sale for human consumption





Of course we didn’t want to eat fish anymore so we went to the only "restaurant" in the market, I ordered something very interesting



ARMADILLO



It tastes like pork, very nice. After we finished eating and buying fruits and other things we continued on our way, but before we reached Laeticia we stopped at an "indian lodge" where tourists get to live like the local indians, eat traditional food and hike through the jungle with an indian guide.





This lodge is built exactly like an indian house, from wooden planks, wooden columns, covered with dried palm leaves and you can sleep in a hammock or on a mat woven from palm leaves. Here you usually find those people who want to experience the lifestyle of the indigenous people, without electricity, telephone, television, computer, etc.
2-3 hours after we left the lodge we arrived in Laeticia.





Even though it is a much smaller port than Tabatinga it is very crowded. After we said our good bye’s to the guides we loaded all the baggage into a taxi



and we got back to the same lodge that we had stayed in before we went on the trip. After we unpacked, I put the fish I wanted to bring back with me to Ireland in aquariums, where they would stay until the next day, then to Bogota, and finally to Dublin, we decided to have one last meal together



and where was better than at a restaurant that had a most appropriate name for this occasion



The trip of a lifetime.



THE END?!?!

Hi John, that sounds good, if anyone finds any mistakes just let me know, it took me a while to put it up together. This trip is also published, the shorter version in DISCUSBOOK 03 by Heiko Bleher and in the PFK magazine, Issue 02, February.

great article Adrian, all i can say is I'M JEALOUS, VERY VERY JEALOUS

Absolute trip of a life time, thanks for sharing. My son was in the Amazon a couple of years ago and swam with piranhas, their reputation is grossly exaggerated.

As for Heiko Bleher, he is a legend, imagine, he gets paid for these kind of trips, that has to be THE dream job.

I swam daily with the piranah and candiru and nothing happened, all the stories about both of them are only stories.
The best part of the trip was having Heiko as a guide, you cant do better then that

That is just fantastic, must be very fishkeepers dream.

Love the pleco in it's cave!

What did you get to bring back to Ireland?

Andreas

Very good spent a half an hour going through it excellent

You lucky sod Adrian, looked like an amazing trip! Would be interested to hear what you brought back as well? Is there much involved in bringing them back - paper work etc, and is acclimatising them hard due to them coming from the wild?

arabu1973 wrote:

Hi John, that sounds good, if anyone finds any mistakes just let me know.

great post adrian, really enjoyed that. the only mistake is being photographed wearing the speedos

derek wrote:

the only mistake is being photographed wearing the speedos

brilliant Derek , have to agree though

Melander wrote:

What did you get to bring back to Ireland?

Andreas

Discus, angelfish, corys, plecos, appistos, tetras

@PompeyBill
It does take some time and few papers to fill to bring them back.
The fish weren't that hard to acclimatise, same as any other wild fish that I had before.

@Derek
That was a mistake but it was to late to rectify, I don't mind, I make those speedos look good

Great log Adrian. You had told me before about your trip.
Looked like a super expedition.

ps. It would have been a lot worse without the speedos I'd say !!

Great stuff.

WOW what an experience that would be!
On my list for when I win the Lotto that and a trip to the Galapagos

Thanks for sharing

Amazing photos and description, really enjoyed reading about your trip and the place where our fish come from. Thanks for sharing. How did you manage to get get on a trip like that with Heiko?

Mike53 wrote:

How did you manage to get get on a trip like that with Heiko?

I know Heiko for the past few years, we met first on the discus forums and we kept in touch, he realised that i'm very interested in South American fish especially wild discus and I got an invite on this trip. The best holiday ever, so far.

This looked like an amazing trip.
Definitely on my bucket list

It was a great trip, it took 2 years to be accepted to go on this trip with Heiko, special permits and permission from the local tribes to enter their lands and to look for fish. In few places we couldn't enter to research due to the fact that the tribe living there don't want any outside contact with them

Yes John, they were. God help them if they would had met me

Wow Adrian

What a adventure you've had and a great set of pic's to booth, Thanks for posting them up

Were any of the new species of fish named after you?


Mark

Hi mark
I doesn't work that way. The scientist that studies the fish get to name it but very rarely its named after somebody

meant to comment on this ages ago...
what an adventure, just amazing
a dream come true for most of Us on here I'm sure
read it 3 or 4 times now...
took Me ages to spot the Sole against the sand, as Adrian said, some camouflage...
spoke to Adrian a couple of times about it, serious dedication and organisation to arrange something like this and that's if You are lucky enough to get an invite in the first place...
has to be said, just amazing and really well documented and presented as well

thanks for sharing Adrian

Truely a Trip of a Lifetime




Des

Thanx Des, sorry for the late reply. It was a trip of a lifetime but im hopeing that i'll be able to do it again, i'm invited again, but its all down to the expenses. we'll see, you never know.....

I truly and immensely enjoyed your Amazon trip chronicles with Heiko and the wild fish you caught and the freshwater fish you eat there that we also put in our aquariums for our amusement. Its a trip of a lifetime and it takes a special kind of "fish loving" person to thrive in the Amazon rivers and forests. Thanks for sharing and hope to see more of this kind of stories being told and shown in the forum.

I agree with you Ian, its not a normal holiday, it does take a certain person to do this kind of trip, always being dirty and wet, sleeping in a hammock or tent and eating mostly fish and rice for 2 weeks but I did enjoy it and I would love to go on another few but its all down to how much money you have to spend...

crikey adrian, looking at those pics again, it seems that you and heiko ate half the fish and wildlife from the amazon. I imagine any visit to a petshop now must be like checking out a restaurant menu.

You are right Derek the only problem is that the fish are to small.