(Image by Santiago David)
July 13th, 2016
WE SAW A JAGUAR!!!!! Heading into Cocha Cashu is more remote and there’s no public access. It’s more than a full day up river from Pantiacolla. Our TAs were on the lookout all day for a jaguar, they’d take turns eating so one person could always be searching with binoculars. Our captain was the one that ended up spotting it, he has a more trained eye from experience. The jaguar was on the bank about 20 m back and on a raised part a couple metres above the beach.
And I kid you not they moved the goddamn boat right up to the riverbank and then EVERYONE GOT OFF THE BOAT. There were some fallen logs and branches between us and the jaguar and I was assured later that a jaguar would never charge a huge group of us like that BUT STILL. With reluctance I joined everyone off the boat to get a closer look at the jaguar and it was worth the risk of imminent death. It kept glancing at us nonchalantly for minutes? hours? as we all watched and took pictures. Then one TA got a little toooo close because the jaguar gave off the most bone chilling roar. We all jumped and the TA fell off the log. We were all pretty startled but then the jaguar headed back into the forest. We got back on the boat to make it to our pit stop for the night because it’s dangerous to boat after dark.
The next morning we headed out early. We had to make a stop to check into the park but the bank was super muddy. I hopped out and immediately got stuck in the mud and began to sink into it. Rather than acting like a normal human I struggled around a bit while yelling “Halp!!” Definitely one of the more embarrassing moments of my life. I managed to get out by getting back on the boat while leaving my rain boots behind. A crew member had to pull them out of the mud for me and help me off the boat.