Colombia 2024, part 14 (San Francisco Lake, Lake Tarapoto, Puerto Nariño)

It was a perfect day with a terrible ending.

But let me continue with the story about my short stay in the Amazonia. After the excursion to the Peruvian island of Cacao, returning to our accommodation and waiting out a heavy downpour, the weather stabilised. The four of us (Jessica from England, Giacomo, an Italian living in Paris, Felipe, a Colombian living in the Netherlands, and myself) who had quite by chance “got together” here and had bonded rather well in this short period, were able to embark on an afternoon trip to Lake Tarapoto.

The excursion started upstream through a natural 'canal' that leads from the mouth into the Amazon towards the mouth of the smaller Loretoyaco River. Considering how names are given to bodies of water here, this 'canal' could be called a 'lake', but I didn't find any name for it on the maps, so I'm describing it this awkward way.

In any case, somewhere near the mouth of the Loretoyaco River, on the left side, there's a passage to a larger 'side' body of water called Lake San Francisco (Lago San Francisco).

The Amazon basin, a detail

All of this can be seen on the map showing the places I visited during this trip:

To begin with, we saw trees growing in the water, where the most interesting aspect was their trunks: dark-coloured at the bottom and light-coloured at the top. This clearly demonstrates the significant seasonal fluctuations in the water levels of the Amazon River and its tributaries, which I have mentioned earlier. The river level difference averages about 9 meters, while these trees illustrate how high the water can reach.

The Amazon basin, a detail

However, when we entered Lake San Francisco, the young man guiding us on this excursion turned off the engine, and we drifted for a while. The scenery was exceptionally beautiful, while the calm surface turned into a natural mirror, creating marvellous visual displays.

San Francisco Lake

Strictly speaking, Lake San Francisco is not actually a true lake but a large expansion in a watercourse that connects two points along the Amazon. However, the water colour (less muddy), less noticeable water movement and the calm, expansive surface certainly create a feeling of being on a lake rather than a river. I was completely delighted and filled with admiration.

San Francisco Lake

Still, the main reason we stopped and turned off the engine right here, as well as at a few other spots, wasn't necessarily to admire the natural phenomenon, but rather to watch river dolphins. Needless to say, these are wild animals, so visitors must arm themselves with lots and lots of patience and only hope that they just might see them.

On our return from the morning excursion, we had already seen a couple of dolphins in the main flow of the Amazon, but they are evidently found in various places.

These belong to the species known as the Amazon river dolphin (Inia geoffrensis), but due to the skin colour of adult individuals, they are also called pink river dolphins. The colour of these dolphins actually varies – young ones are gray (from dark to light shades as they grow), while adults are pink. Additionally, as our guide told us, young dolphins can and often do leap out of the water, while older ones only occasionally surface in order to breathe.

But filming dolphins for an amateur like me is a very demanding task. I tried my best and even managed to film the back of an adult dolphin and several young ones. I can report that I even saw an adult dolphin whose head and long snout protruded completely out of the water, but by the time I moved the camera, it had already disappeared into the water.

What I managed to edit from my recordings, including occasional parts without dolphins in order to give an idea of the surroundings, can be seen in the following video clip:

In-between those few stops to watch the dolphins, I enjoyed the sights around me intensely and occasionally I captured them on camera.

San Francisco Lake

San Francisco Lake is connected through a longer natural canal to another, slightly larger lake called Tarapoto and now we headed in that direction. The entrance to the canal is somewhat wider, but as we proceeded, it became clear that this was a narrow passage through dense Amazonian rainforest.

Canal between San Francisco and Tarapoto lakes

Here is a video that should illustrate what it all looked like. I was beside myself with happiness coming from the beauty of the landscape and the experience.

Canal between San Francisco and Tarapoto lakes

Great egrets (Ardea alba)

Canal between San Francisco and Tarapoto lakes

At the end of the canal, right at the entrance to the lake, there was a raft and a small house where guards were stationed. Visitors must register and pay a fee there.

While everyone was registering in the visitors' book, I was filming the lake and its surroundings, which were absolutely spectacularly beautiful. First, I started with the canal we arrived through and then I moved on to Lake Tarapoto.

Canal between San Francisco and Tarapoto lakes

Lake Tarapoto

With all this beauty, it was impossible for me to imagine what our guide told us – that September and October are dry months and during that time, Lake Tarapoto completely dries up. For now, I was enjoying what nature so generously offered here.

Lake Tarapoto

And then came the moment when we stopped in the middle of the lake and it was time for swimming. I jumped into the lake and even have a recording, but the young guide was too "creative" and kept changing the position of the mobile phone while recording, so it didn't turn out well. But I have other videos and photos. We were all ecstatic.

Swimming in Lake Tarapoto

When we all returned to the boat (and I struggled to climb aboard, meaning I'll need to work on my arm muscles a bit), we continued sailing around the lake and then we ventured into a shallow area and among the trees.

Lake Tarapoto shallows

One of the frequent associations with the Amazon and its murky waters are piranhas. Let me say right away that the popular culture fuelled by movies bordering on science fiction is providing completely wrong information – it's not really possible for piranhas to bite you to the bone within 10 seconds and for you not be able to react to it. So, we swam in the lake and then waded into the shallow waters of that same lake to fish for piranhas.

The guide gave to us all the most common fishing rods and pieces of fresh chicken meat, and then he explained to us how to put the meat on the hook. The rest was up to us and sheer luck.

As it turned out, I was lucky that day and caught a tiny piranha! As a rule, I am not a person who screams, but on this occasion I screamed with happiness, so in the end I felt the need to apologise to my companions. I don't know why, but I was really excited. Here is a video that brings all of this together:

Of course, I had to take a photo and give a "public statement".

Self-portrait with a caught piranha

And then, as if all this was not enough to make the day perfect, we sailed again on the lake whose surface was even more "polished" creating incredible effects.

Lake Tarapoto

Now we went to another spot on the lake from where we could watch a spectacular sunset.

Sunset seen from Lake Tarapoto

Since the day had already come to its end, we started back the same way – across Lake Tarapoto, then to the canal and eventually on to Lake San Francisco.

Twilight over Lake Tarapoto

Going back along the canal to Lake San Francisco

Here is the experience in the video version:

As we sailed on Lake San Francisco, we were accompanied by a nearly full moon.

Twilight over Lake San Francisco

I looked back trying to absorb even more beauty through the photos I took here.

Twilight over Lake San Francisco

As planned, we returned to the accommodation and we also agreed that all four of us would go for another walk in the rainforest the next morning, but this time on the Colombian side.

Some time later, the dinner started. My soul and thoughts were still filled with elation, but my body began to act strangely. Soon all hell broke loose.

First, I suddenly had the most horrible gas I've ever had in my life. In that state, I went to dinner, but I had no appetite, so I only ate a little, plus I also had to get out of there quickly so as not to disturb others.

Soon I started shaking with fever and I think I had an extremely high temperature; I was shaking all over and so was the bed I was lying on. Feeling very weak, I went to my backpack and pulled out my winter jacket, but also a few other pieces of clothing to keep warm. I took a medicine to reduce the temperature and it worked at some point, but then I started frequent visits to the toilet. My stomach was perfectly fine, but my intestines were not. And in this way I spent that whole agonising night, unable to shake off the anxiety at the thought that I should return to Leticia the following day.

During the night, I heard the rain pouring outside, while another problem began to arise for me. Specifically, I was becoming extremely thirsty and I only had a half-litre bottle of water. In that "hotel" where I was staying, they provided us with an unlimited amount of water from large containers, but you had to go to the dining room and kitchen for it. As luck would have it, when I arrived, I asked the owner what to do if, for instance, I got thirsty in the middle of the night, and he said there was no problem because “there is always someone in the kitchen."

And thus, as exhausted as I was, around midnight I realised I needed more water, so I struggled to get up and first left the house where my room was. Then, I walked across a covered path to the dining room door. It was locked. I started knocking and banging and shouting "Hola! Hola!", but it was quite clear that there was no one there.

Luckily, it wasn't raining at that time, so I carefully walked along a different path, making sure not to slip, to another entrance to the dining room. However, the situation was the same and my knocking on the door and calling out yielded no results. I tried to return to the house where my room was on the closer side, but those doors were also locked, so I had to go around again. Then, I became afraid that I might have inadvertently shut and thus locked the door I had exited from, but it turned out I had left it open, so at least I could return to the house and my room, but I was still terribly thirsty.

Since the situation was more than urgent, I finally decided to wake up Jessica, who was sleeping in the room next to mine. I apologised profusely to her, but she was very understanding. It turned out she actually did have spare water, which we then poured into my bottle, so at least I could survive until the morning without dying of thirst. Of course, throughout the night, in addition to these problems, I also had frequent bouts of dry coughing. In the morning, I woke up feeling completely drained, without an ounce of strength.

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