Dolly Beaver

Dolly Arevalo Shapiama is a native of the Amazon. Dolly is owner of the lodges, Tahuayo Lodge and Amazon Research Center, on the Tahuayo River. Her mother taught in a jungle village before moving to Iquitos city to provide higher education for her children. From a young age Dolly was passionate about charitable work. Dolly’s deep love of the women and children of the Tahuayo River communities motivated her to start the women’s Asociacion Manos Amazonica, as well as make substantial contributions to education (Chino Village High School; scholarships for continuing education in Iquitos) and medical care (Esperanza Clinic; paying for advanced care for Tahuayo residents in hospitals in Iquitos, Lima and the USA) and start the Angels of the Amazon foundation.

Paul Beaver, Ph.D.

Dolly’s husband Paul Beaver is owner of Amazonia Expeditions ecotourism company. Paul received his doctorate from the University of Chicago in 1976 and came to the western Amazon in 1980 to do zoological field research. In 1981 Paul started the Amazon’s first commercial adventure camping company, Amazonia Expeditions. Amazonia Expeditions now operates specialty travel excursions in wilderness and wildlife reserves throughout South America, as well as in Africa and Asia, but the primary focus remains the Amazon forest of the Tahuayo River basin. In 2015 Paul was honored by the University of Chicago for his contributions to conservation and humanitarian concerns with a presentation of the prestigious Alumni Public Service Award.

Juan Walter Lomas

Dolly Beaver

Dolly Arevalo Shapiama is a native of the Amazon. Dolly is owner of the lodges, Tahuayo Lodge and Amazon Research Center, on the Tahuayo River. Her mother taught in a jungle village before moving to Iquitos city to provide higher education for her children. From a young age Dolly was passionate about charitable work. Dolly’s deep love of the women and children of the Tahuayo River communities motivated her to start the women’s Asociacion Manos Amazonica, as well as make substantial contributions to education (Chino Village High School; scholarships for continuing education in Iquitos) and medical care (Esperanza Clinic; paying for advanced care for Tahuayo residents in hospitals in Iquitos, Lima and the USA) and start the Angels of the Amazon foundation.

Paul Beaver, Ph.D.

Dolly’s husband Paul Beaver is owner of Amazonia Expeditions ecotourism company. Paul received his doctorate from the University of Chicago in 1976 and came to the western Amazon in 1980 to do zoological field research. In 1981 Paul started the Amazon’s first commercial adventure camping company, Amazonia Expeditions. Amazonia Expeditions now operates specialty travel excursions in wilderness and wildlife reserves throughout South America, as well as in Africa and Asia, but the primary focus remains the Amazon forest of the Tahuayo River basin. In 2015 Paul was honored by the University of Chicago for his contributions to conservation and humanitarian concerns with a presentation of the prestigious Alumni Public Service Award.

Nixon Irarica Tello

Nixon was born and grew up in El Chino Village on the Tahuayo River. He studied primary and secondary school in the village. He has worked with Amazonia Expeditions since 2012, including working as field research assistant of Fredrick Tegner’s research on poison dartfrogs, Ludvig Orson’s research on harlequin toads and Rebecca Sheehan’s study of pygmy marmosets. After a year as assistant guide, Nixon was promoted to head guide in 2017.

Claudio Huayllahua Sánchez

Claudio was born and grew up in El Chino Village on the Tahuayo River. He studied primary school in El Chino and continued his education in Iquitos, earning a technical degree from SENATI Institute. He started working for Amazonia Expeditions in 2014 as a field research assistant with several biologists and as an assistant guide. Claudio was promoted to head guide in 2017.

Javier Anibal Alván Arévalo

Javier has worked at the Amazonia Expeditions lodges for 10 years, starting as a young teenager as an assistant in building repair, then moving up to motorboat pilot, then camping assistant and assistant guide, and after passing his guide exams with high grades was promoted to head guide in 2014.

Welister Perez

Welister grew up in the small community of Padre Cocha just outside of Iquitos City. He lived there for most of his life, and later worked at several jungle lodges before starting at Amazonia Expeditions. Welister has proven himself as both a talented jungle man and team player with an eagle eye for spotting wildlife. After several months of training with Amazonia he was promoted to a head guiding position in 2017.

Juan Walter Lomas

Juan was born and grew up in a small town near Nauta, a city south of Iquitos. Here he studied tourism at a local university and became an official licensed tour guide. Before starting at Amazonia in 2017 Juan worked at several other lodges in the region. Juan is now one of our head guides and has a special interest in improving his knowledge of 600+ birds in our region.

Ronaldo Ricopa

Ronald grew up in the town of Padre Cocha just outside of Iquitos City. In this area he worked at several rainforest lodges before coming to work with Amazonia Expeditions in 2017. Ronald has proven himself as a talented head jungle guide with sharp instincts and a special interest in medicinal plants of the region. In addition, his kind and humorous ways make him fun for family guiding.

Lander Juan Peña Ramirez

 Lander was born in the remote jungle community of Santa Victoria. His boyhood dream was to become to best jungle guide in the Amazon. Lander studied at a local institute for several years where he learned basic English and the foundations of the being a tour guide. Later he worked for several years at other jungle loges as a guide, honing his skills as a survival camping guide. Lander came to work for Amazonia Expeditions in 2017 and along with a strong interest in birding and fishing is also one of our lead camping and survival guides.

Fernando Manihuari Tapullima

Fernando was born in a small Kukama village along the banks of the river Ucayali river. Years later he began to work hunting and fishing in the surrounding area of his village. Fernando grew up in an environment where he was constantly learning about his family’s rich cultural traditions. Although Fernando spent most of his life hunting and fishing in 2005, he began to change his ways of thinking and decided that he no longer wanted to kill and take from the jungle. He now wanted to become a guide. In order to reach his goal Fernando went to high school and then after to technical school where he training to become a tour guide. He wanted to make up for all those years hunting by now doing what he could to protect the forest. In 2013 he had his first guiding job where he worked for 6 years until beginning his work at Amazonia.

Hersog Chavez Yuyarima

Hersog first got the idea of becoming a guide after watching the tourist boats going by his village every day. He was fascinated that tourists would come to see his home and he loved the way that the guides he saw did their work. He knew that someday he wanted to be just like them. Hersog studied at technical school for 3 years leaning the basics of guiding. After graduating, Hersog worked as a guide for several years working with Peruvian tourists, later coming to work for Amazonia in 2017. Hersog was promoted to head guide in 2019. He has worked as a field research assistant in the study of the elusive pygmy marmoset. Hersog is known for his sharp eyes and his unique stories about the jungle.

Larissa Barker

Larissa is a behavioral ecologist from Austria. After collecting the data for her undergraduate thesis in Honduras she fell in love with tropical fieldwork and has continued to work across the tropics for the last 9 years. Larissa completed her PhD fieldwork here in the reserve looking at the impacts of anthropogenic noise on pygmy marmoset behavior. After successfully handing in and defending her PhD thesis she came back to work at the lodge as the staff biologist. She is continuing her work with the pygmy marmosets with a focus on how human presence impacts their anti-predator behavior.