Early Years

The interior forests off of the upper Tahuayo have long been noted for their abundant populations of primates. Many trappers worked here in the 1960-70s to collect primates for sale to the veterinary institute of Iquitos, IVITA which in turn sold them to biomedical researchers world-wide. It is said that from Tahuayo primates that we owe our vaccines for hepatitis. The Peruvian government noted the unusual number of primates produced by this region and so in the early 1980s Rogelio Castro and Pekka Soini, who later became renowned for his conservation work with Amazon turtles in the Pacaya Samiria, conducted the first primate population survey under the auspices of IVITA. In 1984 University of Illinois primatologist Paul Garber and his student Richard Bodmer came from the United States to further study the mammalian ecology.

Forming the RCTT

Bodmer received his master’s degree from the University of Illinois and came back to the Tahuayo as a doctoral student at the University of Cambridge.  He joined with conservationist Greg Neise and worked with the communities of the Tahuayo River to develop a plan to have the region recognized as a community reserve. The passage of Propuesta Tecnia by the province of Maynas become a reality on June 19, 1991 with the enactment of Executive Resolution #080-91-CR-GRA-P. The reserve was declared a community reserve and named Reserva Comunal Tamshiyacu-Tahuayo (RCTT) after two of its major boundary rivers. Initial conservation efforts in the RCTT were funded by the Rainforest Conservation Fund (RCF), based in Chicago and headed by conservationist Greg Neise.

While Bodmer, Neise and others were working in the region of the lower Tahuayo River, near the riberenos communities, biologist Paul Beaver was working in the upper Tahuayo, off a tributary known as the Quebrada Blanquillo. Beaver initially worked for the Chicago Zoological Society on avian study, based out of a research site near Porto Miguel village on the Yarapa River. He had heard from the local community about the great wilderness of the upper Tahuayo River and so by hiking from the Yarapa through the forest to the upper Tahuayo, carrying boats and motors many kilometers through the forest, began a study of the region in 1980.

Paul Meets Dolly

In 1991 Paul Beaver met Dolly Arevalo Shapiama in Iquitos and Dolly accompanied Paul on several camping trips in the region of the Yarapa and upper Tahuayo. Unimpressed by the harsh physical demands of camping expeditions in this region, Dolly suggested the construction of a lodge to serve as a base of operations. It was decided that the lower Tahuayo River held more promise than the Yarapa River, so Paul and Dolly scouted the region of the lower Tahuayo prior to their marriage in April of 1994. After this time the camping excursions of Amazonia Expeditions would focus only on the lower Tahuayo River, exploring the Rio Blanco and Tangarana tributaries.

Building the First Lodge

A site was found just past the village of Chino, and construction of a lodge began in 1995. The lodge was completed and opened for the first tourists in December 1995.  A sister organization of Amazonia Expeditions, called AyE tours, was established in Iquitos city in 1995.  After the lodge was opened Dolly began a collaboration with the local community, to promote sustainable use of the reserve and in particular assist the women of the community, an effort that later grew into her non-profit Angels of the Amazon.  By 2001 the lodge was recognized in major publications such as Outside Magazine and National Geographic Magazine and began to grow in popularity.