Uacari Floating Lodge (Mamirua Reserve) part 1

We flew from Manaus to Tefe on a one hour flight over the Amazon rainforest and transferred to the Uacari floating lodge by speedboat.

The lodge is situated on a bend in the river just within the Mamirua Sustainable Development Reserve. The reserve is a 22,000 square mile area of Vareza or flooded Amazonian rainforest with abundant waterways, oxbow lakes and includes the Solimoes river. The forest here is varzea which means it is flooded for several months of the year by the sediment rich white water of the Solimoes river. This means that much of the wildlife is very specialist as it has to be able to survive this period of inundation. The reserve was the first sustainable development area to be designated in Brazil and it aims to combine a improvement of sustainable practice for local people living within the reserve (such as fishing management, jobs and education) alongside conservation and scientific research.

The uacari floating lodge is a fantastic place to stay, it is sensitively built on a bend in one of the rivers and all the staff and guides are from the local communities within the reserve. Much of the proceeds from visiting are put into the projects of the reserve such as community development or conservation work.

Uacari Floating lodge.

While we were staying there we visited one of the local communities that live year round on the river. The people are extremely friendly and happy to show you how they live in such an extreme environment. We timed our visit with the high water floods which is the best time to find primates, but it also means that the entire forest is underwater and once you leave Tefe you will not touch land again.

During June and July the flood is at its peak and all of our excursions were undertaken by motorised boat or canoe. Drifting through a flooded forest in a canoe ducking out the way of branches and vines is a fantastic experience.

Varzea forest

The first mammals we encountered were the gray river dolphin or tucuxi dolphin which is not a true river dolphin as it is more closely related to the marine dolphin families, and it does occur in saltwater environments along the coastline of northern South America. We had several good views of this species around the Tefe lake area.

On the excursions from the lodge we found Venezuelan red howler monkey, huge troops of common squirrel monkey and lesser numbers of brown capuchins.

Brown capuchin

Common squirrel monkey

Venezuelan red howler monkey

The mamirua reserve also has an endemic species of primate the black-headed or (black-capped) squirrel monkey, which is restricted to just the varzea forests within this region. It is the primate with the smallest natural distribution in the world. We found 2-3 different troops of this species which occur in smaller groups.

Black-headed squirrel monkey

We also found the unique looking bald-headed uakari (it is the sub species Cacajao c. calvus that occurs in the reserve) which is the flagship species of the reserve and is the most reliable site for seeing this spectacular primate even though they are still very difficult to see. I had 2 different sightings of 3 individuals but they were very shy so the views were always brief.

Bald-headed uakari

I also found 2 Northern Amazon red squirrel and 7 brown-throated three-toed sloth while we were exploring the reserve.

Northern Amazon red squirrel

Brown-throated three-toed sloth