Starting point for the expedition: Puerto Inirida
A nice little place in the middle of the rainforest, not far from the Venezuelan border and the Orinoco, served as our base for the boat trips to the indigenous peoples in the area, with whom we were allowed to stay overnight. They also accompanied us to the individual biotopes where we wanted to observe fish under water.
Even as we were landing, the view of the twists and turns of the rivers, the sandbanks and of an impenetrable jungle without roads or settlements, fired our imagination. In the next few days, we would be able to travel there and observe our favourite aquarium fish, perhaps even new species, in their natural habitats.
View of the jungle and the rivers from the plane
Even the approach to Puerto Inirida is exciting. You can see the rivers and the jungle from above and in your mind you are already in the river observing the fish.
This domestic flight and also the return flight to Bogota a fortnight later were the only hitches we met on the expedition. Satena Airline cheerfully collected excess baggage fees from each participant in Bogota, only to discover minutes before departure that the plane was now too heavy. We managed to convince them not to leave any participants there, but simply to unload as many suitcases as needed to fit the plane's weight onto the short runway in Inirida. Unfortunately, the information that the amount of luggage was irrelevant on the return flight to Bogota was wrong and we actually had to leave two people in Inirida for an extra night!
Puerto Inirida is only accessible by air or by water. All its roads peter out sooner or later. It’s the perfect place to reach the beautiful and untouched habitats of our aquarium fish. Mauricio Bernal, boss of Hotel Toninas, was an exceptional host and became a good friend to us.
Motorbike city tour in 2 minutes
A friendly Colombian drives me through the town of Puerto Inirida. The place is only accessible by plane or boat. And from the motorbike pillion seat this short city tour is really fun!
With his help all the "excursions" were planned so that everything worked out. On our last evening before leaving for Bogota, he organised an unforgettable evening with an indigenous tribe with traditional dances and traditional food. However the pizza that followed was more popular with everyone. Even a full-grown cockroach on the pizza could not curb our appetite.
You can buy just about everything in the village. If you forget your diving goggles or need new clothes because, let’s say, Lufthansa has lost our Frenchwoman, Laurine’s, suitcase, you’ll find what you’re looking for. The people were all very friendly and happy to be photographed. There is hardly any tourism in Puerto Inirida. Most tourists come from Colombia and the USA, either for the nature or for fishing.
In the evening almost everyone went to the harbour to admire the sunset, even though approaching thunderstorms ruined it somewhat.
In the morning, our three teams (German, English and French speaking) set off by boat for the indigenous camps, where they spent the night before starting their trips to the biotopes.
