P.O. Box 238
Wildwood, PA 15091

(412) 486-4588

Dr. Daniel T. Wagner,
RPh., Pharm.D., MBA, President

Dr. Steve Morris,
ND, AHG, Vice President

For more information about Dr. Dan Wagner and NutriFarmacy, visit www.nutrifarmacy.com

2008 JOURNEY TO THE PERUVIAN AMAZON: AMAZONIA, MACHU PICCHU, and CUSCO

In June 2008, a group of American students from schools of naturopathy, pharmacy and biology embarked on an incredible journey to the Peruvian Amazon.  Eighteen students from 6 different universities traveled with the Student Rainforest Fund(SRF)- a non-profit, student educational fund that enables students studying the health professions to experience natural medicine and holistic healing in the world’s remaining rainforests.  This was the thirteenth consecutive year that the SRF has organized such a “green” expedition, and since our first journey to Belize in 1995, over 300 students have had the privilege of taking this ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ educational journey. Since that initial trip, SRF has traveled seven additional times to Belize, twice to Costa Rica, once to Ecuador, and three times to Peru.

The team all met in Houston and from there made a late evening flight to Lima, Peru.  After a short night’s sleep, an early wake-up call and quick breakfast, the team was hustled to the airport for a flight through Cusco to the Amazonian port of Puerto Maldanado.  We were met by the staff of Inkaterra, a Peruvian organization that has promoted and practiced sustainable tourism in the Amazon for more than 25 years.  I had been to Puerto Maldanado three times before, and a port town of 25,000 people a few years ago has swelled to over 100,000 because of the income made from gold mining, lumber, and tourism being a distance third. Our group of 20 (18 students and two instructors) climbed aboard a long wooden motor boat and commenced on a two hour trip down the wide and wild Madre de Dios River, that flows north into the mighty Amazon.  Our destination was the Reserva Ecologica located at the edge of the Inkaterra Ecological Reserve. 

The accommodations the Reserva Ecologica are first-class, and I think the students were pleasantly surprised that they weren’t going to have to “rough” it too much.  The grounds around the lodge are filled with colorful birds, medicinal plant gardens, and many trails that transverse deep into the surrounding primary forest.   The team would spend hours taking exotic ‘ethnobotany’ walks through the dense forests.  We learned about the local medicinal plants from our excellent guides and also learned much about the flora and fauna of this region of the Amazon.  The lodge recently constructed a fantastic walkway that ascends nearly 40 meters into the canopy.  The true majesty of the rainforest can be best appreciated from this bird’s eye view. We had night excursions on the river where many animal species can be seen, especially the large caimans.

We spent one day on a slow sojourn down the Madre de Dios River to the magnificent Lake Sandoval.  This Ox-bow-shaped lake is the most beautiful found in the Tambopata Reserve.  With ten people in each canoe we paddled across an extraordinary landscape of water, rich in icthiological species, surrounded by Aquaje palm and abundant trees.  We saw many wild animals and birds.  Lake Sandival is an excursion that is not to be missed for any travelers to this area.

By mid-week we were off to a new site for the SRF team, a remote research center called Los Amigos located four hours upstream on the Madre de Rios River toward Bolivia.  This rustic center (refurbished from an old mining lodge) is home to about 25 American students doing their masters and/or doctoral research on plants and animals in the area.  We were met by the Research Coordinator, Nigel Pitman, and he gave us a tour of the facilities and introduced us to the students.  We spent three days there taking long morning and afternoon hikes into the vast old-growth rainforest that surrounds the site.  Los Amigos is operated by the Amazon Conservation Association and they have been entrusted with a 350,000 acre preserve by the Peruvian government to maintain the pristine environment of this area.  We saw a myriad of wild life, more than I have seen in my many trips to South and Central America.  Los Amigos is especially rich in a variety of primate species.  We saw six different species of monkeys and 3 varieties of tamarins.  Los Amigos has a modest, but impressive medicinal plant garden.  The students attended a number of classes (both indoors and outdoors) to learn more about natural products that come from plants.  Dr. Steve Morris lectured on ethnobotany from a naturopath’s perspective, and Dr. Dan Wagner gave a lecture on ethnopharmacy, identifying modern pharmaceuticals that have been developed from rainforest plants.

The students all agreed that their experience at the Los Amigos Reserve was most rewarding and fulfilling, but their grandest experience was yet to come as we boarded a boat, a bus, a plane, and a train- all in one day- to make it to the lost city of Machu Picchu.  There are few places on our planet that exude such splendor and magnificence.  The Machu Picchu Historical Sanctuary is located between the high Andes and the Peruvian Amazon basin.  It is the land of the Incas and one of the wonders of the world.  We spent a morning and an early part of the afternoon walking high on the terraces of this ancient city, and some of the students climbed the colossal peaks surrounding the site.  It is a site that will be burned in your memory for as long as you live, a place where everyone should visit one time in their life.

It is always important for the students to commiserate with local healers, midwives, and shamans.  There is much to learn from these experienced healers, even though they may not even know how to read and write.  They have a time-tested knowledge of the local plants passed down from generation t generation.  They have a lot to teach us in our modern world.  It is true that as the world’s rainforest slowly succumb to destruction for the wealth that can be obtained from lumber, gold, rubber, cattle grazing, and the newest threat- soybean production for the Asia market- it is evident that the greedy will continue to destroy the forest rather than working with the local people who believe in sustainability. 

As we all landed safely back into the States, we had time to reflect on a wondrous journey.  It is the hope of the SRF directors, advisory board, and volunteers that each student comes away with a feeling of awe.  Not only because of the unique ecosystems that they have seen, but mostly to show reverence for the healing plants of the rainforest.  As one famous Belizian shaman, Eligio Panti said to our SRF team back in the 90’s, “God has placed the cure for every disease in these forests; it is our job to find them.”