BBC presenter Philippa Forrester is using a corner of deepest Peru to help save giant river otters

By Philippa Forrester

Printed: 11:39 EDT, 26 Could 2014 | Up to date: 14:16 EDT, 26 Could 2014

I’m being pushed over the Andes by a person known as Elvis. Neither of us can perceive a phrase the opposite says – fortunately we each discover it hilarious.

My sinuses pop as we climb. We swerve to keep away from the various boulders which have tumbled from the mountainside. The world turns into wrinkles beneath me. Forward, the street slices by means of the pink cliff faces of the second highest mountain vary on the earth.

I’m on my technique to the opposite aspect of these mountains to search out my husband. He’s unshaven, unfed and in a scruffy patch of rainforest – which we now have bought, however I’ve but to go to – in deepest darkest Peru. I’ve come, half landowner however primarily vacationer, to see Peru for myself.

We cease abruptly. Two little youngsters, spherical of their many heat layers, are herding small, brown goats, scruffy white sheep and one pig alongside this perilously slim street.

We drive by means of a conventional village. A child sleeps fortunately in a wheelbarrow. There isn’t a use for the most recent pushchair on the prime of the world – the barrow is way extra sensible.

At 10,000ft Elvis, nonetheless talking Spanish (on the understanding that I do not perceive), factors one thing out. The setting solar casts its orange gentle on a set of gorgeous burial mounds: we’re on the pre-Inca cemetery of Ninamarka.

However, on this street, Elvis wants daylight; we do not have time to cease. He retrieves his CD of pop divas from the glove compartment – and ultimately we’re starting to talk the identical language.

When darkness comes, we’re descending into cloud and forest on the opposite aspect of the Andes.

I understand how steep the drop off the aspect is, so I am fairly happy I can not see it. Many, even those that realize it nicely, lose their lives to this street. I focus on the divas and belief in Elvis.

Seven hours later, he brings me safely to Charlie. We discover him within the black of night time in a small city containing little or no.

There’s a small lodge – luxurious, so long as we’re glad to share our room with a tree frog.

After 4 days’ travelling, I anticipate an amazing night time’s sleep. However hordes of canines and cockerels maraud by means of the streets, making as a lot noise as doable.

So, within the morning, I want the black and syrupy espresso we drink on the road whereas we make our plans. First, a while for me to see the land we personal, then off to discover the Manu Nationwide Park.

We purchased the land as a result of it’s subsequent to this park, which is likely one of the most bio-diverse locations on the planet and residential to the enormous river otter.

The land and the park are continuously beneath menace from poachers and unlawful loggers.

We needed to avoid wasting our patch and hoped it could act as a buffer to assist defend the park itself.

Charlie has been filming a documentary about it for BBC2, however I’ve been ready a yr to see it. Upon arrival, we cross a river and hike up on to our patch, stopping to have a look at an ‘owl-eyed’ butterfly, so known as as a result of the phantasm of excellent amber eyes gazes again at us from its gray wings.

It’s actually not the rainforest of our goals. The land is overgrown with scrub species. An excessive amount of thorny bamboo, solely the occasional silver-barked tree.

Entire chunks of forest have been cleared, charred. We cross stacked planks. What was as soon as the forest ground is roofed in sawdust, but life is already struggling by means of once more; small curls of inexperienced shoots.

I watch a rush-hour line of military ants carrying bits of leaf. They’ve even dug an underpass system beneath twigs.

Not many different animals stay right here any extra. If we’re to show this land again right into a bio-diverse rainforest like Manu, we’ll have to begin by serving to the precise vegetation develop once more.

Thunder grumbles above. I flick an enormous, shiny, black soldier ant from Charlie’s head. I discover the detailed patterns on the frond of a tiny, rising fern.

Butterflies in startling selection land all over the place, even on us. The life right here simply wants an opportunity.

The thunder grumbles once more, nearer now. Time to go. I do not pay sufficient consideration to the trail and get spiked within the head by bamboo. We’re mountaineering quick, there isn’t any time to cease and examine. I can not inform whether or not I am bleeding or simply sweating however the biting bugs appear to get even keener on my head.

Slipping down a muddy financial institution, I make the error of grabbing a tree trunk – and get a palmful of spikes as nicely.

We attain the river that borders our land. Its motion and funky readability are refreshing after the dense and humid bush.

A kingfisher dives. As Charlie tells me in regards to the 5 completely different species dwelling right here, my virgin legs are devoured by sand-flies.

We swim in a pool that’s deep, clear, ice-cold; an anaesthetic for warm pores and skin and bitten legs. That is extra like how I had imagined our rainforest idyll. The heavens open; heavy drops falling quick. We’ve to go away. Rain like this implies the rivers rise shortly, and we now have three to cross.

On the subsequent day, we journey up-river on a small boat for seven hours, into the center of Manu.

All day I watch the riverbank slip by, an ever-changing scene of untamed animals. It is likely one of the most stunning journeys I’ve ever taken. The oxbow lake we cease at is dwelling to the household of 6ft-long otters which Charlie has been filming on and off for greater than a decade. I’ve been longing to fulfill them.

Subsequent day, a delicate breeze is transferring the vines as we board a wood catamaran and push out on to the sleek, inexperienced water.

That is correct rainforest; each accessible house on the financial institution is full of life. Straight, white traces of ridged trunks mix with spiky-leaved palms, and each shade of inexperienced is right here.

Turtles bask on a fallen, half-submerged tree-trunk. Orange butterflies adorn their faces, feeding on the salts they discover there. The turtles dive into the water as we drift silently by. I watch monkeys feed within the bushes, birds are all over the place.

Earlier than lengthy the air is full of a whining cacophony just like the revving of miniature engines. I do know that sound very nicely from our movies. It’s the noise big otters make once they have a fish and are claiming it as their very own whereas concurrently attempting to eat it.

The boat drifts nearer. For the primary time I see their darkish heads.

I shock myself by weeping. An enormous circle has closed for me. For years I’ve identified their names and tales, waved goodbye to my husband whereas he spent months with them, and even purchased land to attempt to assist this place.

I by no means thought I’d be fortunate sufficient to see these otters for myself. They’re extra spectacular, extra charismatic than I might have imagined. It has been an extended, exhausting journey. Tears roll down my face.

A loud snort makes me leap, a younger grownup has surfaced near the boat. We snigger. ‘Meet Dali,’ says Charlie. ‘He is checking you out.’ The snort turns right into a gurgle as Dali submerges once more. The household swim effortlessly alongside the financial institution, 12 of them, all ages, by no means silent.

They play continuously, leaping, grumbling and whining. They clearly love one another. An enormous splash when one is fishing, then a row when one other tries to steal the meal. No desk manners in any respect. I’m reminded of dwelling.

Charlie spots a caiman forward, lurking beneath an overhanging bush. Because the household method it, we’re tense. A caiman will take an otter cub.

Two cubs swim on, unprotected by adults. We maintain our breath – however this caiman just isn’t silly, he has determined to keep away from confrontation with such a big, sturdy group. A white egret dangles nice, gray legs because it flies in to verify for stirred-up scraps of fish within the otters’ wake. Nothing goes to waste right here.

We’re shut sufficient to listen to the crunching of fish bones, to odor the fish, to snigger on the baseball glove paws and the brown canine eyes that roll with pleasure because the otters eat.

They haul their shiny, muscular our bodies on land to relaxation, however not for lengthy. After they re-enter the water, they belly-flop, and that appears to sum up their exuberant angle: a greedy of life that I’ve seen ever since I arrived in Peru. Each creature makes essentially the most of any alternative to develop, stay and feed – even the sandflies on my legs. Each creature has a spot.

There isn’t a automobile for 1000’s of miles but one insect sounds precisely like a automobile parking sensor, and one chicken like an alarm. The otters are noisy. It is probably not (I believe, as I manically scratch my bites) significantly stress-free right here, however I really feel so fortunate to witness one of many final wildernesses we now have. There are even uncontacted peoples dwelling on this forest.

I’m 1,000,000 miles from actuality however I really feel, overwhelmingly, that that is actuality; one other Eden. I’m touched by one thing that nature insists upon and that we now have forgotten about: a fundamental, all-consuming greedy of life.

‘I Purchased A Rainforest’, a sequence telling Philippa and Charlie’s story, begins on BBC2 at 8pm on June 1.