Ithuania - Rio Shiliwe

This complicated trail is part of an old route crossing the entire Amakaeri reserve. Because of technical problems we lost the data of the route, so that all I could do is to draw an approximate line. Even with a detailed GPS recorded trail, I advice against attempting this route without local guides. Apart from missing out on a lot of wildlife viewing opportunities and sharing some of their unique knowledge, it's unlikely the trip would go very well without their help along the way. There are very few Amarakaeris who may assist you on this route. The trip could take anything between a week and several weeks, in great part depending on the water level. If very low, as was the case during our attempt in august, it's best to turn around. Some, if not most of the food, will consist of fish from the river, but piranhas make fishing harder as you get further downstream. A water-filter is indispensable. Without a sun screen your skin will get badly burn while walking along the river beds. The terrain looks flat but over the course of the c21km from Ithuania to Rio Shiliwe the ups and downs add to more than a km of altitude gain and drop. It did not rain much but when it did we were freezing, something you might not expect in the djungle. From Rio Shiliwe there are several options. You may go back the same way, as we did, you may go up river until you reach the headwaters of the river, cross over the mountains and follow another river back to Shintuya (very long walk along the river beds),or you may build a raft and run the river down all the way to the Madre de Dios. A small community of Amarakaeris live there and supposedly have boats. This is what we intended to do but there was too little water in the river. The third option is to cross the reserve and end up going down the Rio Colorado to Puerto Luis. This has not been done in a long time and would likely take several weeks of hard effort. Either destination is extremely far away and any undertaking is a severe, on your own adventure in a wilderness of about 9000 square kilometers, think about that.