The third day we started going upstream, past Boca Manu and up the Manu river. A 5 hour trip to the lodge near Sandoval Lake. We left at 5.30 and had breakfast on the boat. After about an hour we passed the ranger station where we had to register.

It becomes very lulling to see the riverbanks pass by, with each turn, the primary and secondary rainforest would switch side, but otherwise the low land rainforest doesn't change much. We had luck as one in the group spotted a jaguar. It was very difficult to see, lying on a log on the bank on the left side of the river (left going downstream). Only as it swong the tail did I see it. Everyone was wild taking pictures, I didn't get the GPS on, and I think I almost forgot to enjoy the moment of excitement, being more concerned getting the photo.

The lodge in the reserve was rather primitive, water came straight from the river without filtering. While this may be clean even for drinking as there are no poluting sources upstream, the dirt brown water doesn't really invite for a shower. We had lunch and a short siesta, then we went to Sandoval lake.

Sandoval lake is one of the two oxbow lakes in the reserve giving home to groups of giant otters. They have retreated to the lakes due to the traffic on the river. On the lake, a catemeran is available, we hadn't booked it for the afternoon, but it was free, so we went out on the lake.

We saw a green snake swimming across the lake, a rare sight, it's not a fast swimmer and very vulnerable in the lake. At a distance we had a look at the otters. Then as dark fell, we tried to find some black caimans and ended up seeing one close by the bridge where we left the catemeran. However, in the dark, it's hard to see much more than the bright red eyes that light up in the flash light.

On the way back, I walked last and tried to spot insects and other things as I had learned to see on the previous nights walk. Having my camera I tried to take a photo with the flashlight as only light, and it actually worked quite well, the light can get really close to the subject and so could I, as long as it didn't move. Then an f/2.0 was sufficient to get a great shot.