Monday, March 24, 2025

Peruvian Amazon Part 4 (FINAL): Shushúpe & the Episode of the Face Peelers

 After such an unforgettable time at Madre Selva, it was time to move on to Santa Cruz.  I couldn’t imagine that any place could top Madre Selva.  Collectively, the group had already found over sixty species of herps, but past trips to both research stations have netted over one hundred species.  Could we too hit that mark?

Another boat ride, this time back up the Amazon and a return to the rum distillery for lunch.  I noticed the family in the very intimate process of building their new boat and in my limited Spanish, asked about the process.  I was told that they used all local materials, including “la brea”, or tar, used to seal the seams.  I was floored to witness this.

The boy's lime slingshot
She heats up tar to be used in sealing the boat
Her husband poses with Mike
And the daughter processes fruit.  The scraps fall to the ground where they are eaten by pigs, dogs, and chickens

After lunch and our good-byes, we then motored toward a small village called Indiana.  A gang of mototaxis awaited us as we stumbled off the boat; they would take us across the isthmus between the Amazon River and the Rio Napo to the town of Mazan.  Our boat from Mazan to Santa Cruz was not large enough to take the entire group, so a few of us (Matt & Alan Ignoffo, Shawn LaRochelle, Matt Cage & I) stayed behind for the second round.  While we waited, we walked around Mazan a bit, and I thought it was a fascinating little town.

I'm actually not sure what Shawn had in mind here, but it worked for me

Before long, the boat returned to take us from the confluence of the Rio Napo and a smaller tributary that squiggles its way northwest (I do not know if it even has a name).  We took this tributary, passing a number of small settlements and homesteads along its banks until we reached the trailhead for Santa Cruz.  This trail was about one mile long through primary rainforest.  We caught up with the first wave of explorers who had already claimed their tambos.  I was lucky once again to have a tambo all to myself (!!!), and if you think for a moment that I had to settle for sloppy seconds, you are dead wrong.  You simply cannot go wrong at this beautiful place.

Santa Cruz by day
Santa Cruz by night
Steps from my tambo
My tambo. Pinch me

Since it was the middle of the day by the time we reached Santa Cruz, we took it easy and stayed around the station.  Matt Ignoffo grabbed his fancy microfishing setup and tried his hand at catching some of the small fish we could see in the site’s pond.  After quickly catching a small wolf fish, he was unsuccessful bringing anything else in.  I used his long-handled net and swept the banks as best as I could with nothing but a few tiny tetras to show for it.  We could see small cichlids swimming around and I wanted to catch one in order to identify it.  The sun was directly overhead and the heat was oppressive.


That’s when this young girl showed up - and showed us up.  She was a daughter of the facility’s caretaker.  Around twelve years of age, she began yanking cichlid after cichlid out of that pond using nothing but a stick, some string, and a hook with a bit of worm on the end.  She wore a big smile on her face knowing full well she was embarrassing this group of white idiots.  I like cichlids a lot, but I’m not an expert by any stretch.  These might have been Cichlasoma amazonarum, or the Amazon cichlid.



That night, as we prepared for our first night of herping at Santa Cruz, some members of the group began displaying some concern that no one had seen a bushmaster (Lachesis muta) yet, and lamenting the idea that it may not happen on the trip.  The bushmaster, known by locals as shushúpe, is a truly iconic snake of the Amazon.  It is a light brown snake clad in large, dark, triangular blotches and spends its nights in ambush, appearing very much like a lifeless pile of debris.  It is the largest pit viper in the world and the largest venomous snake in the Western Hemisphere, growing to over ten feet in length.  With its size come large fangs that deliver an extremely potent venom, though the species isn’t known to be very defensive toward humans.  Its bite is usually reserved for its prey, and I can only imagine how many times the sight of a bushmaster’s menacing eyes represented the final moments of life for some small mammal.


I have no shame in admitting that while the prospect of finding a bushmaster excited me, it wasn’t as “do-or-die” as it was for some of the others in the group.  I’m a pretty serious snake guy but the allure of the bushmaster hadn’t quite gotten me over the barrel.  I mean, I was finding Erythrolamprus.  And Helicops.  And other super cool snakes that suffer from expectedness.  Nevertheless, I felt the pulse that the others shared and it was contagious.  Plus, a part of me did not want to spend nearly two weeks in the jungles of Peru and NOT see the mythical shushúpe .


Shawn set a lofty goal of finding one coral snake per day (we had already found two on consecutive nights at Madre Selva) and made it clear that for each day without a coral snake, he would willingly accept a kick in the nuts.  So the pressure was on him to deliver.


A typical evening


As in Madre Selva, the herps came full force at Santa Cruz, beginning on night one. While crossing a shallow creek, I spotted an adult Surinam toad (Pipa pipa) in the water, and wouldn't you believe, I did not have my net. Alan tried to catch it by hand which is a futile effort no matter how you look at it, but I had to tip my hat to him. I would proceed to this same stretch of creek each night in hopes of finding the frog again.


A mating pair of stick insects
Leptodactylus, but not sure which species
Anolis fuscoauratus?
I saw a LOT of big millipedes, but only one like this, and I really liked it
A colossal terrestrial snail the size of a grapefruit
There's a very interesting story about how this absolutely stunning Langsdorff's coral snake (Micrurus langsdorffi) came into our temporary possession, but sometimes, what happens at Santa Cruz stays at Santa Cruz (also, Shawn was spared kicks to the groin this evening)
Red vine snake, or tropical flat snake (Siphlophis compressus). Definitely a bucket lister.
Wucherer's ground snake (Xenopholis scalaris)
Head details 
Collared ground snake (Atractus collaris), or as I like to call it, the Peruvian Storeria occipitomaculata

One of many Peruvian black scorpions (Tityus asthenes)

During the second night, Mike and I hiked for several hours.  We hiked some longer trails and a few shorter, "in-between" trails.  Among these was the shushupita trail, or "littlshushúpe". Exhausted and without big finds, we trudged back to the main building, where most of the rest of the group were sitting at a table. No one asked how we did, which was strange. I noticed that the bottle opener for our drinks had broke and I inquired as to whether or not we had another opener and I was ignored. Mike and I stood there, mildly confused. What were we, invisible? Then I noticed that nearly everyone had a beer. And then Shawn flashed a glance and asked the rest, "Should we tell them?"

These jerks were giving Mike and I the silent treatment because Shawn had found a young bushmaster, ON THE SHUSHUPITA TRAIL, not long before Mike and I had walked it. It was all in good fun and we all shared some laughs. The next day, we photographed the bushmaster as well as a few other snakes we had found between several groups.

The bushmaster in situ, before being collected for photos (photo by Shawn LaRochelle)
“The great moment had arrived.  I was going to see a bushmaster!” - Raymond Ditmars, Thrills of a Naturalist’s Quest (1932)
A large adult Bothrops asper, arguably more dangerous that the bushmaster.
Aquatic coral snake (Micrurus surinamensis)...once again, Shawn's cohones remained intact
Absolute stunner rainbow boa (large adult)
White-naped earthsnake (Atractus snethlagaea)...maybe?
Collared tree runner (Plica plica)

The frog diversity within the immediate vicinity of the Santa Cruz station is remarkable.

Immature map treefrog (Boana geographica)
White-lined leaf frog (Phyllomedusa vaillantii)
Another juvenile map treefrog
This frigging thing.  Biggest smooth-sided toad (Rhaebo guttatus) I have ever seen and first in the wild.  Easily eight inches long and full of hot air (literally).  I grew tired of trying to get a good photograph since by this time of late afternoon the mosquitoes were getting bad

Late that evening, everyone met at the main building to kick back with a cold beverage or four and relax in all of our sweaty splendor.  I perked up when someone began talking about the “Peruvian face peelers”, because just the sound of that invoked gore.  It was time for spooky campfire stories.


Evidently, beginning in July of 2023, horrifying, mysterious creatures were creating havoc in the Loreto region, not far from where we were.  These creatures were described as being six feet tall or greater, with elongated heads and glowing yellow eyes.  They wore dark hoods and hovered above the ground up to several meters, attacking innocent villagers.  In one case, a fifteen-year-old girl was assaulted by a face-peeler and suffered a neck injury while escaping.  One community leader stated, “I encountered one up close.  His visage was scarcely discernible.  I witnessed his entire body suspended about a meter above the ground.”  Entire villages were terrified to go outside, especially at night.


Defending against these alien-like creatures proved ineffective.  “The aliens seem impervious to harm.  I fired at one twice, yet he emerged unscathed and vanished.  We are living in constant dread”, lamented the community leader.  Reports of immunity to bullets made headlines in Iquitos, where the military geared up to investigate.  It would take ten hours by river for the military to reach the village of Haikito, one of the locations of the purported face peelers.  After an initial investigation, the military had no answers for the small village.  The mystery deepened and the local people were left feeling helpless.


That night, I was lulled to sleep by the rainforest cacophony, hoping that thoughts of a grotesque flying monster wouldn’t mutate into a nightmare.


The following night, I joined Matt & Alan Ignoffo, Mike, and Simon on a jungle excursion.  After a few hours, Mike turned his attention to a creature in some vegetation near a large dead tree.  I approached to see what it was he was looking at around the same time he called us over.  When my eyes locked onto it, I was nearly frozen in place.  It was a large, dark creature that appeared as though it were made of flames.  From its large head sprouted dark hair longer than its body, and it gnashed its ugly jaws from which it exhaled a putrid stench.  Its long, skinny legs sported sharp claws which seemed designed to rip flesh from bone.  It stared right at me, but didn’t move.  In a fleeting bout of courage, I made the rash decision to make contact with this being.  With my body and soul trembling, I offered my hand.  


I touched the creature’s body. It was cold.  At first, it remained still, offering a glimpse of hope that a solemn connection could be made.  But in an instant, the creature lashed out.  It began flailing its arms and legs wildly, swinging its claws toward my face.  Then it let out a scream like I had never heard before.  By now, the entire group was beyond terrified.  Our screams echoed through the dark rainforest as we tried to get as far away from this creature as possible.  I started to run, and foolishly stopped to look behind me.  That’s when I watched this creature rise up and take flight.  It began to chase us, wide-eyed, and with outreached claws.  I saw my life flash before my eyes and came to grips that this was how I was going to die.  A grisly death at the hand of a Peruvian face peeler.

A shot of the face peeler as we ran for our lives

Miraculously, we all escaped with our lives.  When the dust settled, there was a large insect sitting where the face peeler had just been.  And then we realized that the face peeler was actually a huge Harlequin beetle (Acrocinus longimanus).  That was awkward.

But in all seriousness, not one but two harlequin beetles were found and they created quite a scene (including face attacks) that I will never forget.

Harlequin beetle (Photo by Simon Miller)
A third harlequin beetle found by a young boy a couple of days later

As for the mystery of the face peelers?  Well, I didn't make that up.  According to several news articles,  the "face peelers" were just goons hired by illegal gold miners to scare away the locals.  Supposedly, some even wore jetpacks to mimic spirits and the remote villagers, having never seen or heard of a jetpack, lost their minds.  This sounds ludicrous.  The real identities remain at large.

On the same night we were nearly taken out of commission by the harlequin beetles, we hiked down to a swamp even Mike hadn't been to before in eighteen previous trips.  The swamp was full of frogs, and I entered the water and slowly made my way across to the other side.

Clown treefrog (Dendropsophus sp.)
Orinoco lime treefrog (Sphaenorhynchus lacteus)
Another of many Boana
It wasn't my intention, but I woke this sleeping Amazon kingfisher

I believe it was the final night at Santa Cruz when I hiked to the Pipa pipa creek for the last time to attempt to find that frog.  Matt & Alan Ignoffo, Mike, and Mark joined.  The image of that frog immersed in the creek was hard to shake.  I desired a more appropriate photo than the one I had managed a few evenings prior, one of its rear end poking out from some dead leaves after it had escaped the beam of light from my headlamp.  So when we approached the creek, I spent more than a bit of time scanning the water.  I didn't see a Pipa, but I did spot a brown-banded watersnake (Helicops angulatus), its body intertwined in the submerged detritus and head periscoping out toward us.  I practically dove forward to catch it, causing the murky water to breach my boots for the first time on the trip.  Immediately and repeatedly, the snake began biting.  It was uncomfortable, bordering on painful.  But I had it, and we took a few voucher shots before releasing it back to its watery home.
Me with my hands full.  Photo by Mike Pingleton

Some of our final finds:
Another of the countless tarantulas
Monkey lizard (Polychrus, probably marmoratus).  Oops
Our third rainbow boa. I caught this one on our final night hike
This giant monkey treefrog (Phyllomedusa bicolor) was a true giant.

This may be Thecadactylus, but I'm not sure.  It was on my tambo and represented my final herp find of the trip.

Before I wrap this up, I’m happy to report that we DID find the electric eel.  A single fish, confined to an isolated stream bend.  It poked the posterior portion of its body out from a submerged burrow in the bank several times, giving us a great perspective of its lifestyle and ancient ways.  Spending time with this marvelous animal, deep in the jungle in the depths of the night, really underscored my love of the rainforest and strengthened my commitment to bring awareness to this fascinating place.  Humans must find ways of protecting these areas in a time of overpopulation, resource exploitation, and greed.  I like to think this is likely, but I have seen some of the worst of humanity.  


One way of getting involved is to support Project Amazonas (www.projectamazonas.org).  You can also book a trip through them @ MT Amazon Expeditions (www.mtamazon.com).  Alternatively, you may book a trip through Christoph Meyer @ “Wildlife Tours Peru” on Facebook.  Christoph is super professional and knowledgeable and goes out of his way to ensure that his clients have the time of their lives.  

Christoph as he appears 80% of the time

Mike and Alan even wrote a poem about him during our time in the jungle:


“There once was a man named Christoph

Who never once was pissed off

He went to college

To gain rainforest knowledge

Until a caiman took his bits off”


My time in the Peruvian Amazon was up, but I’ll return one day.  There is an anaconda with my name on it, lurking just below the surface.


P.S...I can't wrap this up without a few outtakes.

With the elusive David Myers
Unoriginal shot with a tailless whipscorpion on my face
Bushmaster meditation with Shawn LaRochelle (we did not find a coral snake on the last day but gave him a reprieve, he's a good guy)
A big frog
"Seafood suck"
This venom consists of hemotoxins, neurotoxins, and Pingletoxins