About thirty minutes north on the bumpy road from Pompeya is the pleasant village of Limoncocha, where neat cabins are set at regular intervals, some bordered by trimmed hedges and carefully tended lawns.

Places to visit. Just a short walk from the village is the Reserva Biologica Limoncocha, conserving 46 square kilometres of rainforest and swamps around the light-green waters of Laguna Limoncocha. The lake used to be a good place for spotting caiman, but when Occidental Petroleum developed five oil fields near here in 1992, the blasting and drilling within spitting distance badly disturbed wildlife populations. Pressure from local groups, particularly the Secoya, has tempered oil exploitation here, allowing a formidable diversity of bird species to re-establish themselves - over 460 species have been recorded, including several endemics such as the Martin kingfisher. The reserve's other lake, the black-water Laguna Yanacocha, lying to the east enveloped in vegetation, is steeped in local myth and is rumoured to be home to especially large anacondas.