Laguna Azul at Sauce

Laguna Azul, also called Laguna Sauce, is a lake of around three and a half square kilometres in the low hills south-east of Tarapoto, sitting at only about six hundred metres, which is why the water is warm enough to swim in all day - unusual in a country where most lakes are freezing highland ones. The journey is part of it: the road from Tarapoto drops to the Huallaga at Shapaja and crosses on a small vehicle ferry, then climbs to the village of Sauce on the shore. Boats do circuits of the lake, there are jet skis and pedal boats, lodges line one bank, and it functions as the beach resort of a region with no coast. Bird life is good around the margins and the surrounding hills are still partly forested, though much of the catchment is now farmland. Weekends and Peruvian holidays are busy with domestic visitors.

What you actually see

• The lake - about three and a half square kilometres, warm enough to swim all year.
• The ferry - the vehicle crossing of the Huallaga at Shapaja on the way in.
• The boats - circuits, pedal boats and jet skis working from the Sauce shore.
• The shoreline - lodges on one bank, farmland and remnant forest around.

When to go

May to September is drier, but this is a wet region year-round. Weekdays are much quieter than weekends and Peruvian holidays. A day trip or an overnight.

Honest expectations

The ferry crossing adds unpredictable waiting time. Motorised boats and jet skis make it noisy on busy days. The catchment has been heavily cleared, so this is a leisure lake, not wilderness. Standard tropical precautions apply for insects.

Nearby

Tarapoto is north-west; the Huallaga and Shapaja are on the road in.