Blogs from Madre de Dios, Peru, South America - page 8

The French girls, who jump at anything that move, had been screaming to Isabel that there was a mouse in their room... or a rat.... and it developed to become a pacarana (huge rodents that we had at the center, which escaped last week. Happens periodically... they´re crafty). Shouting "¡La pacarana es aquí!" has become commonplace. Or rather, had... the French girls, myself, and the other Laura (along with a girl who was here only for a week) are all now finished at Taricaya. It was an absolutely packed week... actually felt like several, to be honest. Lots of Americans arrived on Sunday for 2-week specials (one college student, some high schoolers)... it was packed. I spent most of my time hanging out with Isabel, Daniel, Raul, and a new temporary staff member (ornithologist) named Mauricio, ... read more

Looking forward this afternoon to the first warm shower I´ll have had since June 6 (first hot shower, not shower in general)... there´s a big group at the hotel this weekend and one room is bound to have one. :) Let´s see... backtracking to last weekend: had quite a good time at Amazon Shelter, which was about a 25 minute drive from Puerto Maldonado (it was pretty strange to be riding in a car again); it´s brand-new, the lodges were excellent, and I slept really well, plus the food was a nice change (hot dogs, hot fresh buns, lemonade, chips). Only downside was that the animal enclosures (the site is also an animal release center) were a bit smaller than ours... seemed that their money went more into the tourist and staff accomodations than the animal, ... read more

Probably, but not noticeable. I'm referring to the spider monkey that jumped on my head on Monday and started looking for bugs. Hope he didn't find any. I'll put up pictures later, but I forgot my camera in the hotel room for now. The trip here was uneventful; the long layover in NY was interesting as the terminal was full of people going to the Middle East, South America, and Ireland. LAN airlines is THE nicest airline I've ever used; friendly staff, good food (but seriously, serving supper and wine at 1 am? :) I passed on that.). Got to Lima, went through customs, rechecked in, and got on a flight to Puerto Maldonado via Cusco. Absolutely beautiful... the Andes are enormous, expansive, and look completely different from above as the towns in them are small, ... read more

Geo: -12.6034, -69.1919Edwin and a new driver picked us up to take us to the airport. We flew to the town of Puerto Maldonado in the Amazon river basin. We found the Inkaterra representatives at the tiny airport in just a few minutes. They retrieved our luggage, and we took a short bus ride with about 10 others to go to the river port. Then we all boarded a boat for a 45-minute ride on the Madre de Dios River to the Inkaterra Reserva Amazonica Lodge. As we traveled, the Inkaterra guide explained a little about the lodge. We would check in and go see our guide right away to pick out all the excursions we wanted to take while in the rainforest. The guide also gave us rubber boots to use for the rest of ... read more

It started raining as I sat on the sofa in the lodge waiting for my group to leave. It wasn’t just any rain either, it was a torrential downpour reminiscent of the rainy season and I wasn’t really all that happy to see it. As I sat and talked to the three tourists that would be making the journey up river with me, my mind wandered to my lonely backpack, the one that I had left leaning up against a tree near the river. I thought of all of my dry clothes and my electronics and my extra books and I wondered if, after nearly five exciting years on the road, the pack’s ‘water resistance’ still functioned as it did when I first bought it. I didn’t linger too long on my belongings though. The mist-filled ... read more