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Published: October 28th 2008
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Refugio Amazonas
The eco lodge we stayed in Right, this is a huge blog entry! I´m so awestruck by my trip to the jungle that I´ve gone crazy writing. I´ve no desire to bore my friends and family to death so I´ve done a quick summary. If you want to know more read the sections below.
*Met up with new group and travelled toa lodge called Refugio Amazonas, a couple of hours upstream from Puerto Monanoldo.
*I loved my time in the jungle, it is so beautiful!
*We went on a night walk hunting for tarantulas
*I´m hooked on Brazil nuts!
*Our guide was fantastic. Very informative and good fun. I´ve come away with a new appreciation of sustainable living and respecting mother nature.
*Swimming in the river was loads of fun. Even if it is full of scary creatures....
Farewell to my family and hello to my new group
It was time to say a sad goodbye to Auri and Luis and join the tour group I had booked for the rest of my trip around Peru. We met in a hotel a couple of days ago and all hit it off straight away. They are all very easy going and friendly. A
Tarantula!
This spider was massive! Very scary! mix aussies, swedes, and poms… 7 of us in total and all much the same age group… too easy!
Amazonas
A couple of hours flying and we landed in the amazon. Wow, the amazon! It´s one of those things everyone dreams about but you can never imagine actually being there. Now, the amazon is pretty bloody massive to say the least. We were in an area a couple of hours upstream from from Puerto Manoldo. As soon as you step off the plane the heat and the humidity smacks you full force. There was no escaping it, it was extremely hot!
Purto Maldonado is a large province in Peru but has a very small population, perhaps 3000 spread all over the place in small communities. We met up with a local tour guide, Nilton who taught us about local trades, Brazil nut harvesting and forrestation issues in the area whilst we made our way by boat to the eco lodge we had booked.
The boat ride was awesome. Gorgeous landscape, loads of birds and interesting trees and fauna to look at. Peru has the second largest number of species of birds in the world, something
Jungle walks
This jungle is relatively young and has lots of low growth like 1300 different species. That´s a lot! Interestingly we saw a flock of macaws eating the clay on the side of the river. Apparently it counters the toxins in the plants and seeds they eat and is normal animal behaviour. Not sure if he was having us on but apparently some of the local tribes have been known to mix the clay in to food on occasion too. Very interesting!
The lodge
I was very excited to arrive at the lodge. As the noise of the boat dies down you can hear the sounds of the jungle. Birds, insects, crickets, and leaves blowing in the wind. Words can´t describe it but it was amazing! As we walked to the lodge we were expecting a basic outdoor accomodation but I was blown away when the pathway oponed and we arrived at the lodge. It was a huge, wooden structure in the middle of the jungle. All of the bed rooms had one wall open to the jungle, so you could experience nature fully. Stunning. A little scary if your nervous about bugs and spiders though!!!
Night walk in the jungle
I have to say
Storm coming in
It was lovely swimming in the river in the rain there was a bit of tension in the group as we made our way into the jungle after dinner. Dan in particular was scared of spiders. In the two or so hours we had been at the lodge we´d already encountered numerous weird looking bugs, insects and a few frogs in the bedrooms. Senses were fully alert and there was a mix of excitement, anticipation and nervousness as we went in search of the tarantula´s nest.
Unfortunately I´d left my torch in Puerto Maldonado so I stuck close to Nilton up the front. Not even two meters into the trail and we spotted a coral snake, tiny little thing but with brilliant colours. Then we saw the ferocious bullet ants, leaf cutter ants, loads of spiders, frogs and the infamous tarantula.....
We tip toed towards the tarantula nest, a pile of straw like material that had been collected by the spider. There was a gaping hole in the front of it. Only thing was, we weren´t sure if it was in there or out hunting, perhaps walking right next to our feet..... eeeeeck! Huddled down, in total silence (apart form the heavy breathing of 8 terrified tourists in
Macaws
A group of macaws eating clay by the riverside the jungle) we waited for an appearance.
Nilton grabbed a twig and gently poked in the nest, teasing the spider out by pretending to be prey. Now, I´m from Australia and would like to think that I am not too bad with spiders. Had my fair share of huntsmen and whitetails in my room over the years but this was like nothing else..... this spider was massive!!! Very scary. As you can imagine it was like the opening of a film at Leicester square, cameras flashing all over the place.
Brazil nut harvesting
I´m totally hooked on Brazil nuts. They are delicious! And I´ve learnt all about how they are collected, harvested, and sold to support the local communities in the jungle. If your keen to know more then read on....
The basic facts
*Brazil nut trees grow up to 30-45m tall and are some of the tallest trees in the jungle.
*After 60 years they begin to mature and bare the pods containing the nuts that we know as Brazil nuts.
*These nuts are encased in a pod the size of a large grapefruit. Each pod can contain between 15-25 nuts
*A falling pod can
Gold mining
The locals hunt for gold in the rivers using questionable methods involving mercury kill a man so helmets are worn during collection seasons
*There is only one animal that can penetrate the pod to access and redistribute the nuts for fertilisation. this is called an Agouti.
*Women are responsible for harvesting the nuts out of the pods and can process thousands a day using a nut cracking machine similar to a wood press.
*The nuts are sold in 70kg bags as standard and they fetch next to nothing for the locals. The middle men traders get all the profits.
*Locally they are sold plain, with a light dusting of sugar or sweet cocoa. Yum!
Exploring the jungle
Waking up at 5 am in a sheltered but open room to natural daylight and the sound of the jungle is a truly inspiring experience. Once you relax about the bugs and let go it is so enjoyable and beautiful.
During day walks we saw some huge, really old (500 yrs?) trees and learnt a lot about the dependencies in eco systems. I particularly liked the the fig strangler trees. This tree grows next to an established tree, with it´s roots growing up around the host tree until it climbs up
The lodge bedrooms
So spacious and lovely with the open wall out to the jungle. the trunk, eventually suffocating and encompassing the host tree. The inner tree rots, providing nutrients for the fig strangler to grow. Eventually this results in large open cavities inside the fig strangler.
One interesting fact I learnt in jungle climate is that it is not possible to tell the age of a tree by it´s rings. As there is little difference in temperature to mark annual seasons no rings are formed. Estimates on the trees we saw (pictured) are at least 300 to 500 years old.
Swimming in the rivers
One afternoon we were challenged by the staff from the lodge to play a game of football. It was hilarious! 7 barely fit gringos against two teams of super fit acclimatised Peruvians.... you can guess the outcome. We were thrashed! But, it was so much fun! We played on a bit of farm land across the river from the lodge in 35-40 degree heat and god know´s how much humidity. Crazy.
Our tour leader, Elard, and our jungle guide, Nilton spent ages freaking us out about all the things that live in the river. However, there was no doubt in anyone´s mind that we were
Brazil nuts
Opening the brazil nut pod going swimming after our humiliating thrashing at football. Again, this was awesome. No cayman or piranhas to be found. Just good fun messing about having mud fights. Later that night we went cayman spotting in the very same river.... wonder if we would have been so keen to swim if we´d done that the night before.
You´ll notice in the pictures the river is bright red in colour. There had been heavy rains up stream and the soil was carried down stream providing much needed nutrients to the area is the land is not very fertile.
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Julie
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OH MY HAT
Jac's the hairs on the back of my neck were standing up just from the thought of sleeping in a room with one wall missing..... then you got to the ants and i thought scary but would be awesome to see ok ok i think i could cope with this adventure BUT the spider mmm mmm mmm no sir'ee, you witnessed first hand what i was like with the huntsman in Taya's room imagine me with the tarantula - there would be no way i would've gone to sleep that night. hehe keep these blogs coming i almost feel like i'm there with ya. Love ya friend