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Published: April 20th 2015
Nick: After such an early night, getting up
at five a.m.was no bother. The aim of the day was to push further into the National Park, by bus and boat, through an area of sub-tropical rainforest to where our second lodge ('Pantiacolla Lodge') is located, at the base of the Pantiacolla mountains. It was clear from that start that it was a very hot and humid day indeed, as one would perhaps expect in the middle of the jungle. It was animal-adventures from the start, with Sarah spotting a whopper of a millipede in the sink, perhaps three or four inches long (I rescued him with the aid of a leaf). Fed and watered, we were back on the bus for forty five minutes or so before stopping at a remote village, our final stop for picking up any necessary supplies: torches, batteries, etc. Just outside of this town was an animal refuge for those rainforest animals that had been rescued from, say, Cusco, having been captured and sold as pets, and we were stopping by to meet some of the residents.
It is probably worth highlighting that the rescue centre itself was a relatively small affair, with only a handful of
animals and around the size of a large garden or two. The moment our bus pulled up outside, an enthusiastic spider monkey came bounding through the trees, over the short fence and managed to find his way inside the vehicle (despite the guides' best efforts to prevent this). Naturally, a fair old commotion followed suit amongst the group! He was, to say the least, not shy in front of strangers, and before knew it I had a spider monkey clambering over my head, his prehensile tail using my throat for better purchase! Fortunately his attention span was such that he was soon off to investigate other things and after a short while both he and all of us had managed to get off the bus. The rescue centre itself was such a fascinating place, with a mixture of animals; we 'met' a couple of other monkeys - a smaller capuchin monkey and a tiny tamarind monkey - all of whom were content to clamber over the visitors. There was also a young red-tailed boa constrictor, a peccary (basically, the rainforest equivalent of a boar), a pair of macaws, some tortoises and even a pygmy cayman. All of them were adorable
in their own way but the star was by far the mischievous spider monkey who was never out of trouble; for some reason he took a shine/dislike to a Japanese woman in our group and went to every effort to grab her and generally pull at her clothes whilst she flailed around shrieking; it was priceless. Given that she was wearing bright yellow leggings and top, perhaps he thought she was a banana! In addition to the animals, the centre had a garden in which they were growing/drying coca leaves such as those we were using to make tea for altitude sickness in Bolivia - big business in the Andes, although illegal elsewhere, I believe, due to the use in cocaine production.
A short drive later and we were parked up at one of the company's outposts where we each collected some wellies for the next few days, before boarding a long, narrow boat along with all of our bags, supplies for the coming days, and so on. So you can dismiss those images of jungle canoes and paddles! This was a fairly decent-sized boat with a canopy roof, an outboard motor and plenty of room for a comfortable
trip. We buzzed up the river (named the 'Madre de Dios', it is one of the many rivers that feeds into the great Amazon River and hence is part of the river basin), for half an hour or so. At this time of day, the sun was fiercely hot and we were glad of both the canopy roof and the cooling breeze, content to watch the rainforest on either side of the wide river passing us by.
[As I write this, during a post-lunch break on our third day, a group of Red Howler Monkeys has just come lumbering through the trees right out the back of our own room! A real treat to be able to see them so close; they've been a presence near our site since we got here (and long after we leave, no doubt) but have always been high in the trees and best viewed only through binoculars. Just now, they were no more than perhaps ten or so metres distant at one point. They are amazing, with thick red fur (similar to Orang-Utans) and long, down-in-the-mouth faces. Right, well, our break is nearly up and it is time to head back into the
jungle for another trek! I'll leave it with Sarah to pick the blog up from where I left off at the next opportunity...]
Sarah: After about an hour the boat pulled up, the group divided in two and we set off on our first hike in secondary rainforest. We were walking through bamboo forest, keeping an eye out for monkeys, birds, insects, peccarys and weird and wonderful bugs! We were stopping at regular intervals to hear more about particular trees, plants, inspect termite nests and marvel at the extremely hard-working ants! Before long we were stopped in our tracks as Darwin had spotted a family of squirrel monkeys. We got a good view of them with our binoculars, swinging through the trees, trying to stay as quiet as possible so as not to frighten them away. We were shown the 'walking palm' tree which can literally 'walk' by putting down new roots in order to reach a gap in the forest to get the precious light and nutrients and the 'trailing roots' die off (how much it actually 'walks' is open to debate).
Halfway through the walk we reached a dyke that had several traditional rafts made of
balsa wood, that we had seen in the museum the previous day. It was fiercely hot by this time but well-slathered with sun cream we hopped on our raft and took a turn about the little lake. The water provided an opportunity to see some different birds, including some ugly looking birds that looked a bit like turkey bodies, had silly crests, bright blue eyes and feed on fermented fruits. For this reason they are not very graceful flyers, crashing around the branches like the drunk birds that they are, therefore very easy to follow! Also on the lake was a family of horned screamers, sinister-looking birds with waggly little horns. There were all sweetness and light as we passed on the boat, but shortly after we discovered the reason for the 'screamer' part of their name - they can really make a racket! Another good sighting were the cardinals sweeping across the lake, really distinctive red white and blue birds that looked just like the French flag!
We made our way back to the river boat with Darwin pointing out the different animal tracks, including some 'cat' tracks; jaguars and ocelots! On the boat our amazing chef had
prepared another fantastic meal of chicken salad. Once again everything was cooked to perfection with the veggies perfectly al dente and it was applause all round for Orlando, the chef!
The lodge that we arrived at was only accessible by river and was in a bigger clearing than our accommodation of the previous night. Before too long we had met the resident scarlet macaw, who was a pet of an ex-worker at the lodge. Also filling the trees around the lodge was the family of red howler monkeys that Nick mentioned above. The sounds of the birds and insects in the surrounding rainforest made for a very relaxing atmosphere, until the howler monkeys started off! They sound like lions roaring, not 10kg monkeys! Our rooms were much bigger than the previous night and even included a private bathroom. There was no electricity in the rooms but we had candles and torches at the ready.
After our early start we were pretty bush-whacked but on arrival at the lodge we were offered the opportunity of an afternoon hike (our first proper 'jungle' hike) on top of the planned night hike. Given that it's not every day that you're in
the Amazon, we put our tiredness aside, grabbed our camera and binoculars and set off on a two hour hike.
We saw a lot more new sights including cicada nests which you have to be careful not to kick over as they are mounds of dirt about five inches high that the larvae can live in for years before emerging to reproduce. Jose stabbed his knife into a rubber tree and the white rubber started oozing from the trunk. We also saw more ants of all shapes and sizes including the biggest in the Amazon, the bull ant which can give quite a nip that I wouldn't fancy given the size of their jaws!
After our walk we didn't have long before our dinner of yummy veggie soup for start, meat, veggies and spaghetti for main and a heavenly chocolate pudding - we were really spoilt! We had 20 minutes after dinner to prepare for our night hike. The sky was being lit up by lightning in the distance so waterproofs were packed and welly boots donned in anticipation of a little shower. About five minutes in our waterproofs were called in to action and we were shown
the true meaning of the 'rainforest'. The rain was so fat and heavy and was slowly filling our boots and soaking us to the bone! Before it came down too hard we did spy a frog or two but then it was heads down and get back to the lodge ASAP!
We emptied our boots of four inches of water, whereas people with the full body ponchos fared much better - they may look ridiculous but they do the job! Futilely we hung out our wet clothes. With the rain still coming down and the ever-present humidity there was no drying anything! As I write after our return from the jungle, our clothes are at the laundrette in Cusco where I hope the damp smell will be removed! The storm continued all night. The lodges have mosquito mesh around the top so we could lie in our little beds watching the sky light up and hear the rain come down and it was all very atmospheric. With the rain still going at five a.m, it meant no boat trip to see the clay lick that morning, but it did give us an extra hour in bed to prepare ourselves
for day 3!
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Jean Adams
non-member comment
Banana fiend
Your wonderful description of the animal Reece had me laughing out loud . The banana lady picture was very vivid and SO funny. We are both really enjoying all your blogs. You are both very good at describing what is happening. A big thank you and more please! Do you know about the baby?? XXXX