Puerto Maldonado, Peru

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September 2, 2005
We are picked up at the airport and shuttled to the lodge´s office. We are awaiting others for the 2 hour commute to the lodge so we head into town to buy some snacks at the market. I get separated from Dan and our guide while they buy flip flops. They are both amazed at how I can be the only white girl in all of Peru and still manage to disappear so well. We take a 45 minute bus ride then a 45 minute boat ride to our lodge in the middle of the rain forest. We see caiman (baby alligators) and toucans along the way. The water is infested with piranhas. Guess we won´t be doing alot of swimming here. We are served lunch on the boat which is more like a big canoe. It is a local rice dish wrapped in a banana leaf. Actually pretty tasty. The lodge is nice and bigger than I had expected. We have a private cabana with a private bathroom however there are no doors or windows and the ceilings all have open rafters so we can hear everything going on with our neighbors. Our front door is only a curtain as is the "door" to the bathroom. We have a hammock in our room and 2 mosquito netted beds. I´m having MET flashbacks already. No electricity and this time to top it off - no hot water either. We set out immediately for a hike to the observatory tower which is 130 feet high. We are above the trees and the sunset is awesome. Not digging the way the tower sways in the wind, we only stay up here long enough for a few pictures. Dinner is pretty bland but the bar does have 2 for 1 happy hour drinks. Yee Haw! We retire for the evening with our lanterns but the bugs aren´t as bad as Belize. Maybe it´s the cooler weather or the fact that all the bldgs are built 3 feet above ground.

September 3, 2005
I wake up at 4:00 today to the sound of toots. At first I thought it was Dan but after yelling at him to cut it out, I learn that it´s our neighbor. I´m thoroughly disgusted and at the same time relieved that it´s not my guy. This is the earliest morning yet. Aren´t you supposed to relax on vacations?? The early hours bite but we are now on the animals time clocks. We take a catamaran out on the river to bird watch for way too many hours. The highlight is the giant river otter family that is having a fish breakfast but sadly they aren´t close enough to see as well as I´d like, even with binoculars. We fish for piranha with a cane pole and raw meat but don´t catch any. We hike after lunch. There is an 86 year old widow in our group named Ralph. I am amazed that he is out seeing the world alone and very impressed with his ability to tackle the steep steps and long, slippery trails. He does fall often but luckily doesn´t hurt himself. Being that we are 2 hours from anywhere it´s advised that we all be a little extra careful. We visit a medicinal garden and learn how to make plant potions that cure cancer, impotency, epilepsy and even how to make someone fall in love with you or keep an annoying suitor away. I attempt an ice cold shower, we do some laundry, have a spaghetti dinner (the best meal here yet) and hit the sac.

September 4, 2005
Up at 4:30 to visit the clay licks. Apparently the birds need the minerals in the clay to get rid of the toxins they get from eating non-ripe fruit. Turns out the birds I thought were parrots are actually macaws. This is really important for anyone who cares about birds, which I don´t. Watching birds peck at a clay wall for 2 hours was incredibly boring. I might have gotten 1 decent picture out of the 50 that I took. We eat breakfast, grab our bags and head down to the boat to travel back to the airport. We rush thru some great photo opps of monkeys playing in the trees to get down to the boat only to wait there for over an hour. Turns out our flight was delayed and our guide says she didn´t know about it until we had been waiting there for 45 minutes. I think she just wanted to brown nose the owner who happened to be waiting on the boat with us. While waiting on the boat we are introduced to biting gnats. They swarm us and have a human buffet. They leave little tiny blood blisters where they bite. A rain forest signature, if you will. Waiting at the airport we watch 2 teenage girls playing with a dead lizard. An ancient Mayan game perhaps??

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