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Published: March 31st 2006
Lake Condenado
The dug-out canoes we used to row around on the ox-bow lake.Where to even begin?! First off, thanks to all for the birthday wishes!! I got all your emails and ecards and the like and really appreciated every thought and well-wish, etc. I had a fabulous birthday, but I´ll get to that in a minute as, in order to be consistent, I need to try and at least pick up where my last blog left off.
So, when we last met, I had just gotten back from Machu Picchu (still not over that one!) and was back in Cuzco on the night of 26 March. Monday the 27th began pretty much like any other day with nothing specific on the agenda. I was up much earlier than Nancy, as per usual, and after a shower decided to go for a walk and find some breakfast. I figured there must be some places open since it was a work day and therefore people in general would be out and about earlier going to school, work, what-have-you.. But alas, practically everything was closed. I saw a few open markets, but not a whole lot else. Thankfully I found a place on the Plaza de Armas where Nancy and I´d had lunch last week
(The Yaku Mama Cafe), so I went in ordered myself a pancake (read: crépe) with coffee, fresh fruit, toast, with juice and got to watch the heart of the city of Cuzco come alive. It was a fantastic morning - a little crisp, but sunny and just what I needed after having so many thoroughly exhausting (but rewarding!) days of strenuous physical activity.
Other than that, not much went on... We had lunch out with Aileen & Kirsten, visited a market briefly, laid about for a chunk of the afternoon, a quick briefing on what to expect with regards to the next couple of days itinerary, and then had dinner out with those who were left of our original group (Aileen, Kirstin, Imogene, & Marissa - Marissa was the only one left who wouldn´t be joining us in the Amazon trek having already done an excursion into the rainforest in Brazil prior to joining us for the Inca Trail).
Tuesday the 28th is when things started to become interesting again. For starters, it was my birthday (yay!) and what a fabulous day it was...
We met up Tuesday morning for breakfast at 9am and were on our
way to the airport by 10:30 or so for our 1-hour flight to Puerto Maldonado in the southern part of the Amazon jungle. A quick but humorous kerfuffle: There was a bit of a problem with my checking in - apparently the LAN Peru rep didn´t look at my passport closely and checked me in as Collin Miller on a flight to Lima. Thankfully we got the mistake corrected before my bag made it onto the wrong flight.
At the airport we were met by stifling humidity as well as our guide, Daniel, who loaded us onto a bus and drove us through the city to the GAP office where we could transfer our junk for the jungle into smalled (and far more manageable) duffle bags. I can´t understand it, but I would swear that my bag has gotten heavier since arriving which makes no sense as I´ve bought next to nothing so far, and I feel like I´m wearing more of the heavier clothes... This is a phenomenon I´ve discovered tends to occur on overseas trips and I´m wondering if there´s some sort of hidden law of physics that might explain it...?
Anyhow, after scaling down our
Inside a Strangler Fig
This is looking up from inside a tree that was destroyed by a Strangler Fig. The tree is really no more, but the Strangler Fig has molded itself around where the tree was and now forms almost a tree itself. Daniel thought this would have taken hundreds of years to happen. belongings, we were driven a short way to a small boat dock where they loaded us into a fiberglass boat and we began our 3-hour journey up the Tambopata River to the lodge that would be our home for the next couple of days.
Like the Inca Trail, I feel it´s going to be next to impossible to describe really just how exciting this part of the trip was, but I´ll do my best.
The boat trip alone was a thrill... We saw a caiman (alligator), a capybara (the world´s largest rodent that can weigh-in at over 130 pounds), turtles, and countless birds. It was like being on a water safari. Daniel (our guide) was superb - able to spot things from a mile off with his bionic eyes and point them out to us. It was sunny and humid still, but the lilac-scented breeze from the speed of boat really made the ride comfortable.
We had to make a stop at a checkpoint along the river bank where we climbed up a long wooden staircase, filled in a guestbook of sorts with our name, occupation, destination, length of visit, etc. and then got our passports stamped
View from the Riverboat
On our way to the lodge... (for about the 80th time this trip). At that point we were only about another 30 minutes from the lodge.
The lodge. How to describe it... Would "paradise" or "utopia" be too strong? How about "perfect", "amazing", and "freaking cool"? I honestly can´t think of any good analogies for it... I would say that it´s kind of like adult camp, but that doesn´t even come close to doing it justice. I think I may have to just say it´s one of those places you have to see to believe and leave it at that.
From the boat all we could see at first was a long wooden staircase leading up from the bank of the river. After climbing it, we found ourselves on a stone pathway which led a little ways in to the heart of the lodge which is comprised of 14 bungalows (or cabins), a bar, a dining room, a kitchen, and some other staff buildings.
It is called the Libertador Tambopata Lodge and is one of 9 lodges of its kind in the Tambopata River region of the Amazon making this one of the top destinations for eco-tourism in South America.
The bungalows
The Mosquito Net
I seriously want one of these now... feature cold water showers, no electricity, or any other major modern conveniences (however they do at least have toilet seats on the bowls which is more than I can say for most places in Peru). Bedrooms in the double bungalows share a common roof with open space between so basically there´s no such thing as "true" privacy here. Beds are all provided with their own mosquito nets as you can never be too careful (I´ve come to enjoy sleeping under it so much I think I might like one for home). The pathways outside are lit at night by naked torches and the rooms all by candlelight and/or kerosene lamps. Basically to be happy here, you need to be pretty okay with totally roughing it which naturally for me translates into a near-heaven experience.
The lodge also has a baby spider monkey on the grounds which they are looking after until he can take care of himself. His name is Wally (as in "and the Beaver"). He´s only 9 mons old and absolutely adorable (except when he pees on the ground and then proceeds to lick it up...then he´s pretty gross, but that didn´t happen too often - the
Caiman Siting
A caiman we saw on the riverbank along the way to the lodge - Daniel told us it was rather unusual to see them during the day since they're noctornal, being a cold-blooded animal, they sometimes come out to regulate their body temperature in the sun. first time this happened, Kirsten´s response was, "Oh come on now, nobody´s
that thirsty"). They keep him in a cage at night to protect him from possible predators, but otherwise he just wanders the grounds and will come running out of the brush and up the legs of anyone going past if feeling in the need of a little affection. Didn´t take long for us all to fall in love.
After we arrived on Tuesday, we checked into our rooms, were shown a short slide presentation about the rainforest, and then headed out for a "night walk" before dinner. Since a large number of Amazonian creatures are nocturnal, naturally the best time to try and spot them is after dark so we braved getting positively eaten alive by mosquitoes or, worst yet, carried off by some for the chance to see some of the night wonders of the Amazon.
Through the course of the walk we saw trantulas and multitudes of other types of spiders, but unfortunately that was about it - oh, except for the bat that flew into our midst at one point when we turned off our flashlights just to listen to the sounds of
Trail to the Ox-Bow Lake
The start of the trail we were going to take inland to the ox-bow lake. Daniel (our guide) on the right. the forest which was somewhat unnerving. The group that took the walk after us also spotted some night monkeys and an armadillo. That was fine, though, because the next day made up for it.
The dinner they served us when we got back was fab, especially by candlelight, and we´d even brought a couple of bottles of wine which we cracked into one in part to celebrate my "big day". After dinner, we all retired to the bar for drinks, a round of "Happy Birthday to You", and even some presants which I thought was just BEYOND sweet.
We had an early morning ahead of us (wake-up knock was coming at 5:30am), so we went to bed somewhat on the early-side for us and I slept better than I think I have in weeks...
So Wednesday came with our 5:30 awakening, breakfast at 6, and then us back on a river boat around 6:30 or so to explore Lake Condenado (an ox-bow lake about 15 minutes or so upriver) and the surrounding rainforest.
According to the lodge guide we were provided, ox-bow lakes are:
...old-remnant river courses cut-off from the main river by the effects of erosion and the constant shifting of river channels.
To put it more plainly, Lake Condenado used to
Amazonian Tree
This tree has its fruit growing right out of the trunk instead of on the ends of branches. Just thought that was facinating... be part of the Tambopata River, but now it's not. The journey there proved to be a thrill ride complete with a siting of red howler monkeys (which Daniel told us were not often seen), saddleback tamarin monkeys, several colonies of army ants, the largest tree in the Amazon, and even a poison arrow frog (a VERY small specimen that Daniel also said was rare to find). The natives used to put it on the tips of their arrows as one drop could kill as many as 10 men. We also got to climb inside what was left of a tree that had been worked over by a Strangler Fig (got a picture of the inside of that which I'll post).
Out on the lake we saw a Mealy Parrot, a Kingfisher, sleeping bats, as well as a strange bird called a
Hoatzin which is usually difficult to spot given its extreme shyness. It's a large bird with oddly-colored feathers and wings that apparently don't allow it to fly very well, so instead it uses them along with the little prehistoric-like claws it has on its wing-joints to propel itself up trees. We saw Angel Fish in the lake
as well (I always sort of wondered if they did actually live in the wild somewhere, or if they were instead confined to pet shops and classroom fishtanks).
After we returned, I spent most of the afternoon relaxing. Around 3pm a group went over to a nearby farm, but I opted to stay back at the lodge, have a nap, and do some birdwatching from the porch of our little bungalow. I saw at least 6 different birds that I didn't recognize (a couple of which I still need to try and identify), a
Paradise Tanager (GORGEOUS bird - try and look up a picture if you can), as well as 2 Scarlet Macaws that flew directly overhead. Apparently the group at the farm actually got to see them in a tree which I wonder if it could have been the same ones I saw flying... In any case, one got a fantastic picture that he's going to send me. Naturally, all these parrot sitings have made me miss my own bird, but I'll be home soon enough.
That night before dinner we went out on a caiman (alligator)-watching adventure. Loaded into a riverboat, we motored up and down
The Biggest Tree in the Amazon
All of us by the biggest tree - notice the sexy Wellington boots we had to wear due to the extreme mud on the trail. Left to right: Kirsten, Imogene, Me, Nancy, Aileen, Paul, & Andreas. the river with one of the guides scanning the shoreline with a giant spotlight hoping to catch some caiman's on the riverbank. We got to see quite a few as well as one of those giant rodents again and a night-bird of some kind (I know we were told the name of it, but it elludes me at the moment). There are a decent amount of baby caimans out right now and so the guide was able to actually grab one of them and bring it on the boat so we could take pictures as well as even pet it, if we were so inclined which I was. It was definitely a fun and exotic way to spend an evening.
Another dinner, round of drinks, and fabulous night's sleep brought us to our final morning. We had breakfast and then boarded the riverboat one last time to transport us back down the Tambopata. We took a bus from a different port this time and 45 minutes later we were back in Puerto Maldonado where we picked up our original bags and were then left at the airport for our flight back to Lima marking the end of the trip,
Jungle Leaves
Just liked the looks of this... more or less.
We arrived in Lima yesterday around 4:30 or so, had dinner out at a local restaurant (food was really good), and now today will just be killing time until my flight out tonight at midnight. Not particularly looking forward to a red-eye flight (I really hate them), but I'm also feeling ready to come home. Nancy's still up in our room - she was just waking up when I was leaving to come down here and get this blog going. I don't think we have much of a plan today, but I'm sure it includes some shopping and eating. We might do a Lima city tour, but I don't know if a final decision had been made on that.
Since I haven't mentioned my grandfather in a few entries, I'll just provide a quick update on that here - he's been pretty much holding his own these past couple of weeks, but the impression I've gotten is that it's still hard to tell exactly what we should expect going forward or how much longer he'll be able to remain with us. My plan right now is that I'll be home in PA through next Tuesday.
Another Amazonia Tree
Saw a ton of birds in this tree on the lodge grounds. Tuesday night I'm taking a flight down to Atlanta to see him and will be working from there through the end of the week, returning on Sunday. So please continue to keep him and my whole family in your prayers.
I would say that this would be my last blog, however I will probably post just one more with respect to this trip when I get home to cover some missing items and also to make some closing commentary which I don't feel I can adequately do while still sitting in Peru, if that makes sense. So, with that I'll just say goodbye for now and enjoy the pictures!
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Steve
non-member comment
I knew it
I knew you would see tarantulas.