THE Amazon Jungle

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So, Zach, Robbie & I went to the Amazon. It was pretty ridiculous. I´m going to do my best to share everything with you but I´m sure there will be parts I forget. Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy.

We started off Wednesday morning to catch a plane to Puerto Maldanado in the Madre de Dios region of Peru. It is roughly a 40 minute plane ride over the mountains and into the jungle. We were greeted by 90 degrees and palm trees. It was a nice change of pace from the rain in Cusco. Our guide, Cesar, met us at the airport where we traveled to the port on the Madre de Dios River to catch a boat to our home for the next four days, Tambo Jungle Lodge.

It was roughly a 20 minute, scenic ride down the river to our lodge. There were many settlements along the river where locals had set up shop; simple, sufficient, and sustainable living. They all have their own farms and some even mine for gold in the river.

When we got to the lodge it was pretty empty. We arrived around 12:30 in the afternoon, were shown our humble little cabana and told to meet at the main lodge for lunch in an hour. We spent time unwinding from our travels in the hammocks in the main lodge. It was wonderful. Lunch was a very pleasant surprise. I don´t think any of us were expecting to have such delicious food. Lunch and dinner were always three course, fresh, meals. Dessert usually consisted of fresh fruit or a warm puree of something sweet.

Post lunch we set off on our first hike. Long sleeves and pants in 90 degree weather is rough but quite necessary to avoid the outrageous amounts of mosquitoes and other insects. Not too far into our hike did we realize the most trails were flooded from intense rain the past week. Still, we trekked through. We came across more dead animals then live ones on our first day, including the largest snail I´ve ever seen in my life (see pictures). We didn´t spend too much time out in the jungle that afternoon due to the flooded trails. When we headed back to the lodge our guide shared with us fruit that is grown on the property. We tried the cocoa fruit along with another fruit that tasted like rice pudding. There is an abundance of fruit that grows in the Amazon: melon, figs, plantains, bananas, papaya, pineapple, lemons, guava, acai, mangoes, grapefruit and passion fruit (maracuja).

Before it got dark we wandered around the property to look for tarantula nests. There were tons (how comforting). We were able to spot a pink-toe tarantula in its nest, but since they are nocturnal it´s better to see them outside of their nests at night. We were also able to see a squirrel monkey.

For dinner we had fried catfish with vegetables and rice. It was so tasty.

Over dinner our guide gave us background information on the different animals and things we might see. In the Rio Madre de Dios alone there are 600 types of fish. Of those 600, roughly 300 are different types of catfish. I had no idea there were that many types of catfish.

I had my heart set on seeing the river dolphins but we learned that in the Southern Amazon, where we were, they had been extinct since the early 1900s. The story has it that when the European settlers came to Peru to research the Amazon in the early 1900s many people were mysteriously disappearing. Reality was that people would just get lost in the jungle, wander off and not make it back. The settlers however proposed that the pink river dolphins were in fact demons that could transform into beautiful women and lure people into the river. They ended up killing all the pink river dolphins in the region. Jerks.

After dinner we went out for a quick tarantula walk, saw a few, and headed in for an early night.

Thursday morning we woke up at 8 am. We set out on the river to head to another lodge area to go on a hike, canopy walk and zip line.

Our first hike was three hours, again through swampy trails. We saw iguanas and a two-toed sloth, the rarest of sloths in the Amazon. We also saw a red belly, black snake. It was big. But before we could get close enough it slithered into the swampy trail that we would have to walk through (awesome). That was probably one of the most horrifying things I´ve done.

After lunch we set out for the canopy walk & zip line. It was so cool to get another view of the jungle, above the trees. From the canopy walk we were able to spot a caiman in the swamps below. The zip line was amazing. It was 500+ feet through the jungle over the caiman and snake infested swamps. It´s completely horrifying until you´re off the platform and zippin´ through the air. Getting down was probably the scariest part. We had to climb down a long, thin, wired, wobbling ladder.

It was a long day and we were all worn out. Post dinner we headed to bed for an early, early morning.

Friday we woke up at 4 in the morning to howler monkeys, the most horrifying, scariest noise in the whole wide world. I thought I was being kidnapped by monsters. The boys set out to find the monkeys, I was not as ambitious and hid under the covers until I would eventually have to leave the comforts of my bed for breakfast (thank god for pancakes).

Today we would be hiking with two, 60+ year old, Russian bear women. I say bear women because they clearly spent a portion of their life living with and/or wrestling bears in the Soviet tundra. We named them Mama Stroganoff and Olga. Unfortunately, we were never able to fully communicate with them due to language barriers. They did not speak a lick of English or Spanish, solely their mother tongue. Nonetheless, they had no trouble striking up conversations that would lead absolutely nowhere.

We left the lodge at 5:30 to head to Lake Sandoval, a sort of national park and government reserved area. It was a two hour hike to the lake. It was on this hike that we probably saw the most wildlife. The first animal to cross our path was a bird-eating tarantula. Yes, a BIRD-EATING tarantula. It was bigger than my foot. Thankfully my camera has a good zoom because there is no way I was going to get close to a spider that´s bigger than my foot and can consume a bird. Next, we saw a taper! None of us were able to get a picture of it because it moved so quickly across our path. Mama Stroganoff got a video of it, however we were unable to exchange e-mails as we had hoped (maybe I can find her on twitter). Our guide said he had not seen a taper since October. Sightings are quite rare. There were iguanas along the path as well. Once we reached Lake Sandoval we set out on a canoe to visit a local family. On our way we saw macaws, a wide variety of birds and butterflies, giant river otters (lobos de los rios—wolves of the rivers), spider monkeys and bats.

The local family is the only family to live on Lake Sandoval since the government made it a National Park. They are completely self-sufficient. They grow their own fruits and vegetables and also have ton of chickens.

After a long morning we headed back for a much needed lunch. Post lunch we set out with another guide, Alberto, to go fishing. We went about an hour down the river. The river is completely brown from dirt and sediment. Off the river there are little black streams where all of the terrifying things live: anacondas, giant black caimans, vampire bats.

We spent two hours fishing only to catch absolutely nothing. We headed back when the sun started to set with hopes to spot some snakes and caimans. It was a really pretty ride back with the sun setting in the background of the jungle. We were no more than 15 minutes away from our lodge, all ready for dinner, when we spotted a caiman! We turned off the boat and paddled closer to get a better look. We all took turns spotting the caiman. Our driver went to turn the boat back on and, how convenient, the spark plug broke (or something like that). Awesome. So here we are in snake and caiman infested waters, pitch black, with a broken boat. Not scary at all. Eventually a local boat passed by, kind enough to give our driver a ride back to the lodge to get us another boat. In total we were stuck for around an hour and half. Thankfully we´re fun people and were able to pass the time without much fright.

Saturday we were supposed to wake up early once again to go see parrots at the clay lick but due to rain our excursion was curbed and we were able to sleep in a bit. We left Saturday after breakfast, back to Puerto Maldanado, where we would spend a night. Our hostel in Puerto Maldanado had hot showers, cable television and a pool. It was so luxurious. I took advantage of all three. It was the kick off of their Carnival celebration. There was a parade around town and festivities all night.

We flew home Sunday. Zach would be headed back to the States and Robbie and I back to Cusco. However, not only did our plane arrive an hour late, we were side-tracked by rain in Cusco (what else is new), to Arequipa where we would spend 45 minutes in the plane there until we could land in Cusco. Needless to say, it was absolutely wonderful to be back in Cusco when we finally arrived.

The jungle was a great experience but four days was definitely enough time. Enjoy the pictures.

Until next time,
Jennifer

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Comments

[Jenna]

OMG. That is so scary!!!!