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Published: March 30th 2014
Puerto Maldonado
Much dryer todayFriday 31
st January (Odyssey Day 84)
We departed the lodge at 0800 this morning. Fortunately it had not rained again overnight and we were able to pack up and drive out with relative ease. Or at least, Simon made it seem easy – I imagine the roads were still rather muddy though.
We arrived at the border between Brazil and Peru at lunch time. We passed out of Brazil, but the Peru side closed for a lunch hour at 1300. We arrived just as they closed, so we set up our lunch on the side of the road right there!
And now we are in Peru! The first thing everyone did was change some money. Since we don’t know when we will arrive in town tonight or where the hotel is, we thought it prudent to change some money at the border to ensure we got some dinner! A lot of people had spare Brazilian Real as we had originally expected to pay for our Amazon trip. Fortunately the exchange rate wasn’t too bad here though it was strange to
Border Crossing
Trike truck! I want one see guys running up the street to get more cash so we could change more money.
The Peruvian currency is the Peruvian Nuevo Sol (PEN - S/.) and US$1 is roughly equal to S/.2.8 which is not too different from the value of the Brazilian currency.
We arrived in Puerto Maldonado after dark and our hotel is on the out skirts of the town. It started raining yet again once we arrived and Simon did a quick run into town for those who needed dinner. Joanna and I stayed at the hotel and ate a meal made of our combined random supplies – crackers, cheese and apple.
Saturday 1
st February (Odyssey Day 85)
Breakfast was nice here at the hotel as it included scrambled eggs! I don’t even eat eggs for breakfast very often at home, but when we get them here everyone gets really excited. It’s the novelty of having something other than bread and cake I guess. We also had some strange new fruits that I
can never remember the name of - but yum! They tasted great.
The plan was for us to be collected at 1200 for the two day jungle trip, but with the amount of rain and the height of the river we crossed yesterday we are uncertain if we will be able to go on the trip at all.
When the jungle trip company arrived, it was to tell us that the lodge we would have stayed at in the jungle was chest-high underwater. So no, we will not be doing our Amazon jungle stay. This is actually really disappointing as most of the group were quite looking forward to it. Though admittedly I think a couple of the group were secretly relieved that they wouldn’t be encountering any strange or large jungle bugs.
So instead we will be staying an extra day here in Puerto Maldonado and then pushing on for Cusco, hopefully arriving two days early. The company offered to give us a tour around town in the afternoon, and take us to a mini zoo to see
Puerto Maldonado Zoo
AJ with a Boa Constrictor some animals, notably some boa constrictors.
Most of the group met up at 1400 for the free trip around town and it was an open bus so we got a good view. The little zoo only cost us S/.10 each and we saw some native animals including owl, tortoise, ocelot, kinkajou, coati and of course snakes.
Those who wanted to had the opportunity to hold the boa constrictors for a while though a few of the group kept as far away as possible! I enjoyed the chance to hold both as they are rather beautiful creatures. One was quite happy to stay around my shoulders but the other just kept trying to get away. They are so very strong too, though they weren’t even all that big. A lot of power in such a small package.
Since I’m a ‘truck wallah’ this sector part of the job is organising tips. So for all of about 20 minutes I felt rich. The new truck jobs start today and mine is basically odd jobs on the truck, such as setting up
chairs when we camp, collecting tips, sorting the payments for group meals, organising cakes for birthdays, and now also cleaning the fridge.
It is to be a long day tomorrow as we try to make it to Cusco in one day of driving. As long as the roads are open, it should be manageable.
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