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Puerto Maldonado
Our hair raising journey from the airport into town on a tuc-tuc! We have just returned (filthy and stinking to high heaven) to Puerto Maldonado after nearly 2 weeks in deepest darkest Peru looking for Paddington. We didn't find Paddington but we did find a baby capybara, a crazy spix's guan and more cockroaches than we ever hope to see again in one place! Picaflor is a research centre on the banks of the Tambopata river in the Amazon Basin. As a research centre and a family home Picaflor is trying to create a model for sustainable living in the rainforest with the hope that local farmers and landowners will follow in there footsteps. The centre doesn't have much to do with biological research at the moment as some illegal loggers have moved into their conservation area and they're currently fighting a legal battle to keep the trees!! As volunteers at the centre we worked for 3 hours a day doing everything from trail clearing to cake making! On our first day it rained so we were chicken wiring Picito's room ready for plastering (Picito is the youngest member of the team and at 3 years old already knows more about the rainforest than you or I). After the rain stopped we
Ron!
Isn't he gorgeous?! were able to explore Picaflor's trail network and over the two weeks we saw dusky titi monkeys, brown capuchins, agoutis (like enormous mice with long legs), pacas (like spotty agoutis), whip scorpions (they look like spiders with pincers and enormous fangs - nice), various frogs, a snake eating a frog (the pictures we have would put anyone off their dinner, especially the french!) and a fer-de-lance. Now, believe it or not I (Alison) actually managed to nearly machete off the head of one of the most poisonous snakes in the jungle!! There's 200 different species in the area and only 4 are poisonous and yup, i managed to find one and then nearly kill it!! So... just to even things out... it tried to kill me! It went into its "im going to bite you now and it's going to hurt" pose but luckily i was saved by Pico (the man of the house - and he's a biggun) and a big stick. After he killed it he then prised its mouth open to show us the fangs and then explained that if it had bit me i would just about have made it to town before dying but if
Simon and Ron
I still can't decide which one i prefer! it had been a Bushmaster then i wouldn't have stood a chance (always nice to know)!
I feel that we should now explain the title of this piece! Picaflor has collected some unusual pets in its time and the current residents are Ron, a baby capybara who likes to suck your fingers and have his tummy tickled, and Chick-Chick, a crazy Spix's guan (think a skinny turkey with a blue mohican) with gammy feet and a funny tick! Chick-Chick's favourite pastime is attacking people (anyone apart from Pico who wisely enough he's scared of) by pecking at their feet or jumping on your head! Unfortunately one day when Kelly (another volunteer) and I went trail clearing with our machetes Chick-Chick followed us into the jungle and never came out again! It wasn't anything to do with our machetes i would like to point out but needless to say, no matter how bad we felt, we didn't miss having our feet pecked and having to pull him out of our hair!
On top of our 3 hours a day work which was tiring enough in the heat and humidity of the jungle (even babysitting, bread making and cake baking
Simon in Puerto Maldonado airport (with socks on his hands)!
The airport has no walls and even the jungle gets chilly sometimes! was hard work with the humidity) we had to pump water every day at 4pm! There isn't a lack of water at Picaflor it's just that it has to be pumped from the source and they don't have a motor to pump it so it all has to be done by hand! It's pretty hard work and despite being told that it would get easier i don't think it did (i'm sure our arms are in great shape though)!
The best thing about Picaflor, however, is having the afternoons (and nights if you're brave enough) to wander the trail network and explore the jungle on the proviso that you take a machete with you - in case of jaguar attacks??! As you get to go into the jungle on your own it's a much better way of experiencing the place than just going on a 4 day tour (which by the way are astronomically expensive). We really enjoyed all our time at Picaflor and were really sad to leave this morning and we waved goodbye to Laurel (the lady of the manor), Picito and Kelly on the river bank. However we have to keep moving, onwards and upwards... the only question is where to?!
Now for the useful info for fellow travellers: www.picaflor.org is the web address and there's a minimum fee per stay. It's 500 soles for 10 nights food and accommodation but you have to pay this even if you only stay for a week. Every night after the first 10 is 40 soles per night. If you're willing to work and you love conservation then it's a great way to experience the Amazon.
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Rach
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Jealousy!
I hope you're travelling around with your memory cards in your pants now... cos I for one would be gutted if I don't get to see pictures of this (probably not on the same level of gutted as you but gutted none the less!). Sounds completely awesome (except for the roches!) and I continue to be jealous! Fortunately only 2 days to go until the Caribbean for me... not expecting to find any cockroches there, haha, but probably also nothing awesome like scorpion king fang spider dude and fluffy tree monkey. Speaking of spiders, spiderman 3 just came out, and it's a bit pants (except for the graphics) - just incase you needed a hit of developed world after rolling around in jungle mud! Anyways, looking forward to seeing you guys when you get back. When are you off to the Galapagos? I'm so jealous of that also! Si, you'd be jealous of me though, just bought a wide angle lens and underwater flash for my camera so hopefully some good piccies will come back from the Caribbean! Appropriately Jarad and I are staying in a place called the Jalousie Plantation in St Lucia - seems an appropriate title for the amount of jealousy going on in this email! So before the jealousy consumes us all I'll sign off... keep enjoying yourselves!!!! Big love, big sis xxxx