Life on Arbor: Peru 4: Puerto Maldonado (The Jungle!)

On June 30 we headed for the jungle! We flew from Cusco to Puerto Maldonado...a TINY airport awaited us. I think they only have 2 gates for planes if that tells you anything. We were met there by our guide for the next few days, Fernando. He spoke really good English and was actually from PM and working for Rainforest Expeditions, which has three lodges in the jungle. We stayed at Amazones Refugios. This lodge is about three hours down river from Puerto Maldonado, so we had to take a boat up the Tambopata River. The river was very brown, but not from being polluted, from the minerals in the water. The boat was long and skinny and anyone switching sides would have tipped us, so we were told to stay in our seats. Along the way we got lunch (rice with eggs and veggies wrapped in a banana leaf) and saw lots of the jungle, some white turtles, a cayman, and lots of capuberas (cute little guys but related to the rat).

Lunch provided by the local community - an orange, plantain chips, and brazil nuts

Getting ready to board the boats

Lunch served in a banana leaf!

A boat just like ours going down the river

Can you see the white cayman?

Capubera

Tambopata River

We arrived at the lodge and learned that the only electricity was in the main hall from 5:30-9pm. Our rooms had only candles and some kerosene lamps. One wall of our room was missing- totally exposing us to the jungle! Our bed had a mosquito netting for night. There were no doors - only curtains where doors should have been. Also we learned we had no hot water - showers would be freezing. Our room was kind of cool because we also had a hammock! The main hall also had an upstairs section with exposed walls and lots of hammocks. Immediately we noticed some chirping around in our outer wall - and realized we must have a bat stuck in there. Great. Luckily I had brought earplugs, because it turned out to be a family of bats (we think) that chirped and scratched all day/night long!

We arrived! It was hot and humid and we welcomed the fresh passionfruit juice! Yum!

Hammock in our room! See the open wall and jungle?

Our room

Does this look like it will keep out wild animals? I didn't think so either! :)

These little guys were quite common around the lodge. They looked like smaller capuberas.

During our stay at the lodge, we kept with our guide Fernando and our group. Our group consisted of seven other people. Crazy - all of them were from England and none of the couples knew each other ahead of time! I seriously think I left speaking with an english accent. Meals at the lodge were actually really good - lots of fresh fruit juice and local fruits/veggies. We always sat with our group and guide. Dinner was served buffet style at every meal.

Main hall - upstairs is the hammock/relaxing area. Downstairs is the bar/dining room and gift shop.

View of the dining hall from the upstairs

Walk to our room from the main hall. Our bedroom was on the left.

The first night we went with our group on a night boat ride to hunt for cayman. It was fun and scary because the boat didn't have lights, so it was pretty dark. The only light was when Fernando shined to look for shining cayman eyes. We ended up seeing a few, which was neat.

Night cayman hunt

Found some!

The next morning we had to get up at 4:30am to hike to a canopy tower in the jungle. We wanted to get there for sunrise. We had to wear these attractive rubber boots because the jungle floor was pretty muddy. We got to the tower, which was narrow and about 100 feet tall. I was scary and almost wimped out, but made it to the top, where there was only room for about 6-7 people to squish together. It was AMAZING though, and we saw many trees, and birds, including a flock of parakeets (crazy!), some parrots and some macaws.

Sweet outfit, right?

Made it to the top in time!

Looking at the jungle from the canopy tower

I made it! (Though I didn't look down over the edge much)

Blue & yellow macaws!

From there we hiked to a lake created by rivers from the mountain damming up. We were in a long canoe with 11 of us, so we were seriously close to the water! We saw tons of birds, including hoatzins, which are huge prehistoric looking birds. We also saw piranas and tapir tracks. Brad was disappointed we didn't see any monkeys on our hike or giant otters on the lake, but our group was not good at being quiet.

Owl butterfly we found on our hike - it's actually quite large. The wing is about the size of my hand.

How crazy does this bird look???

Huge tree that actually surrounds and kills another tree

Brad from inside the tree looking up.

Small type of toucan - can you see his curved yellow beak?

That afternoon before dinner, we went across the river to a fruit farm the lodge gets their fruits from. It was neat to be able to see so many fruits and vegetables! Fernando let us taste many of them, including oranges, lemons, bananas, and ajuate. Actually we didn't eat that one, but Fernando showed us how it was used to make natural dye/paint and painted on our faces. We also saw two monkeys at the farm! They were danski tiki monkeys.

Eating an orange straight off the tree!

Mini banana!

Yes folks, that is a LEMON in Fernando's hand! It was HUGE!

Painted faces!

The next day we were going to be getting up early to go to a bird clay lick - a place down river where birds gather to lick the clay to settle the acid in their stomachs. It's supposed to be amazing and filled with parakeets, parrots, and macaws. But unfortunately, we woke up to pouring rain...so no clay lick. Brad and I were really disappointed and instead spent the morning playing cards and hanging out in the main hall. After lunch the rain was dying down and we were relaxing in our room. I was just hanging in the hammock when suddenly I spotted something in the jungle right outside our room....MONKEYS! Seriously soooo close to us! They were four little saddleback tamarins jumping through the trees outside our room! We took tons of pictures and watched them for awhile before they scooted off into the jungle. Talk about awesome! We never would have spotted them had our room had a wall!

Later that afternoon we met our group to hike to a mammal clay lick. The rain had stopped but everything was still pretty well, so out came the lovely rubber boots again! We hiked for awhile until we came to a "blind" (a house where you sit and watch animals from so you don't scare them and they don't see you). Unfortunately we did not see ANY animals that day at the clay lick, but we did spot a baby harpy eagle in his nest nearby! (Well really, Fernando spotted him. He was so high up and so far in the jungle I never would have found him). That was really amazing to see!

We loved our stay in the jungle - so much green, so many plants, so many birds! We especially loved our guide, Fernando! We wished we could have seen more big wildlife, but let's face it...I'm sure they can hear us coming miles away and steer clear. Rainforest Expeditions has a lodge five hours further downriver, called the Tambopata Research Center, and that one sees more wildlife (being so far into the jungle). So maybe next time we'll stay there! I guess when we were there, the people at the Research Center saw a jaguar crossing the river!!

Brad and I with "Nando"

Boat ride back to Puerto Maldonado

Oh, and we didn't have any major problems with our open concept jungle room. But we did have the bat, and one day Brad found a cockroach. Another guy in our group found a frog in his sink one morning! And another couple had a TARANTULA in their room...which they thought was fuzz so they kicked it and it died (I guess they die really easily)!!! CRAZY!

Our little roommate! Yikes!