Month: March 2017

Day 356 – 357: Long Journey from Lima to California

No pictures for two days.

Our flight out of Peru was a JetBlue red-eye to Ft. Lauderdale, and didn’t take off until 11PM, so we had a whole day to kill in Lima. Normal check-out at our hotel, of course, was noon, but we decided to pay for a half-day in order to stay in the room until 6PM. While we would have LOVED to show up at the airport several hours early and just hang out and booze up at the VIP lounge, the drawback to flying a small carrier like JetBlue was that their counter only opens 2hrs. before the flight departs, so checking in early was not an option. ‘No worries,’ we thought, ‘we’ll get a lot of computer work done.’

At 6PM, we had the hotel call us a taxi. The estimated drive time from our hotel in Miraflores to the airport was 40min without traffic, but 1hr was typical. We gave ourselves 2 full hours to get to the airport. THANK GOD. It took us 1 hr. 45min. – traffic was horrible, that’s a given, but our taxi driver wasn’t doing anything to make the trip go faster. He spent the entire ride on a conference call discussing his side business in some shady pharmaceuticals (at least he was using Bluetooth), so he was driving in the slow lane the entre time – never tried to cut people off like our other taxi drivers had. When we finally broke free of the bumper to bumper and were gaining momentum, we started to hear the dreaded, ‘thump, thump, thump,’ of a flat tire. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! This was the fourth flat tire of the trip! We were starting to panic as our driver pulled over and slowly started to replace the tire with a spare – we contemplated getting out and helping (after all, Igor is such an expert at this – he could be in a NASCAR pit crew!) but we were trapped inside: 4 lanes of fast moving traffic on one side and our driver’s head on the other (Lindsay accidentally smacked him in the head when she tried to open the door and see how it was going). After about 15min, we were freaking out, wondering if we should walk the rest of the way to the airport. Luckily for us, the driver finally finished up and delivered us to the airport about 10min later.

Our flights were pretty uneventful – Igor was able to sleep a little on the Lima-Ft. Lauderdale leg. Lindsay took a motion-sickness pill instead of a sleeping pill, since the side-effect of Dramamine always seemed to be drowsiness, but for once, it didn’t work and she was up practically all night. We went through Immigration and Customs without incident (Igor had Global Entry, so he was done a good 30min before Lindsay) and got on the next leg from Ft. Lauderdale to SFO. When we arrived in California, it was actually RAINING (Igor was surprised – in all the times we have visited, he has never seen it raining in California). We picked up our rental car and drove to Lindsay’s mom’s house in Dublin (about an hour outside the city). It was so great to see my mom and stepdad again, but we were so, so tired. We had just enough energy for lunch, then we went into the guest room to “take a short nap.” We slept for the next 12hrs.

Days 354 – 355: Return to Lima & The Nazca Lines

It started to rain heavily in the middle of the night, but we didn’t mind as we had finished all our Amazonian sight-seeing during the first two sunny days. Throughout the night, we would occasionally hear loud THUNKS of something landing on the canvas roof of our treehouse – we didn’t hear the noise the first night, so we wondered if the wind and rain was knocking fruit off the branches of the trees? The next morning, we discovered a troop of monkeys climbing in the branches of our tree – we suspect they were sleeping above us all night. Whether the thunks were due to falling fruit or poop, we’re not going to spend too much time thinking about.

Though our return flight to Lima wasn’t until 2PM, we had a long boat ride followed by a long car ride to Iquitos, so we and the other departing guests boarded the longboat after breakfast. Luckily the transfer boat is covered, so the return journey was dry.

 

A troop of monkeys slept in our tree last night. After breakfast, we say farewell to our guide, Martín

 

After two beautiful sunny days it finally starts to rain cats & dogs in the Amazon

When we got back to Lima, we resigned ourselves to another 1+hr. long taxi ride in traffic. Once we checked into our hotel, Lindsay lazily spent over an hour trying to order pizza delivery online. When that proved unsuccessful, she tried to walk to the stupid pizza place, only to find out they were closed for a private event. Along the way, she passed a public bus where a group of young thugs inside were rioting – screaming at passengers, breaking windows, etc. Witnesses on the street started yelling for the “Policía!” who luckily showed up within a metter of minutes. Rather than stay out looking for another pizza place, she returned to the hotel and just ordered us room service (crappy pizza, but at least we won’t get our heads bashed in).

Room service “pizza” and some welcome drinks back at our hotel in Lima

For our last full day in Peru, we booked a day trip to Pisco to see the Nazca Lines – a UNESCO World Heritage site – and the Paracas Marine Reserve. Igor was starting to develop a little cold, but luckily there was nothing strenuous on the itinerary. A private car picked us up from our hotel at 7AM for the long, 3hr. drive down to the province of Pisco, which is about halfway to Nazca, where we would catch our flight. (Pisco has been stealing a lot of tourism business from Nazca since building their airport. Even though it is only currently used for scenic flights and emergency landings for Lima Int’l, the Pisco Airport is HUGE – 13 gates and brand new. I supposed it was constructed with a, “if you build it, they will come,” agenda – it might pan out.)

 

Day-trip to the seaside province of Pisco, about 3hr. south of Lima

 

Igor asks Lindsay to “check the water” because he wants to see how cold it is. When she tries to refuse, he gives her a pouty face and pulls the “I’m sick card.” So, like a good little wife, she goes to the edge of the rocky beach and reaches out to the water just as a wave comes crashing in, soaking her boots up to the ankles. You’re welcome, honey-bunny, now go fuck off.

 

The airport in Pisco is huge (13 gates) but the only flights that go out of here are scenic flights to the Nazca Lines

 

We get our tickets, go through security, and into the massive, empty waiting area. It feels like we’re in a post-apocalyptic zombie movie – where IS everyone?!?

 

We have a large group of Japanese tourists in our plane, all of whom want a pre-flight picture with the captain (check out the dude rockin’ the country-bumpkin suspenders!)

 

Lindsay hums the Indiana Jones theme song as we board the 1-engine plane

 

Flying over the resort-town of Paracas – the Pan-American Highway cuts a line through the desert below

 

Dried up floodplains run out of the fertile valley

The Nazca Lines are a collection of dozens of shapes that were etched into the desert ground by an ancient civilization pre-dating the Incas, around 2,000 years ago. What’s puzzling about these shapes (which resemble birds, animals, plants, etc.) is how and why they were created. The shapes are only properly visible from the sky (you can view some of the shapes from nearby hills and a modern viewing platform, but not all of them) – so how did the original artists design and build the shapes when they couldn’t see what they were doing? There are some hypotheses that the shapes were installed as religious offerings to the heavens (supposedly God would have a good view of the shapes from the clouds!).

Sadly, the Nazca Lines have become victims of their own success, and a lot of damage has been done in recent decades as a result of tourism. Many of the figures have tire tracks and even roads cutting right through the lines, making them hard to identify, and there is plenty of graffiti on nearby hills (Greg wuz here!). Even so, the figures were pretty cool to see in person – there’s nothing in the world quite like them (maybe crop circles would be close). The flight itself was also really fun – in order to give the guests good views, the pilots would bank REALLY HARD and fly at a 45⁰ angle (once for the right side of the plane, then swing around again for the left side of the plane). Surprisingly, even though this was a much bumpier ride than our hair-raising flight to Lukla in Nepal, Lindsay did not cry at all (it was the landing on a cliff that scared her the first time – today she wasn’t afraid that the pilots would fuck-up landing on a wide, flat desert).

 

The Whale and the Astronaut

 

The Monkey and the Dog

 

The Hummingbird and the Condor

 

The Spider and the Crane

 

A viewing tower on the ground is surrounded by a Lizard, the Tree and the Hands, and the final figure we see on our tour is the Parrot

After our flight, we made a quick stop in the resort town of Paracas for lunch (unfortunately, overpriced and not very tasty) and picked up a local, English-speaking guide for our drive-through tour of the Paracas National Reserve – a park along the coast with really dramatic landscape scenery. By 4PM, we were back on the road heading north to Lima – our driver dropped us off at our hotel at 7PM. It was a 12hr day of touring – our very last international activity! Next stop: the USA!

 

Seafood Fried Rice at a waterfront restaurant in Paracas

 

Beach goers and funky art in Paracas

 

Paracas National Reserve – known for dramatic coastal scenery

 

Our guide points out fossilized seashells in the ground on the Fossil Walking Trail

 

The remains of La Catedral – a rock formation off the coast that used to have an arch connecting it to the cliffs that was destroyed in the 2007 earthquake

 

Lindsay and Igor admire the vast, tropical desert of Paracas

 

Desert meets ocean in Paracas

 

Stunning red sand beaches in Paracas – the colors are amazing!

Day 353: The Amazon – Iquitos Day 2

Plan officially back-fired today: instead of making us want to go home, the northern Amazon just shot Peru into our Top 5 list of countries. Today was AMAZING. Started out pleasant and peaceful – even though the electricity was shut off around midnight (so we didn’t have our ceiling fan all night long), at least we were able to fall asleep in comfort. The evening breezes high up in the treetops kept us cool at night and the fan turned on again around 6AM. We were woken up naturally by the incoming sunlight (no loud neighbors, no alarm clocks) and took our time coming down for breakfast. It was a LONG walk from our room to the lodge, so each time we left, we had to make sure we didn’t forget anything!

  

Morning trek from our secluded treehouse, across the suspension bridge, down the stairs, over the boardwalk, to the thatched-roofed lodge for breakfast

So, we had already seen dolphins, piranha and a caiman the day before. “Anything else you guys want to see?” our guide, Martín, asked us. “Sloths and monkeys!” we replied. So after breakfast, we hopped into a longboat and cruised down the river and into the floodplains, on the lookout for primates.

Martín was a GOOD guide. Literally the first animal he found within 15min of our tour was a small, female Three Toed Sloth, climbing in a tree. Another tour boat (full to the brim with tourists! Probably a cruise-ship excursion) was right behind us and took the prime location in front of the branch to take pictures. We ended up underneath branch, with a shitty backlit view of the sloth, so we waited patiently for them to leave so we could get a better shot.

The moment the other tour boat took off down the river and was out of sight, Martín turned to us and asked, “Do you want to hold it?” “YES,” Lindsay replied without missing a beat. Then, our boat driver Fernando climbed barefoot into the tree and chased down the sloth (obviously the poor thing couldn’t get away fast enough!), grabbed her by the nape like a kitten and plucked her out of the tree. While sloths are not aggressive, they do have very long, sharp and power claws, so we had to hold her from the back.

Guys, she was SO SWEET! Martín told us the sloth was female (males have distinctive markings on their back) and pretty young (independent from her mother, but not sexually mature yet). Probably freaking out, but so adorable – slowly reaching out towards us and our camera with her long arms. She had this serene, goofy smile on her face and would play with her feet. It was surreal and magical. After cooing over her for about 5min, we handed her back to Fernando who put her back in the tree. She immediately climbed away as fast as she could (so like, 5MPH instead of 2MPH) – run away, run away little sloth!

 

Our guide finds a Three Toed Sloth in a tree near the river – while we are taking pictures, another tour group stops nearby

 

Our driver climbs into the tree and plucks the baby sloth from the branch!

 

Baby sloth coming in for a close-up!

 

OMG, look at that face! Igor is so excited to be holding a wild, baby sloth!

 

Watch out for those claws – she may be slow, but she’s also very strong!

We spend this rest of the morning looking for more animals – we found a troop of Titi Monkeys and some water fowl, but nothing could top holding a sloth. We returned to the lodge for another tasty lunch and headed back on the river in the late afternoon. This time we headed towards the fast-moving water of the main river. Martín and Fernando took us to a cove off the channel where we found dozens of Giant Waterlilies, then back to the fast-moving “brown water” so that we could jump in and swim with the dolphins (don’t worry guys – caiman and piranha only like current-less, “black water”).

 

Kicking back for a leisure boat ride through the jungle

 

Our guide finds a small troop of Titi Monkeys

 

A Jacana (Jesus-bird) seems to walk on water – actually walking on the thick vegetation floating on the water

 

Pretty jungle flowers

 

Vast, open wetlands in the Amazon – a Giant White Heron in the distance

 

We enter a peaceful cove in search of Giant Waterlilies

 

Victoria Amazonica – Giant Waterlilies of the Amazon

 

These plants can grow to 3M in diameter! We test their strength – big enough to hold two full water bottles!

 

Lindsay swimming with dolphins in the Marañón River in the Amazon Jungle

 

Igor jumps into the water and chases the Pink Dolphins – our guide has to paddle after him!

 

Golden Hour on the Marañón River in the Amazon Jungle

 

Dusk, twilight, and evening in the Amazon

That night we had yet another fabulous dinner (which Lindsay could actually eat – yay!), enjoyed in the bug-free lodge. Martín offered to take us out on another night-time boat ride, but there was nothing left on our bucket-list of things to see and the sky was too cloudy to go star-gazing, so we spent the extra hour paying cards and enjoying the ceiling fans.

 

Lindsay is finally well enough to fully indulge in the lodge’s decadent cooking – stuffed avocado, chicken & yucca fries, and cherry-vanilla ice cream shake!

Day 352: The Amazon – Iquitos Day 1

So, in addition to being sick all night and getting little sleep, we were woken up around 6AM by a bunch of INCONSIDERATE ASSHOLES who thought it was appropriate to shout, “Whoop! Whoop!” and talk loudly in the hotel hallway at the butt-crack of dawn. These guys must have been high or drunk – they were just hanging out in the hall for about 3 hours. (We suspect a lot of Western tourists come to Iquitos to take drugs – we heard that the Amazon River has become a major highway for smuggling cocaine into Brazil. Last night, we noticed so many of the tourists in the area look super thin and haggard.)

Around 10AM, a car arrived at the hotel to pick us up and take us to the port-town of Nauta – the end of the road leading out of Iquitos. From Nauta, we boarded a longboat and headed out into the Marañón River – one of the many tributaries of the Amazon. It took us about a 1.5hr. to reach the lodge from the port. We made a quick drive-by the official head of the Amazon River (where the Marañón River and the Ucayali Rivers meet), and we found a pod of over a dozen river dolphins during our transfer – Iquitos was off to a GREAT start!

 

Leaving the town of Iquitos behind as we head toward the confluence of the Amazon River

 

Lindsay is still weak from her food poisoning and lack of sleep

 

Heading up the Marañón River, we catch a quick glimpse of the official start of the Amazon River

 

The Amazon reminds us of the Okavango Delta – lots of birds

 

Dolphins! We see a pod of Gray River Dolphins playing where the calm “black water” meets the strong currents of the “brown water,” then we spot a huge PINK River Dolphin

 

Pink River Dolphins breaching the surface and showing off their noses!

 

Local houses on stilts – during the rainy season, everyone needs a boat to get around

 

Passing a luxury cruise ship on the way to our luxury tree house lodge

When we arrived at the Treehouse Lodge, we realized we had every right to be critical of the hotel we stayed at in Puerto Maldonado. The Treehouse Lodge was the same cost per night, but the rooms were private (the lodge capacity was only 10 rooms vs 50+ rooms), the meals were decadent, delicious and served to each guest individually (no buffets), and – best of all! – all rooms and common areas had both screens AND ceiling fans! This place did it RIGHT!

 

Lindsay’s tummy is very weak, so she is limited to plain white rice for lunch while Igor gets a delicious spread of fancy food

 

Long walk down the boardwalk, up the stairs, and across the suspension bridge to get to our treehouse room. We will definitely NOT be able to hear anyone poop in this lodge!

 

Lindsay loves our treehouse!

Unfortunately, we only gave ourselves two nights at the Treehouse, so we had to make the best use of our time. All of our excursions with our private guide, Martín, were included with our stay, so we planned an afternoon of piranha fishing and a night-time boat ride on the river for our first day. Lindsay was still very queasy, so she still was content to just sit on the floor of the boat and watch as Igor baited his hook with raw beef and dropped it into the water. He didn’t catch any piranha (those guys are clever fish – they were very sneaky and bit the bait off the hook from the side without tugging the line at all!) but he did catch several catfish. Each time he felt a tug on the line, he yanked the line out of the water and promptly dropped the fish in Lindsay’s lap – each time she screamed, thinking it was a piranha.

 

Afternoon on the Marañón River

 

Leaving the main river and descending into the quiet floodplains in search of piranha

 

Igor catches a half dozen catfish – the piranha are just too tricky!

 

Our guide manages to catch a piranha – look at those teeth!

 

Golden Hour on the river – we find a Praying Mantis stowaway on our boat

 

Sunset in the Amazon

Our guide brought back the one eating-sized piranha he caught for us. The chef cooked it for us as an appetizer. There wasn’t much meat, but what there was tasted pretty good (like flaky white fish). The rest of dinner was just as fancy and tasty as lunch (Lindsay was slowly feeling better and was able to eat half!).

 

Tables have turned on this piranha! We’re gonna eat YOU!

 

Super fancy appetizers and live music – now THIS is a luxury jungle lodge!

After dinner, we got into a small longboat and headed back out onto the Marañón River. We had a cloudless sky and the moon hadn’t risen yet, so the star were absolutely breathtaking (especially with the silhouette of the jungle framing the sky – just WOW!). We wanted to capture a picture, but the movement of the boat in the water would distort the long-exposure image, so it will just have to live in our memories.

Our driver, Fernando, drove us into the “black water” flood plains where we had been fishing earlier – now we were on the hunt for caiman. Martín would shine a flashlight into the tall grasses, looking for the red reflection off the reptile’s eyes. There wasn’t much activity today, but after about 20min, he finally pointed out some little dots of red. “Oh, cool!” we said – thinking that would be the extent of our caiman viewing. Fernando drove the boat over to the grasses where the red eyes were – suddenly Martín leaned over the front of the bow. At first we thought, maybe we were stuck on the bank and he’s just pushing us off? Then he turns back to us and we see he had just PULLED A BABY CAIMAN OUT OF THE WATER WITH HIS BARE HANDS. “Do you want to hold it?” He asked. “YES,” Igor says immediately.

I think our plan is backfiring – instead of making us want to go home, the Amazon around Iquitos is so awesome we want to stay longer!

 

Our guide pulls a Crocodile Dunee-move and grabbs a baby caiman out of the water!

Days 341 – 342: Journey to Iquitos

We were not sorry to leave the Refugio Amazons – Puerto Maldonado was not worth the trip, and we were starting to look forward to going home. But we still had to visit the northern section of the Amazon, so we started our LONG journey to Iquitos.

We left the Refugio just after breakfast and took a 1.5hr. boat ride back to Infierno (we were travelling with the current this time, so the ride was a bit faster). As it was still dark when we left our room, we *almost* left our camera sitting on the bedside table – luckily, we were so used to documenting every second of our travels, we noticed it was missing just as the boat was leaving the dock. Disaster averted!

Our Star Peru flight back to Cusco was smooth and easy. We had a 4hr. layover in Cusco, but luckily for us, the Cusco Airport has TWO VIP lounges – one before security and one after, so we were able to grab lunch before the Peruvian airline ticket counter opened for check-in. Seriously, LOVE Cusco.

Lounge #1 – Puerto Maldonado

 

Lounge #2 – Cusco, Landside. Chicken salad sandwich and a pisco sour – now THIS is VIP service!

 

Lounge #3 – Cusco, Airside. Igor now wants to buy this elaborate fresh-squeezed orange juice machine.

When we got to the gate for our next leg from Cusco to Lima to Iquitos, we discovered there was a projected 15min delay. We looked at each other – this was not good. We only had a 45min layover in Lima. The delay got worse and worse – 15min became 30min, and 30min became 45min. The purported reason for the delay was weather in Cusco was too dangerous for takeoff, despite the fact that it looked partly sunny outside and we saw another plane land safely while we were waiting. A LCPeru flight at the next gate was scheduled to leave 30min after us, and when it started boarding before us, passengers on our fight started flipping out. Our gate agent assured us that their plane was NOT going to take off – they would just wait in the plane instead of in the terminal. Long story short, we eventually took off just late enough to ensure we would miss our connecting flight – the last flight of the day to Iquitos.

During our flight, a fellow passenger overheard our predicament. Apparently this guy was in the airline industry and had worked for 10 international airlines over the years. He recommended that we ask for a comped hotel room. “Just tell them to ‘please help me,’ don’t get angry,” he advised us. We exited the terminal and went straight to the Peruvian ticket counter and explained our situation to the agent, Mayor. First, he assured us that we would be put on the first flight the next day, at 6AM. When we asked for a hotel room, he excused himself to go to the back office and check with his supervisor. Since we were the only travelers that were stranded by this weather delay, the manager must have decided the expense for putting us up for the night would be minimal, so he approved the request for a hotel, taxi to and from the airport, AND dinner! Even better, our hotel in Iquitos let us cancel our reservation without penalty, so the inconvenience didn’t cost us a cent (good thing too – Lindsay was NOT looking forward to filing an insurance claim).

The hotel was no frills: no AC, and close to the airport in the Bellavista neighborhood of Lima. Reviews online claimed it was a rough neighborhood, but it didn’t look to bad to us. However, it’s not like there were any attractions to tempt us to walk around outside anyways. After check-in, the manager told us they would call us to come down when dinner was ready. The hotel had a restaurant area, so we assumed they were preparing something for us. When we sat down at a table, however, we saw a delivery guy bring a large brown bag to the back of the bar. A few seconds later, two large plates with roasted chicken and French Fries came out – they actually ordered take-out for us! The serving sizes were HUGE, so we were more than pleased. Thanks Peruvian Airlines – ya did good.

 

Take-out chicken dinner, courtesy of Peruvian Airlines

 

We sprung for a couple of beers to help us unwind in our non-air conditioned room at the Vista del Sol Hotel

Everything went smoothly with our flight the next day. We checked into our hotel (really pretty historical building near the river) and dropped off our stinky clothes at a nearby laundromat. The only attraction we were interested in in town was the Manatee Rescue Center, so we had our hotel call us a taxi.

Iquitos is not connected to the rest of Peru via paved road – if we want to drive to Lima you actually have to drive through Brazil! As such, there is not much demand for full-sized cars, as most people only shuttle around town, so the streets are full of motorcycle rickshaws instead. We catch one to the rescue center – a good 20min drive to the outskirts of town. Bring sunglasses – the dust was fierce.

The Manatee Research Center was cute – they had several animals besides manatees as well (monkeys, turtles, even otters!). Their mission for all animals they receive was Rescue, Recovery and Release. Over the years, they’ve acquired around 25 manatees (many were orphaned, victims of hunting by locals who both want to eat them, and mistakenly kill them because they think the vegetarian manatees are eating the fish population), and they have successfully released 15 back into the wild. These gentle giants need all the help the center can give them – we never saw a manatee in the wild.

 

Hotel Epoca – a charming riverside hotel in a historical building in Iquitos

 

Grabbing a USD $15 moto-rickshaw to the Manatee Rescue Center outside of town

 

Our guide, Kelly, walks us through the research complex. This sandbox is a “faux beach” where the turtles can lay their eggs in safety

 

Plastic dummies showing the maximum size of some of the Amazon’s aquatic residents: a Pink River Dolphin and a Black Caiman

 

“Grandfather Tree” in the “Children’s Forest” – where the local rangers teach local school kids about cultivating a sustainable relationship with nature

 

Badass Amazon turtles. Two fellas got into a fight, and one got knocked over onto his back. Poor guy was still stuck like that when we left an hour later

 

A baby Ocelot and a forlorn Capuchin Monkey

 

A Bald Uakuri – what an ugly little monkey!

 

The “River Wolf” – a Giant Amazon Otter

 

Our guide asks for a volunteer – Lindsay raises her hand because she thinks she’ll get to pet a monkey. Instead, Kelly asks Lindsay to close her eyes and put her hand inside a mystery bag – WTF? What’s in there?!? Turns out to be just a Brazil Nut shell, but Lindsay was freaking out thinking it would be something slimy.

 

More jungle babies! Baby caiman and baby turtles

 

BABY MANATEES!!!!!

 

Kelly shows us some river plants that manatees love to eat – these animals are strictly vegetarian and are very helpful in keeping waterways free from overgrowth. The orphan babies in the rescue center are fed cow’s milk via bottles at first, but part of their “recovery” mission is to wean them onto eating plants

 

Lindsay finally gets her manatee moment.

That evening, we walked down to the riverside restaurants and found a great vegetarian place. We came back to the hotel and popped open a surprisingly delicious bottle of Peruvian bubbly. We flipped on the TV for a while – most TV shows and movies were dubbed in Spanish, except horror movies, so we found a scary flik. Around 10PM, we turned off the lights and went to sleep.

Fast forward a few hours. I don’t know what I ate, but Lindsay woke up with the WORST case of food poisoning either of us had had on the trip. She tried to keep quiet, hoping it would pass…but it didn’t. She finally had to wake up Igor, crying, asking him to get her some Imodium…which she immediately threw up. After a few hours, things finally settled down enough for Lindsay to go back to sleep. Ugh. BAD night.

 

A delicious vegetarian causa dinner and a bottle of Peruvian sparkling wine

Day 350: The Amazon – Puerto Maldonado Day 3

Our streak of good weather couldn’t last forever – a thunder storm swept in in the middle of the night and it rained off and on for the whole day today. We didn’t mind much as the excursions we picked for today were really just filler. We started the morning with a trip to a nearby Oxbow Lagoon – a small lake that was formed when a section of the river got cut off from the main channel. Since the water here was still, not moving with the current, it created a habitat for all sorts of different (and dangerous!) creatures – especially piranha and anaconda.

We had a 40min nature walk through the jungle on our way to the lake, then another 30min slowly paddling through the water. Timoteo brought some bread to toss in the water and show off the piranha’s feeding frenzy – the pictures didn’t come out, but let’s just say it was obvious that you should NOT dip your finger in this water. (Timoteo admitted that he *has* had a tourist dumb enough to do just that. Guy was from Florida. Idiot lost the tip of his finger.) We continued our walk on the opposite end of the lake to visit a huge strangler fig tree that was completely hollow inside from having destroyed its host tree – sadly it was a complete downpour by that time, so we couldn’t take out the camera.

 

Lindsay takes a nap on the lobby sofa as we wait to see if the rain will let up. When we start our nature walk, Timoteo picks up a fallen weaver’s nest, which is surprisingly dry inside – good construction, birdies!

 

A Walking Tree?!? Is this Peru or Middle Earth?!? This tree’s stilt-like roots lift the truck over 5ft above the ground – if the tree isn’t getting enough sunlight or nutrients, it will grow a new root reaching to the side and the whole tree will start to move towards the new growth. So, not as fast as the CGI characters in the movie, but still pretty cool.

 

A new root vs an old root on a Walking Tree. The tree next to it is the Devil’s Penis Tree. Look at the roots and you’ll figure out where the name came from…

 

This clay tube coming out of the ground is the front entrance to a cicada’s underground home! Since the top has been broken off, we know the cicada has already flown the nest

 

An Owl Butterfly, and the rock-hard shell of a Brazil Nut pod

 

Fun with fungi! Hundreds of little white mushrooms start to decompose a fallen tree truck, and Lindsay can hear better with a gigantic Elephant’s Ear

 

Termites building a nest on a tree trunk using their poop. If the mosquitos are bothering you, the locals might recommend grabbing a handful of these guys, crushing them and rubbing them on your skin: natural bug repellent! Just be careful not to pick up any of the ants – the mandible is about a centimeter wide – ouch!

 

Downpour during our boat ride on Oxbow Lagoon

 

A pair of Hoatzin, AKA “Stinkbirds” – these jungle turkeys are herbivores that ruminate their food like a cow – the fermenting food sits in their crop and produces a bad odor. They are not endangered as apparently they also taste pretty bad and the locals do not hunt them

 

A break in the weather at Oxbow Lagoon

Climbing the canopy tower to get above the tree tops

 

Carefully walking across the slippery, lacquered wood planks to get back to our room

In the afternoon, we took another walk through the forest to an animal clay lick. We knew this was going to be a bust – we’ve NEVER seen mammals at any of the clay licks we’ve visited throughout the world. Our low expectations were justified – nothing in that hide except a cloud of mosquitos. Oh well, not every day can be amazing.

 

A hide next to the mammal clay lick in the jungle. (No one is there)

 

Even though it stopped raiing, Igor keeps his poncho on as an extra layer of protection from the mosquitos

 

So Lindsay noticed a cockroach in our shower, stuck on its back this afternoon. Rather than help the poor guy up, she left him struggling on his back and left for her excursion through the forest. Imagine her horror when she returns to her “dorm” in the evening and discovers that the unfortunate bug has been EATTEN ALIVE by a swam of ants!