Day 349: The Amazon – Puerto Maldonado Day 2
Even though it was the rainy season, we lucked out and got a sunny day for our excursion to the Tambopata Clay Lick. We had set our alarm for a 4:30AM wake up call, so we could be down at the long boat by 5AM. Luckily, our guide Timoteo had warned us to bring sweaters as the early morning air was surprisingly chilly as our boat sped up river for 2.5hr. When we finally arrived at the clay lick, we discovered two other tour groups were already there.
The Tambopata Clay Lick is a long wall of clay that runs along the river bank of the Madre de Dios River. Around sunrise, various parrots will begin flying into the area – sometimes hundreds can arrive! The birds will land on the river bank and bite off bits of clay, eating the mud. The most commonly accepted theory for why they do this is to neutralize the toxins in their body from their diet of raw seeds and nuts. (Kinda like taking a charcoal pill when you have food poisoning.)
Unfortunately, the closest we could get to the clay licks was about 100M, on the opposite riverbank. We had our zoom lens and our guide brought a scope for us to look through, but after our many close encounters with wildlife this year, we were pretty disappointed with the distance restriction. We were able to get a few decent pictures when we first arrived – the sunny weather had brought out several dozen macaws and around 50+ little green parakeets. Luckily we arrived when we did, though, as about 30min later a large hawk started flying overhead and all the parakeets flew off in a loud squawking frenzy. A handful of macaws stuck around for another hour or so.
Since the activity had died down, we sat on our little stools and ate our pitiful packed breakfast (plain bread, hard boiled eggs and packaged cookies. At least they had canned milk for the coffee). After an hour had passed with no change in conditions, we started to get antsy. Finally, one of the other guests asked, “What are we waiting for?” One of the guides said, “We’re waiting to see if the birds will come back. But we can go if you guys want to.” Lindsay said very loudly, “*I’m* OK leaving now.” None of the other guests seemed interested in staying longer, so our guides packed up and headed back to the boats.
Our 2.5hr. boat ride to the clay lick starts before the sun is up
Deep cracks form as the wet clay dries – if you step on it, you’ll sink to your knees!
Waiting on the opposite side of the river from the clay lick, looking at the macaws through the scope
About two dozen birds (Scarlet Macaws, Red and Green Macaws, and Green Parakeets) are landing o the clay lick, eating mud
Scarlet Macaws in mid-flight
A pair of Yellow and Blue Macaws – photo on the left was taken with our zoom lens, photo on the right was taken with Igor’s cell phone, using the scope for magnification
After about 30min, a hawk flies by and frightens all the parakeets away
We got back to the lodge a little before lunch. We had a few hours of downtime, as we agreed to meet Timoteo for the afternoon excursion around 3PM. Since we had such an early wake-up that morning, the heat and humidity were making us pretty sleepy, so we went back to our room and took naps under the mosquito nets of our separate beds. (We were SO glad to have separate beds – it was so hot at night without a fan that there was no way we wanted to be next to each other’s body heat. No snuggling in *this* jungle!)
When we met up with Timoteo, he took us back down to the boat for our trip to the fruit farm on the other side of the river. We expected it to be a little corny, but it turned out to be AWESOME. Igor in particular loves to eat fruit anyways, so having a guide just pick fruits fresh off the tree, cut it up with a machete, and hand it to us to eat was right up our alley! Lindsay has been constantly hunger on this trip, so free food was more than welcome.
Star Fruit and fresh Ginger Root
Lindsay holds a MASSIVE lemon, and Timoteo points out some ripe coffee berries
Timoeteo introduces us to a tropical fruit we’ve never seen before: a South American Sapote. The fiberous flesh looks and tastes like a very sweet & juicy pumpkin!
The sap of this tree is black, but when you massage it into your skin, it turns into a white paste that can be used as an antiseptic
Timoteo peels us a mandarin – since he’s sick, we gladly take the extra dose of Vitamin C
Sugar and Chocolate – the rainforest is giving Lindsay candy! We tried eating the raw cocoa beans – they were kinda sour. But the sugar cane was juicy and delicious – like drinking sugary water!
Bananas and a cocoa-bean lookalike (ooops! Forgot the name!)
Fluffy white cotton on the left and a horribly scary hornet’s nest on the right!
The fruit farmer had a variety of chickens: a pretty rooster, a really ugly hen and her chicks, and a cute yellow chick
Crossing the Madre de Dios River around sunset
Regarding the food served at the lodge, we were VERY disappointed. Not that the quality was particularly bad – everything was edible and a few meals were pretty tasty. However, when a hotel charges *resort prices* and calls themselves a LUXURY establishment, expectations are set to a certain level. Meals at Refugio Amazonas, however, felt more like a cafeteria in a research center. Guests were told to show up to the dinner “buffet” promptly at 7:15PM when the first dinner bell was rung. The second dinner bell, indicating guides and other employees were allowed to get served, was rung about 10min later – if you were late, the food might run out! And there was ZERO variety. Are you even allowed to call it a “buffet” when there is only one entrée option? Oh, and they charged extra for soda.
But you want to know what *really* got us pissed off? If you look up Refugio Amazonas on TripAdvisor, they have 5 stars and over 500 “Excellent” reviews. We started reading though them and started to get really suspicious. Most of the reviewers only had one review attributed to their profile. Many of the reviews were overly detailed on the lodge’s amenities and seemed very canned…could they be ghostwritten? Several review specifically said that the food was, “delicious,” “excellent,” and even “the best we had during our entire trip to Peru.” We did a little Googling and found that many companies will post adds on freelancer websites, paying USD $0.05 per TripAdvisor review. Could Refugio Amazonas have undertaken such a duplicitous business practice? Hmmm…
Cafeteria-style food at our “luxury” lodge
NOT the best food we’ve had in Peru