The Jungle - Part 2

Day 3: We didn´t have to get up too early, which was nice. We took the boat an hour down the river, really in the rainforest. We went to some ¨Project¨that starts with a T. It is some sort of environmental program to save the and educate about the rainforest. There are trails there & we walked, again, seeing lots of animals and birds. We got out to this thing called a ¨Canopy Walk,¨which is a crazy bridge 42 meter high & 90 meters long. It has 6 inch wide metal for you to walk on, a metal wire for a railing, and netting between the 2 to help you not fall. It swings a little & is pretty nerve-racking as it starts to incline up into a huge tree. But when you get up there, you are in the canopy of the forest & can look around. It´s pretty cool!

The bugs were surprisingly not bad while I was in the jungle. I wore long clothes and bug spray, just to be sure. When I was in the canopy, there were these wierd bees that look & act like black flies in the worst season in NH. You can´t kill them, because that´s when they will sting. They were really annoying! But at least that was it :)

We ate a delicious lunch there, then took our afternoon break. Then we went to an animal rehabilitation center very close to there. Now, we are 1 hour 40 minutes from any town, and what do I see & hear when we get there? The World Cup soccer game on a big screen TV!!! I can´t get away from it anywhere here! Not only that, but their cell phones work everywhere here in the jungle! Not quite what I expected.

Anyway, at the rehab place, we saw all kind of monkeys, some different cats including a jaguar, lots of birds, and otter, and some big animal that I don´t know what it was. It was neat seeing these animals up close. We fed the monkies, too.

Day 4: We visited a local family. It was kind of strange because they do this for tourists. But it was neat to see. We did some song & dance that I don´t understand. They painted our faces with a local plant that grows there. We also got to play with this spinning top toy that I think was made of a stick & a nut & string. It was kind of neat.

We also shot a bow & arrow at some fake birds in a tree. I got it! I was the first & it was my first try! Only one other shot got it the entire time! No, I don´t have much experience with a bow & arrow & certainly not in recent times!

In the afternoon, we went fishing! We got dropped off on the shore by the boat & fished for 30-45 minutes there. My guide was funny. He had us keeping the line at one distance & just throwing it out into the water. This didn´t seem right to me. We got picked up & fished further downriver from the boat. The driver showed my guide how to use the fishing rod so you can cast it out :) It was more fun fishing that way. All I caught was some sticks. Oh well. The woman in my group caught a fish, but got away as she was lifting it out of the water.

Day 5: We got up at 4 AM to go to Parrot´s Clay Lick. We went downriver with the full moon shining, which was beautiful. The sunrise was beautiful, too. We got to this sand bar of sorts, about 100 meters from the clay lick & waited. The parrots, parakeets, and macaws came, little by little & got into the trees. After awhile, they started to go onto the clay. I guess they go there to eat to help their stomachs. I think their stomach gets upset from eating too much unripe fruit. It was cool to see hundreds of the colorful birds all in one place! Most of them had green bodies & blue heads. But I also saw some red & yellow mixed in.

I spent the rest of day in Puerto Maldonado. I met a woman who speaks English & Spanish, so she helped me the rest of the day. My watch battery needed changing, so we went to the market to get a new one. She was so helpful! Unfortunately, the watch is done for, so now I have to buy a new one. We ate meals together, too.

I am in Cuzco again today, but I get on an overnight bus to Arequipa tonight. I will be there super-early tomorrow morning.

The jungle was wonderful! It was nice to be in the same place for so long, and to understand what was going on around me. It was nice to be outdoors, and also to not worry about being asked to buy something, have to worry about my stuff being stolen, or worrying if I´ve been ripped off. The food was excellent, too. I drank all kinds of delicious juices, too.

The Jungle - Part 1

The jungle was incredible!!! I still can´t believe that I was in the Amazon!!! It was so nice to be outdoors for awhile, not worrying about who was going to try to steal my stuff, ask me to to buy something, or rip me off. The jungle is much more my thing!

I´m going to write some today & some tomorrow. First off, I saw & heard so many animals! Tons of different birds: parrots, parakeets, macaw, hawks, condors, kestrels, herons, and many that I can´t remember the name of. And many of the ones I listed, I saw & heard many different kinds of. I also saw & heard lots of monkeys: spider monkey, squirrel monkey, night monkey, howler monkey, and some I don´t remember the names of. Have you ever heard a howler monkey? They make the most bizarre & cool sound I have ever heard from an animal! I had no idea what it was when I heard it. I thought a small airplane was about to fly overhead! It was so loud! And they were close-by, so I got to see them, too! Then there were lizards, turtles, caimen, lots of different kinds of ants, flowers, trees, plants, spiders, butterflies, moths, and many other things! It is so peaceful in the jungle, yet so loud!

Day 1: I got picked up & brought 40 minutes by boat down the Rio Madre de Dios (Mother of the Gods River) to my lodge. The boat was like a really big canoe with benches along the two sides and a covering over the top. The engines for the boats around here are like a regular motor boat, on the top, but then they have a long pole-looking thing that goes way down to the propellers. The driver pushes that thing side to side to steer & can pick it up out of the water.

My guide, Benito, took me on a private walk in the jungle behind the lodge. I saw a huge fig tree! And it was a small one! They can get to be 18 meters around & this one was only about 10 meters around...which is still huge! There is a cool palm called a walking palm that has these really long roots that are exposed. I saw all kinds of things.

I had a delicious lunch that was wrapped in some sort of huge leaf. Then they have ¨resting time.¨Which, later, I realized is because they usually get you up so early that you need a nap. Also, it´s so hot for you & the animals. So the hikes are often early & late in the day.

My group consisted on myself & a woman, Kathy, who is from Boston, but now lives in Florida. She has traveled all over & lived in many countries through working with Club Med & teaching overseas. She was a pretty cool woman. And the only other person in my group! It was so cool to only have 2 people & one guide!

That evening, we went to Monkey Island a little before dark. We took the boat, then hiked inland on this island for a short while. There was a whole monkey family there! They were so cute! For those of you who don´t know, since I was quite little, I have had a love for monkeys and chimpanzees. So it was exciting to see them! They are used to people, so the guides fed them fruit. It was cute: they would throw the fruit to the monkey & he would take off. Eventually they took it from the guide´s hand! They made cool sounds, too.

After that, we went looking for caimen on the boat. The sun went down & the full moon came up while we were on the river...wow! How amazing is that! It was so beautiful! The guide used a spotlight to catch a sight of caimen and to catch the red glow from their eyes. We saw a bunch, which was cool. They are in the alligator family, but usually smaller.

Day 2: We got up really early to hike out to Sandoval Lake, which is an ox-bow lake that has giant otters. We were up at something like 5 AM, then took the boat to the trail that brought us 5 km to this lake in the Tambopata National Reserve. We saw all kinds of wildlife along the way & heard so many cool sounds. The jungle is so beautiful! When we got to the lake, we got into a big canoe & our guide paddled us around for hours. We only got a distant glimpse of the otters before they went in for the day :( It was super-hot that day, so I don´t blame them. I got really overheated & didn´t feel great for awhile by the end. On the lake, we did see lots of different birds, caimen, tutles, and monkies.

We went back to the lodge for lunch & our afternoon break, which I slept for part of! That night, we went for a dusk/dark hike behind the lodge. Again, we saw lots of birds & animals. Lots of ants, frogs, and spiders, too.

Each night, I slept so soundly out in the jungle! It´s so peaceful. I had a whole bungalow all to myself with screened windows all around. I had mosquito-netting around me at night, which made me feel like a princess :) So did the guide paddling us around on the lake :)

Alright, that´s enough for now. I´ll finish writing about the jungle tomorrow when I return to Cuzco for the day. I love the comments...keep writing! And Jason, I hear soccer here everywhere I go...even the jungle!