The view of the Amazon from the airplane.
The flight only took 30 minutes, our view obscured by cloud until just prior to landing at Puertu Maldonado airfield. We were greeted by the tour operator (Eco Amazonia) and bundled into the bus for a short drive to the office in Puertu Maldonado. The town of Puertu Maldonado is not so interesting. It has a population of about 40,000 though supports a population equal to that size in the surrounding Peruvian Amazon. Its main industries are rubber, logging and gold prospecting (on the river banks). It is also a thoroughfare for tourists going into the jungle (only a few flights from Lima and Cusco every day). Puertu Maldonado is not far from the Bolivian border (maybe 100-200km) and is on the banks of the Rio Madre de Dios, a tributary to the Amazon. From the office we took another short bus ride and boarded a long-boat for the 30km journey downstream to the lodge. With us on our tour were a bunch of Frenchies, 2 German guys, an American and two Australians from Kogarah - Fred and his overly talkative and very annoying wife Robin who never shut up (although very friendly).
The houses in Puertu Maldonado are wooden as opposed to the adobe brick constructions everywhere else.
Searching for gold.
On arrival at the lodge we were shown to our chalets, ate lunch and then had a botanical tour of the lodge gardens having arrived too late to visit Isla de Monkey. Note-worthies of the botanical tour were:
1. Iridescent yellow fire-flies.
2. Coffee bean plant
3. Para Para – Peruvian Viagra for erectile dysfunction.
4. Monkey Pee-Pee (monkey’s penis) – red and green baby chillies.
5. Ayahuasca plant – hallucinogenic plant that with the help of a shaman it lets you enter a higher world of spiritual powers and different dimensions.
Our bungalows at the EcoAmazonia lodge.
The resident parrot - all places seem to have one.
On Friday morning we were up for a 5:30am breakfast preparing for a wildlife safari to the ‘lost lake’. At 6am we departed by boat further down river then disembarked to march the remaining 5km to the hopefully ‘soon to be found’ ‘lost lake’ (to relieve your anxiety I can assure you we did find the lake). We were led by our 25-year-old Peruvian tour guide Anderson who reminded us frequently that his father was a Shaman priest and they both featured in more than one edition of National Geographic. Anderson was very friendly but took more interest in improving his broken English and even worse German than spotting wildlife. The few animals that weren’t scared away by Robin’s incessant ramblings were no doubt terrified by Anderson’s German. He might as well have been yelling ¨Go away animals a bunch of tourists who don´t want to see you are approaching¨.
Due to Anderson’s limited English he would invariably answer questions in such a way as to make us ask ourselves ‘what was the question again?’ – Maybe that’s his Shaman heritage. For example, one of us tourists would ask: ‘Maestro Anderson, how many species of monkey live in this area?’
‘Gracias for asking, amigo touristo. Their only means of escape is by running along the ground.’
‘Hmmm, that’s really profound’.
Despite Maestro Anderson’s distractibility we found the ‘lost-lake’ no worries and had a pleasant row seeing many birds and a few caiman (small crocodiles like those in the Pantanals). We missed the elusive jaguars, anacondas and were not threatened by bushmen with blow-darts. On the way back we took turns (behind a dozen French people) climbing a huge tree with an observation deck at the top. From the top we observed the tops of French people’s heads (much like the view from the Eifel Tower I imagine) and the surrounding trees. Again we missed most of the wildlife and upon descent headed back to the lodge for lunch.
In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lions and all other animals have gone into hiding.
A monkey ladder (the name of the vine pictured).
No, that is not the Lost Lake behind us.
A really big tree that is not as acually as big as this photo makes it out to be (it is still big though).
Post lunch we took a boat across the river to Isla de Monkey, an island about 1km long directly opposite the lodge and with a captive population of semi-tamed monkeys. There are several species of monkey on Isla de Monkey, each with varying levels of humanity. The hat-monkey (as I call it, but locally known as the 'Spider monkey') is a big black monkey about 60cm tall but with very long arms, hence looks arachnid?!? It has long-learnt that tourists bring bananas and bottled water, and from the lofty position of on top of your head it can well peruse your edible accessible possessions for consumption.
The ‘hat monkeys’ occupy the trees closest to where the tourist enter the jungle canopy after crossing the river. After hungrily watching your approach from the river they either jump onto your head from a low branch or run along the ground and climb up you like a tree. One of the German tourists initially resisted being climbed holding the monkey’s arms away from his body so it couldn’t pull itself onto his head. Anderson suggested if he just relax and let the monkey climb him then the monkey would stop screaming and showing his teeth. The hat monkey’s climbed each tourist systematically until satisfied we couldn’t improve their diet further. Karyn did well changing her position in the line to avoid being scaled (actually, she ran away). Once the monkeys had their fill of bananas and mineral water (I don’t blame them for not liking brown river water) they descended us and climbed back into the trees. We also visited a smaller variety of reddy-brown 'cappuccino monkeys'. Karyn screamed when one of them seamingly jumped from nowhere to a lower branch to better view the tourists from. These monkeys didn’t climb us (nor had chocolate sprinkled on their heads), but were great catchers of bananas lobbed to them from the ground.
On day-3 most of our tour group left leaving only Karyn, me and the quiet American (who stomped loudly) also called Karen. In the morning we boated up the river for half an hour then forked off a smaller tributary (Rio Gamitana) before leaving the boat and walking for an hour through denser forest. We then met the boat up-stream where we would hopefully (but didn’t) see giant river otters, anacondas and catch some more piranhas. Our guide was more informative regarding bugs, trees, monkeys and Tarzan vines (see Karyn above).
He also skilfully drew a tarantula from its nest by rattling a small swig at the entrance to its hole. Initially only curious baby tarantulas (about the size of our huntsmen) approached the entrance to the hole. No doubt sensing the excitement and danger of four humans staring down at their front door, the babies called mother tarantula to answer our call. Mother tarantula seemingly called her kids back to a safe distance then boldly presented herself outside. Initially she tried to climb the stick before giving up and waiting for us to make the next move. She (thankfully) didn’t jump, didn’t rear up or act frightened. She didn’t even seem to mind us taking countless flash photos of her hundreds of eyes – just posed for a while then scampered back into her horrible nest. After admiring mother tarantula’s many eyes we crept down (always hoping to see that jaguar) towards the river for another fling at piranha fishing and giant otter spotting. A relaxing hour later the only bites we had were from mosquitoes. We gave up fishing, pulled anchor and floated down the river back towards the lodge. En route we saw a few more caiman, some enormous butterflies and endless jungle with many ‘swingable’ vines.
Me Jane.
The Paradise flower. One of only two flowers we saw in the jungle.
Late afternoon we were taken on a short walk through the jungle to ‘Caiman Lake’, about 1km from the lodge but still on lodge grounds. Again we saw many fancy butterflies, some great looking birds (mostly from a distance) and some caiman cruising through lilypads and occasionally peering suspiciously at us before gently sinking out of sight. Again we failed to see anacondas, otters, jaguars or toucans. Day 4 (Sunday) began with the news that we would be joining a group of 15 loud and obnoxious Greeks on their visit to Lago (Lake) Apuvictor. With some encouragement from our US allies (a young couple from Alabama – they are sooooo ‘narce’ to ‘Arstreeliens’ – God bless America!), Karyn discussed the matter with our very diplomatic tour guide - incidentally he also found the Grecian tourists painfully loud and troublesome – and so arranged the only practical solution: apartheid. So it was that on Sunday morning, while the Greek tourists raucously stomped their way to Lake Apuvictor and scaring away anything within a 5km radius, Karyn and I had a civilized sleep-in. Later in the morning we took a quiet stroll back to ‘Caiman Lake’ (even breaking wind silently) hoping to spot the anacondas we missed the day before. Though missing anacondas yet again we did see a few dozen monkeys (high in the trees, leaping from branch to branch) and the arse of a capybara (the large rodent wombat-like animal) as it ran away from us.
Late that afternoon we walked a quick 2km to Lake Apuvictor where a tree-top observation deck overlooks a tranquil lake filled with (generally hidden) turtles, more caiman and jumping fish. Our tour guide rowed us around the lake for a closer look at the turtles (saw only one more), caiman (see above pic of caiman with Karyn), birds, flowers and bright butterflies.
There are two turtles in this photo (you might need a magnifying glass).
Never smile at a crocodile.
Monday morning we boated back up the river and made our connecting flight back to Cusco.
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