Day 10- Corto Maltes, Rio Madre de Dios, Peru

I woke up expecting to be attacked by the intense heat, but it was actually somewhat cloudy and overcast- Yay! Less heat, happier me. After breakfast, John and I said goodbye to our Dutch friends. They were a very entertaining group to be with, and it was a bit sad to see them go. A few new guests had arrived to Corto Maltes, but all in all the visitors were sparse and after the family left things felt very quiet. Of our original tour group, John and I were now the only ones left. No one else had opted for the 4 day tour I guess. So, we hopped back on the boat with Luci and our boat driver guy, who was barefoot during the whole day (I am amazed).

We arrived at the residence of a small family consisting of the Grandfather, his daughter, and her two children. Their home was on the riverside, and we had another interesting venture of climbing up a muddy cliff to get to it (in the photo, click to see enlarged version). It was beginning to rain, and the family came out to greet us. We began walking around as the elderly man gave us a tour of his property. They lived in a very small home and had dogs and chickens running around everywhere in the mud. They didn't harvest one thing in particular, and so the land was full of a variety of fruits and trees. I think that the two children, a boy and a girl, lived mostly in isolation. They probably didn't go to school, and only knew their family and the few people who lived around them. It was almost a
little bit heartbreaking to look at the little girl and think about how her daily life was. I thought about how many opportunities and privileges I was given at her age, and how she will likely never have those same things. She is probably still happy though, because she doesn't know not to be. Despite that, I couldn't help but wonder how her life would be without an education, without access to medical care, etc. and it just reminded me of the stark difference between her life and the lives of spoiled kids in the US. The kids were very excited to have visitors though, and energetically followed us around while their grandpa explained to us what various plants or trees were. He let us try many of the fruits, which John mostly did. I am very picky, but I did try a couple things! I was a little paranoid about eating some of the fruit because of the whole "you shouldn't drink the water in South America ever" thing, but we were fine. It was definitely a very eye opening visit for me, and it made me think about all the privileges and blessings I have, and appreciate them more. I don't think I have ever really seen firsthand a family living in remote poverty. Even without access to all the things we think we can't live without, and without access to even some basic things, they still manage, and still seem very happy and excited about life. It gave me a lot more perspective on things. The old man was a very chatty and happy guy and was really excited that John liked all the fruit he cut up for him. Luci translated for us, but I did try to say a couple things to him and the little girl. After we had explored the property, the rain stopped, and we went back down to the river.

We were back on the water for almost an hour, headed towards a local village where the people literally live in straw huts and wear traditional rainforest clothing- like something you'd expect to see in a movie. Sadly when we arrived though, Luci discovered that the villagers were all missing and the place was empty. She told us they had probably headed to visit a neighboring community, which was a bit of a disappointment because I wanted the chance to see how they live. Luci had an alternate plan though, and so we headed down river a bit to a man's house that sat by the riverside. Luci told us she used to come play here when she was a kid, and that she knew about a giant tree that was back in the middle of the forest. We got off the boat, and talked to the owner of the property. He had a fairly big lodge constructed that he lived in, and it looked like it maybe used to be some sort of dining hall for tourists, but I'm not sure. It was a very isolated feeling place, and surrounded by a very dense forest. As we began walking back on the narrow trails I envisioned seeing jaguars or huge snakes or something that would come attack us, but luckily that was not the case! After exploring, sweating, swatting mosquitoes, and walking around we arrived to the location of the giant tree! It was really wide and definitely the tallest I have ever seen. We got some pictures in front of it, and if you looked up you couldn't tell where it ended. Luci said it was probably 400 or so years old, and that her friends used to climb it! On the trail on the way back to the home, John reminded Luci of his desperate hunt for a custard apple fruit he loves known as cherimoya. She had the boat driver guy find some, but to John's dismay it was too ripe. To make it up to him though he decided to knock down some coconuts off a tree, and let John drink the milk in it. He chugged it down, but I took one sip and wasn't so sure that I liked it.

We took some photos and said goodbye, and took a long relaxing boat ride back to Corto Maltes. During the ride I discussed Spanish bands with Luci, and I was excited that she listened to some of the stuff I like. Back at the lodge we had a decent amount of time to kill, and since it was still very hot, we decided to test out the swimming pool. It felt awesome, and I definitely enjoyed it. I could have stayed in the pool for hours, but after about one hour John was bored because he is not as into pools and sunbathing as I am-maybe it's a girl thing? We then just hung out, laid on hammocks and listened to music for a while. Then we headed to the bar and lounge room at the bottom of the lodge. No one else was there, so we just relaxed and played chess. John got a drink, and I tried to explain to the bartender what a strawberry daiquiri was. Once he knew what I was talking about he said they didn't have strawberries at the time, but he offered to make me a daiquiri of some fruit I've never heard of. I was worried I wouldn't like it, so I opted out. I was still slightly queasy from my illness so I didn't want to risk any crazy tastes. We had our last gourmet meal up at the lodge later, and I was a little sad about having to leave the next day. We went around and got some final photos of the crazy flowers, and of Pedro the parrot. Then we checked out the gift shop run by a family who lived at Corto Maltes, and I bought a little green bracelet. Overall today was a somewhat low key relaxing day, especially compared to yesterday, but it was still a great day in the jungle. Power went out at 10, so we had to pack our backpacks with the use of flashlight. Buenas noches!

(the video is of the huge tree) :

Day 9- Corto Maltes, Rio Madre de Dios, Peru

In the darkness of 4 in the morning I climbed out from under the mosquito net, and fumbled around for a flashlight. Using this, I somehow managed to get ready for the day, and try to hide from the gigantic cockroach roaming around the room. I think John named it Fred, but I am not entirely positive. We walked out to the lodge and when our group was assembled, we followed Luci and Pablo (I forget his name?) back onto the trail behind the property into the forest. We walked quietly for about a half hour during dusk until we reached a small lake where a little bird blind had been constructed. This is where we would hide out in order to watch the birds come and get their breakfast at a clay-lick. It just looked like a muddy hillside, but the birds love feeding there.

The sun finally rose, which was good since the birds are mostly active at dawn (hence the early start to our day). We were all extremely quiet because we didn't want to scare the birds away. We sat and waited for a while, anticipation building, and then we began to hear a couple birds up in the canopy of trees. The sounds started multiplying and soon there were hundreds of green feathered parakeets and blue chested parrots all around the surrounding trees. You could hear the parakeets cawing, their many wings flapping, and even the sounds of some monkeys in the distance if you listened closely. I took a video in order to capture some of the sounds of being in the middle of the rain forest when birds are coming to feed. Click to listen. It was a beautiful sight to see all of the brightly colored birds, and it was fun to watch them interact. I was amazed at how many of them there were. Luci told us that not all guests get to see the birds when they come to the blind, and that we were lucky with our timing. After spending some time relaxing and enjoying this part of nature, we headed back on the trail to the lodge.

While eating breakfast, I turned around to look out the screened windows towards the river when my vision was assaulted by a scary, huge, evil spider! Ahh! It was on the wall about 2 feet behind my chair, and had been there the whole time. I naturally freaked out and scooted my chair as far away as I could. John, being the guy that he is, decided to put his face close to it for a picture. It makes me shudder. Nasty.

After that, John walked down the main path toward the river and noticed a tarantula feeding on some fruit in a tree that was asleep, and now hiding inside the tree. Gross. We walked around the property and took some photos of the river, and of the beautiful and exotic flowers that were all around. Luci told me that we would need some rain boots to wear for the rest of the day since the trail would be very muddy, so we went and tried those on. I of course checked inside my boots for spiders first! Then we noticed a large parrot just chilling on a nearby tree. I thought it was someone's pet, but no. It lived in the wild, but it liked to come hang out by the lodge, and the staff had named it Pedro. He was very photogenic and funny to watch. After that we headed back and relaxed on our hammocks. I was just lying there, listening to some Canto Del Loco (my favorite Spanish band) on my iPod, when I felt something slimy on my leg... It was a tree frog! I screamed and flung it off me. In my future hammock uses, I will cover my legs with a shirt.

After a mid morning siesta, it was time for our little group to go to our next activity. We all got into the boat, and headed down the river closer to the Bolivian border until we reached a little uninhabited island (uninhabited by people that is) locally named Isla de Los Monos, or Monkey Island. Because the river levels were low it was harder to get out of the boat onto land. We basically pulled the boat up next to a muddy little cliff, and the guides helped us climb up it onto the flat ground. As soon as we were ready, I noticed the sound of mosquitoes. There were so many, and they followed us around in little swarms since everybody was so sweaty from the intense heat. Luci lead the way with her machete, cutting down stray branches and things blocking our trail. As we headed deeper and deeper into the forest, we could hear the jungle sounds, and it was again almost surreal to me. Luci started making monkey cries or calls in order to attract the monkeys so we could maybe see some. She said that not every group who comes to the island get to see them. The trees and landscape were very thick and our trail was very narrow. Since I was second in line I was fortunate enough to walk right into a spider web. A huge yellow spider ended up on my eye! I felt it and swatted it off but it really scared me because if a poisonous spider bit my eye so far away from medical help, I'm not sure how that would have worked out. Luci was a little worried, but luckily it didn't get a chance to do any harm besides scaring me. I made John walk in front of me after that point. I kept swatting at the bugs, but I realized it did no good so just gave in and tried to get accustomed. As we kept walking further into the trees we began to hear the sounds of the monkeys. I was hoping we would be a lucky group who got to see them.

Finally we came to a small clearing where there were 2 rundown buildings with straw roofs. Luci told us they were abandoned monkey research facilities. It had a very eerie and nostalgic feel to it, and all of us joked about how it felt like something from Jurassic Park. While we were standing around, Luci took some bananas out of her backpack. I thought it was humorous that she used these to bait the monkeys because it is so cliché, I never knew monkeys actually liked bananas! We started hearing some branches rustling above us, and soon about 2 or 3 monkeys were visible. Luci threw bananas up to them and one of them caught it, and then started calling out to his friends to come and get some too. Then, more monkeys came. One of them had a baby monkey riding on its back. It was so adorable. John luckily got several good photos of this, as well as a video of the mom monkey. I love how the baby was sticking its tongue out. Precious! I was very excited that we were able to experience all of this. It was amazing and something I will always remember. The abandoned huts reminded me of my former life dream I had when I was 12. I wanted to be a zoologist and go study animals in the middle of the jungle. While I realize now that it would be very fascinating, I’m not that upset I changed my calling in life because heat and mosquitoes are not a fun combination!

Because it is mating season for the monkeys, they tend to be more aggressive, and Luci wanted us to leave just to be careful. We got back to the boat and set out on the river again. The wind felt phenomenal at that point. We were headed to a nature reserve called Tambopota National Park. We docked (if you can call it that- the dock consisted of a pole for the boat to be tied to with broken, crooked stairs leading you up the muddy riverside) and headed to the visitors building. Once we started the trail we would be taking to get to the highlight of the park, Lake Sandoval, I realized why we needed tall boots. The trail was made of broken up mud that had been rained on and so now was just gigantic, sloshy, puddles of muddy water. I thought “well, I can do this, at least there aren’t mosquitoes and it won’t be for too long.” Wrong. We were on the trail for what felt like hours, when really it was only about a 1.5 hour walk. If the trail were gravel or solid ground it wouldn’t have been bad at all, but the slippery, shin-deep, wet mud in a miserably humid jungle made it difficult. Luckily we all had hiking sticks or else I’m not sure I would have been able to keep my balance! During the walk we saw some cool things though, like wild iguanas and brightly colored birds and lizards. We also chatted with the very tall red-headed Dutch man. I never did catch his name, but he was funny. This kept my spirits up, because the walk was not so fun. Finally we arrived at a tiny stream that had a few old canoes in it. We piled into one with Luci and the Dutch family. It was somewhat dark since the trees covered the sky, and it was very quiet. The sound of the canoe paddle on the water was all we heard for a while. We weren’t moving too fast, and so during the ride we were able to see a cayman in the water. We stopped and tried to get closer to it for photos, and at one point it was about 5 feet away!

Once we had passed through the little, winding stream through the trees, we came out onto the open air of the lake. It was a fantastic sight! Lago Sandoval was a big, impressive lake, truly out in the middle of nature. The surrounding trees were very tall and it was an amazing feeling. The sensation of being out in the wild, no cities nearby, no planes flying overhead. Just nature, plain and simple. It was quiet, except for the sounds of the birds. We were out on the river canoeing for quite some time, heading towards a place where we would dock for lunch. We stayed close to the shore and got to see many large and unique birds. Many of them were garzas, or cranes. We also saw some orange howler monkeys jumping around in the trees. They travel so fast just hopping around from one branch to another, and they really did howl! When we pulled up to get lunch we sat down and Luci gave us our meal, which had been packed by being wrapped up in a giant leaf. I made sure John re-applied his sunscreen- I have never seen a human so sweaty before! John was literally dripping. So were the Dutch men. I was definitely sweating, but not to that extent. It was ridiculous! We made sure we drank lots of water too- I was glad John brought his camel-back. After lunch I decided to move from the log we were sitting on because there were ants crawling on it and I was scared of bullet ants, and there

were monkeys getting a little too close for my comfort. A random man then appeared in our little clearing, and it confused me because I thought we were all alone. Luci later told me he was part of a local indigenous family whose ancestors had been living on this land for years. His family, along with 4 others, were allowed to live and farm on the land even though it is a national reserve. I think it would be very interesting to see how they live and what they do on a daily basis. I mean, they live out in the jungle with wild leopards and crazy insects! It is also neat to think about how different their lives are from the lives of people living in the US. Anyways, I got some nice photos of a crane that perched artistically on our canoe, and then we got back on the water.

On the ride back, I felt very relaxed, just taking the whole experience in. We canoed past a tree that had several large bats sleeping on it, and saw a few more monkeys. Being out on the lake was so peaceful, I really loved it. (My Viewpoint). Unfortunately though, the experience had to end, and we had to walk another 1.5 hours back on the mud trail. I tried to tell John stories of my high-school days in order to pass the time, and I’m not sure how much it entertained him, haha. We saw some more iguanas, and at one point John and I got far ahead from the rest of the group and saw some monkeys up-close. Then, John got bit by some Brazilian fire ants. That must have been pretty painful! The trail was no fun, but the time on Lake Sandoval made it worth it. After a restful canoe ride back to Corto Maltes, it was time for everyone to take desperately needed showers. I don’t remember the last time I felt that disgusting. It felt like I had jumped in a pool, but I didn't. A cold shower was the perfect remedy- and so was a nap!

Dinner was nice, except afterward John discovered that the tarantula was out of its hiding place. He went to get pictures, I stayed far away. Except for the spider, everyone headed to bed extremely early. It was a very long and eventful day for sure. At one point during the night, maybe around midnight, I woke up because I felt water splashing on my face. It had begun thundering and raining (it is the rainforest after all) and I guess the roof wasn’t the most waterproof of things. I made sure any electronics were stowed safely away, and fell back asleep, listening to the surprisingly relaxing sounds of a nighttime storm in the jungle.