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We leave the mountains behind to head into the jungle. Puerto Maldonado sits in the outskirts of the Amazon. The short flight arrives in the middle of a hot and humid day. We are greeted by a driver and tuk-tuk sent from the hostel. It's so humid that the camera is misting up and doesn't clear for about 15 minutes; not surprising, as the humidity is at 95%. On the way to our hostel we are pleased to have a change of recent scenery, which is similar to the small towns in Vietnam. The room in the hostel is very basic, with high roofs made from tin, net and broken bits of wood and lots of gaps for creepy crawlies to get in. Although we have a private bathroom (of course!) there is no hot water.
Puerto Maldonado is a small town on the intersection of the Tambopata and Madre de Dios rivers, which eventually feed into the Amazon river. We take a walk around and over to the other side of the bridge, where there is nothing really to see. The brown water of the river is running fast beneath us, carrying huge logs, foliage and debris with it. Back at the hostel we book an overnighter trip in to the jungle.
We start the following day, bags packed with mosquito repellant, sun block, torches, hats and a sense of adventure! We are given welly boots and walk down to the river where we have a long boat waiting for us. We speed off along the river for about 45 minutes, where we get off and scramble up the muddy bank to start our jungle walk. Not kidding that you need wellies as we start a walk along a thick muddy path. There is 2kms of this and we are slipping and sliding and trying to stop ourselves from landing face-first in the mud. We try to walk along the muddy peaked ridge at the side of the jungle, where we are constantly slipping down in to the thicker mud below. We are grabbing onto trees and branches to steady ourselves, without being sure what we might be grabbing hold of. Those jungle creatures are experts at camoflague. The alternative is to walk in the calf deep mud in the centre, where you can't see the occasional deep patch, and means we are having to haul our feet out from the suction of the mud. It's boiling hot and the guide is no where to be seen, as he has just walked at his pace rather than the snails pace of the novice mud walkers!
An hour and a half later, knackered, we reach the end of the trail and have our first glimpse of some jungle wildlife. Spider monkeys, high up in the trees jumping through the branches. We get some good zoomed-in shots of them before getting into the rowing boat moored up in the swampy water. Without thinking too much about what might be lurking in the shallows, we slowly get to the open water of the huge lake. We spot many different birds, including the punk chicken, so called because of its impressive blue mohican. A dark cloud is following us and we don't quite reach the shore before it starts raining. Another slippery bank to get up, we start walking to our homestay. On the way we try some local fruits picked fresh from the many fruit trees. Amongst some we can't remember the names of there are avocados, lemons, oranges and apple trees. There are many beautiful plants and flowers, although the bored looking guide is, as usual, too far ahead to ask him about them. We also see three different type of vultures sitting high in the branches waiting to swoop down on the remains of some other jungle creature. We pass two quite impressive lodges before getting to our more basic one. However, the lure of the hammocks awaits, as lunch is prepared and we try and dry our wet clothes.
A little different to what we are expecting, this homestay has four separate buildings. The humble hut that belongs to the couple who live here, the kitchen area, the guest accomodation and the bathroom block. In more detail, the room we are staying in has two beds and nothing else. There is no ceiling to the room, but there is the thatched roof that covers the whole sleeping block, about five metres above us. The thought of sleeping here and there being nothing stopping spiders or snakes getting in the room is a slight concern. Thankfully, there are mosquito nets that can be stretched tight around the bed. The bathroom area has a cold water shower (with just a curtain protecting you from beady eyes), the toilet (although Suzanne is relieved it wasn't a hole in the ground, it is covered in ants and doesn't have a seat), the kitchen area has a mud floor and the dining area is a long table and benches. Although very basic it feels good to be surrounded by nature, including the hen and her chicks and the deaf dog, who belongs to the owners, and, as usual, follows Steve around.
Lunch is a local dish of savoury rice with chicken baked in a banana leaf and freshly squeezed juice. We then head back out on the lake to spot more wildlife. There are plenty of varieties of birds to be seen including Macaws, who travel in two's, Punk Chickens with their mohicans and bad breath (to keep predators away), more heron's and kingfishers. We stay on the lake until it gets dark so that we can see the caimen, part of the crocodile family, that can grow up to six metres in length. The only way to spot them is by shining your torch into the bank until you see a glowing red eye. We see a few laying still under the trailing branches by the bank and one sitting out in the lake. We see a huge eye and it's head, but its body is under the water. It looks creepy, sitting so still watching us watching it. It soon slides smoothly under the water, where there are also piranahs, sting-rays and anaconda. Suddenly, we feel very vulnerable sitting in our small wooden rowing boat out on the dark lake. The beautiful sunset we had seen not so long ago is replaced by a star studded night sky, but unfortunately no moon to give us some light. The green jungle surrounding the lake is now a dense black silhouette. As we are plunged in to darkness, the jungle is alive with various noises that we haven't heard before.
After what seems like an age of sitting out on the lake we get back to the shore for a night walk through the black abyss. As we make our way through we see lots of insects including grasshoppers, crickets, stick insects, poisonous frogs (whose poison was used by tribesmen on the end of spears and induced an agonising three-hour death on their victims). There are lots of spiders of varying size, a scorpion (didn't know they were here!) and only when we get within five metres of our room do we spot a massive tarantula, the size of Steve's hand, sitting on the trunk of a tree. Oh good, that ceiling-less room is looking enticing!
We have dinner and Robin, our guide, becomes a little more awake and animated as he tells us stories of the drug called Yage. We had heard that recently a British tourist had died after taking the drug as part of a tribal ritual in a remote village in Columbia. He said he had taken it a number of times and told us that it is all done in the presence of a Shamen (witch doctor) who is there to help dispel any harbouring demons from the body. It sounds horrendous. Maybe that's the reason he doesn't appear to be all there!
As we are chatting we see lots of cockroaches appearing and start feeling a bit jumpy about things we haven't seen that could be near us. We are told the generator goes off at 9.15pm, so if we don't want to get ready for bed in the pitch black we should do it now. After a cold shower we get under our mosquito nets that are pulled tight around the bed. They are nylon, so trapping hot still air inside. The lights go out and we read from our tablets for a while. Steve is soon asleep and it's pitch dark all around, except for the light from Suzanne's tablet. When she feels a splash from something above on her cheek and a speck of something land on the screen she decides to turn it off in case it's attracting night creatures or tarantulas. Trying not to think too much about it, sleep comes in small annoying bursts. So, after an almost sleepless hot night listening to the jungle noises and praying not to need the bathroom (which would mean a torch-lit walk about 20 metres away through grass to the bathroom) and as daylight is barely breaking we drag our tired bodies out of bed.
It's 5.30am and we go down to the lake and look for the elusive family of giant otters that we couldn't find yesterday. As dawn is breaking the lake is misty and we row out to a look-out point. On climbing the tower we see capuchin monkeys in the trees, bats hanging inside the tower and a few spider's webs. After a while we climb back down and the mist has disappeared from the lake. This huge lake is an ox-bow lake, formed from a bend in the river, that in 500 years time will dissapear, as the surrounding palm trees and marshes advance. We row to the other side of the lake and get caught in the rain. At least the hornets, that have been buzzing round our heads for the last half an hour, have buzzed off now. We go back for breakfast and then we rest for a while when Robin suggests we walk a short way to see some monkeys. We do see some and also a flying beetle the size of a small aircraft. It lands somewhere near us, so Suzanne scarpers quickly up the bank on the other side! There are also giant ants marching across the path in their thousands carrying large leaves 30 times the size of their bodies.
We have been asked if we want to go swimming - yes, where there are piranhas sting-rays, caimen and anaconda! The area where we can go swimming is not cordoned off, so when we ask what is to stop any of these life-threatening water dwellers eating or stinging us to death Robin tells us it's because locals have swum in that area for years! We'll leave that to the boat load of stupid tourists we see ready to go in and hope we don't hear any screams.
After lunch we then start our trip back to Puerto Maldonado. Our wet clothes have not dried, despite having hung everything out. It's just far too humid. So, once more on the lake, but this time to concentrate on seeing the otters. The sun is hot, so we slap the sunblock on and notice that there are lots of bright orange butterflies following us this time. They seem to like Steve and rest on his hand (shows what a slacker at rowing he is!) and they also take a particular liking to his muddy bag. Some beautiful black and blue ones also follow us diving around our heads. We eventually find the otters and sit by and watch while they frolick in the water. They are giant otters and the most endangered species in the Amazon basin. There are only eight in the lake, which includes the addition of two new babies.
With not much time left to get back to the boat on the river that is collectiing us at 3pm, we go back through the swamp area and moor up the boat. We then have to slip and slide back along the muddy pathway as fast as we can. The walk seems to last forever and doing it during the middle of the afternoon, when the day is at it's hottest, is no fun at all. With sweat dripping into our eyes and feet sliding everywhere we are glad when we eventually get to the end absolutely shattered.
- comments
Jean Kirwood-Slack Your blogs are great, so informative and you could get a job as wildlife photographers. Keep safe & well and enjoy the footie in a couple of weeks. Love from Jean to my fav. niece (don't tell the others)xxx