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Day 3 part 2
This afternoon we went for a jungle walk in the local area and had a good talk with Basilio about his culture and the local area. He told us a number of interesting things for example how there is a lot of racism in Peru against the people from the jungle. This is to the extent that recently when a member of their parliament was asked how the people who lived in the Amazon felt about a policy he said in public that they didn't matter and noone cared about them. It is no wonder that young people from the tribal Amazon villages want to escape and their culture is fast dissapating if that is the attitude towards them. Another contribution to their loss of traditions is through Catholic missionaries coming to "civilise" them (their words) and a lot of people feel strongly about this even those such as himself who do call themselves Catholic but feel it has been very heavy handed. He also told us that a school in Virginia, USA paid for him to go there and talk to the students about the rainforest. He found a number of things such as the consumerism very shocking but most of all the fact that when he was a child he paddled a canoe for two and a half hours and then walked for a further hour to get to school and there people would drive distances that he could see from the house he was staying in! It is the same everywhere and no wonder the rainforest is being slowly destroyed. When we got back we were so hot and sweaty we got changed into our swimmers and went to get in the small pool they have here. As we were in there a baby tapir came by. The lodge has a number of animals hanging around such as the parrots that have been rescued either from people's homes or when found as orphans in the rainforest. They are completely free and could return to the jungle if they wish but I guess choose to live the good life round the lodge. Anyway a tapir is like a stripy pig with a long snuffly anteater nose and is very sweet. This one was about 2ft tall and 3ft long. He came up to us and we were patting him and rubbing his head. I then swam off down the pool and suddenly there was an almighty splash as he launched himself in after me! He then started to panic of course and came straight over to me and tried to jump onto my shoulders. We eventually managed to herd him towards the steps and lift him out but I have massive scratches on my neck and shoulders. He is so sweet though and was obviously very scared so is forgiven and I don't think he'll do it again in a hurry! If only someone had filmed it for you've been framed we'd definately be in the money!
Day 4
Last night there was a stunning electrical storm- the rain poured down, thunder rolled and constant flashes of lightening lit up the sky. Charles went out in his swimming trunks and we could hear the whooping frogs celebrating with their unique call. Today it was still overcast and a welcome respite from the blazing heat of the last few days. We got into the boat and headed at full speed downstream towards another lodge to spend the day. On the way suddenly Basilio shouted for Jorge the driver to stop the boat. "I think I saw a sloth" he said and sure enough when we went back there one was in the tree and he looked lovely through the binoculars. Goodness knows how he saw it at that speed so far away. On we went and after a while of watching the Amazon go by arrived at the oldest lodge owned by the company. There we went for a long hike in the pouring rain and saw (and heard) woodpeckers, tamarind monkeys and lots of different frogs including the toxic red arrowhead. We returned in time for lunch and afterwards had a lovely snooze in the hammock house listening to the beautiful sounds of the rainforest that sounded exactly like the relaxation tapes people buy. We then walked to a local rum factory which was a tiny family operation at someone's house that still used horses to turn the ancient sugar cane press that had been imported from Leicester in the 1800's and still bore the plaque. The owner took us into his house and we tried the different varieties that he made whilst Basilio serenaded us on the guitar! The rain had finally stopped so it was decided we should get in the boat to come back before it started again and we headed back down the river. I'm now lying in a hammock listening to the parakeets, cicadas and pepe the parrot squaking his head off when you stop paying him attention. I have completely fallen for him he is so funny- he holds out his claws to climb on your arm, steals water bottles and shouts hola repeatedly when you look away!
Day 5
We woke up very sad that it was our last day in paradise but excited that today was the day we were going to visit monkey island. All we knew of it was the name and so we thought it was an island where we would get to see lots of monkeys in the jungle. It exceeded our expectations by about a million times though. After the short boat ride we climbed up the river bank and walked through the jungle. After a bit we reached a clearing- "here we are" Basilio said and suddenly woolly monkeys were climbing all over us! Then a howler monkey climbed up my leg and settled herself round my neck like a lovely warm scarf. After a while playing with all the different ones- spiders, beautiful orange howlers, tamarind and of course the very naughty woolly ones the owner Gilberto invited us into his house to tell us about his project while a gorgeous howler monkey slept on my lap. He used to be a naturalist in the lodges guiding tourists but noticed that the number of monkeys he saw was rapidly dissapearing due to being hunted for meat or pets. He then decided to do something about it and to start a sanctuary. He negotiated with the government to live on the 400 acre island as they believe it will be completely eroded and dissapear in 20 years or so therefore cannot sell it. When he got the land 11 years ago he spent the first couple growing fruit so that the monkeys would have food. He then started rescuing them and 4 years ago gave the up guiding to work with the monkeys full time. They come from a number of places- people's homes who have them chained up as pets, orphans whose parents have been hunted and he even buys them if he can afford it when he sees a sick one for sale on the local market which is common. Apparently hunters deliberately go for mothers with their young so they can eat the big one and sell the baby as a pet- some come to him in horrific conditions as all have been kept in cages or on chains and many are underfed and abused. It is all done on a very small scale even though there are already 200 monkeys there. He nurses the sick ones in his house and in fact they are all constantly running in and out of there as they have eaten a hole in his palm thatched roof! There are no cages and just him and his family to look after them. He worries a lot about money and his new concern was that a parrot he had rescued (he takes in other animals including 2 very sweet rabbits) had flown to a neighbours over the river, gone into his house and broken his radio and some other things including a special lightbulb he was finding impossible to replace and was causing him a lot of stress. He had also started to build a small place with a tin roof that would stop the monkeys getting in so he could provide a toilet for visitors but had run out of money so it was on hold. It made me think of these people who pay a fortune to do volunteer work and the amount of money some places charge for people to help out with the orangutans in Borneo. This place was amazing and he would gladly accept anyone to come and said he had a very basic room in his house he could put people up in- if we'd had time we would have stayed for weeks! Sadly we only had the morning though so after talking to him we went back outside to play. There was a really sweet naughty woolly one called jose who constantly jumped on you. When you put him down he would keep clambering and even launched himself out of a tree straight onto my head a few times! There were also some puppies that were a couple of months old and it was so sweet to see the baby orphan monkeys playing with them! My favourite were the howlers though, especially one called Perla who climbed into my arms after she'd had her lunch and fell asleep. When the sad time came to leave we could not get her off me- she even bit Gilberto when he tried to take her! We were completely enamoured with it and what great work he was doing with very little money. He would like to extend into doing more education for local schoolchildren, pressurise the government to do more to control the black Market and just have better facilities to feed and care for them. We would love to raise some money and give it to him and if anyone knows anyone going to Peru it is definately an amazing place to visit- I am sure quite unique in the world as it is basically just someone's house who is doing a great thing- Charles and I were the only ones there. His website is www.laisladesmonosperu.com. Leaving time was very sad. Especially as we knew it was back to the lodge for lunch and then our Amazon adventure was over. I was devastated to leave my new best friend pepe the blue and yellow macaw parrot who had started to come on my whistle and follow me around! I am writing this as we cruise down the Amazon for a final time on a huge steamer called the Amazon queen. The sad thing is we are passing boats carrying logs that have been illegally felled from the rainforest- ruining the habitat and sabotaging the beautiful environment. Tomorrow it is off to Cusco for the Inca trail which we are very scared about as we are worried about 5 days trekking at altitude.
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