Up the Amazon without a Paddle


We arrived by air into Puerto Maldonado, Peru to enter into the gateway of the the Tambopatu National Preserve or the gateway to the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest. Our chosen lodge Inkaterra Hacienda Conception picked us up by bus and took us to their river headquarters where the bulk of our luggage was kept locked up in storage.

We were allowed 22 lbs of luggage in the canoe to get to the lodge and that included our CPAP Machines.  We boarded the vessel and had a lovely ride up the Amazon to our Lodge. 


The staff were very attentive and professional and showed us to our beautiful lodge for the next 4 nights.  I was not expecting much but was blown away by the attention to detail and the hand-crafted Amazon wood furniture.  We each had a sink and JW Marriott didn't even have that.  We are in the middle of the Rainforest and this company has thought of everything.
Our lodge #11

On the way to our lodge

The Big Lodge



















We settled in for an amazing lunch which also blew me away.  We were to meet right after lunch and go for a walk about to familiarise ourselves with the grounds and Dauger our Peruvian guide for the stay taught us much information about flora and fauna in the area. 
Our lodge key - a carved wooden sloth.

Heart of Palm Salad Appetizer-delish.

In the lodge's screened in Dining-room.

 

3 Howler Monkey bums up in a tree.

A freshly caught fisherman's Piranha.


Cocoa Tree

Stretchy rubber taken off of the Rubber Tree.

The Walking Tree which forms many roots.

We had some free time and then went for supper which was amazing again and then met the group for a night canoe tour to find Amazonian White Caiman.  We saw quite a few and tons of babies.  We headed back for a good night's sleep under our mosquito netting.  Our Lodge had screens as well so it was double armour against the little bastards. We fell asleep to frogs croaking, crickets creaking and other RainForest sounds all in harmony under the tree canopy.

The Lodge at night


Delish Squash Soap

The Moon over the Amazon

Tarantula

Coral Snake on our pathway down to the boats.

In the Canoe getting ready to spot Caiman

Baby Caiman

Large Caiman crawling out of the water.

Caiman beside our boat.

Back at our lodge with the lamps lit by the staff.

Our mosquito netting over our bed.

The second day was an early start to meet at 5:30 am for breakfast and into the boat for a quick ride down the river, jump out and take a one-hour walk to the boats for Sandoval Lake where the Giant Otter which is rare and going extinct resides. 
12" long snail

Very common Amazon tree.

Our guide Dauger.

On the One-hour walkway path.  Without the raised platform we would have been one meter deep in mud.



We could only go within 50 or so feet of the Giant Otters borough but we unfortunately did not see them. But we saw countless other birds and a black Caiman and lots of cute monkeys who like to throw things at unsuspecting visitors and my favourite the Macaws. The boat ride around the lake area was heaven, no noise just Amazon sounds.  It had begun to rain while we were out on the lake and that was even special and the smell is so clean and fresh and earthy.
Amazon Bird

On the boat to take us to Lake Sandoval

Lake Sandoval used to be a tributary of the Amazon but it has since been cut off.


The Stinky Bird which is so beautiful




A snack was provided to us, delicious passion fruit.

A cheeky Monkey

We arrived back at the lodge for our lunch and some free time and to meet back at the Eco-Center so that we could take the boats for a quick ride upriver to the Suspension Bridges which were a series of bridges suspended 47 meters up into the tree canopy.  The walk up the 14 floors was good exercise but the view was worth it.  One person was allowed on the bridge at a time otherwise it is too swingy.  I was scared at first and then kind of got used to it.  The longest bridge was 100 meters.
It was raining for the boat ride to the bridges and then stopped, which was very lucky for us.

Steam rises from the jungle.


The Amazon is in the background.


The walkway to the bridges.

Walking the bridges.

Ann and Damien-the Aussies.



Platform

Going down

Darren on the bridge.


































We indulged in Happy Hour and I had a couple Pisco Sours which Peru makes the best ones, since it is their National drink!!  We geared up for a Night Safari around the Rainforest and everyone was having fun until the Fire Ants decided that we were too close to them and they aggressively had their way with our feet and lower limbs. 
Fire Ants, are horrid creatures.

Before that, we were checking out large spiders, nocturnal monkeys, snakes and of course against our will, the ants.  You must spray every 2 hours with Mosquito Spray or they will bite you.  We learned to spray our runners as well.  We returned to safety, showered, and changed for another fabulous supper.  I forgot to put on Mosi Spray for supper so they had their way with me in the main lodge where the door opens and closes a lot and they found their way to me as they always do.
The Jungle Rice meal was cooked in a banana leaf.

Delish salad appee

We fell asleep to Rainforest sounds including tree refuse falling on our thatched roof which does startle you.

The next morning we woke up to Howler Monkeys but they should be called Growler Monkeys. It is a very distinctive growling which sounds frightening when you first hear it. The males are responsible for the howling and they do have to keep their harem of women safe from predators.  We did see many Howlers and we certainly heard them throughout the days in the Rainforest.
Mommy Howler Monkey with a baby attached to her.

There he is looking around her back.


Beautiful plants in the Amazon that you would find at your local greenhouse for purchase for indoor plants.

We went for breakfast and a la carte is offered but I was so full from last night that I just went with the Buffett.
We went for a canoe ride through the mangroves for a little water safari concentrating on the trees and sky for flora and fauna.  We saw a lot of Macaws always flying in their monogamous pairings. The Stinky Bird is also monogamous and also seen as a couple. We felt that the Stinky Bird deserved a new name because we couldn't smell them and they were beautiful and they huff loudly when you come near to them and flap their feathers about most likely to distract us from their nest.


The Sleeping Bird always asleep and picture-perfect rarely flew away from us.  


A multitude of butterflies were about. Large ones and small, turquoise and red and yellow.
The flora was very interesting and pretty.




We saw tiny Day Bats that stuck to a tree and were quite camouflaged, then would fly away to eat mosquitoes.
Tiny bats on the tree.



Passion Flower vine grows wild in the Amazon

Bees Nest

Another flowering Amazon Plant

Another type of Monkey

We made our way back in the canoe to the dock and walked to the Eco-Center which was our meeting place before every excursion. We were sized up for rubber boots because the rain was steady last night and made mud out of the path we would be walking on.  The plants that we were introduced to were incredible. 

Mud everywhere.


Large Amazon tree.


Novacaine for numbing and pain was chewed on and it tastes horrid. 

We saw Tumeric Root and Ginger Root.  

Tumeric Root

We talked about the harvesting of Brazil Nuts, the work that goes into the collection of these nuts and how they end up on your tables in North America.  The Blood Dragon Tree was cut by a machete from Dauger and it can provide salve for any wound to heal.  
Dragon Blood Tree

The Rainforest of Peru can provide every kind of medicinal plant or tree that you need for any ailment. Dauger our Peruvian guide grew up in the jungle and made his way to University eventually and trained to be a teacher.  He missed the Rainforest so much that he left the classroom There is so much to eat and shelter can be provided from the trees that you can easily survive and thrive.



The Metal of the old Steamship that was left to rust in the Amazon when this part of the tributary dried up.





This tree is covered in thorns.


We had another superb lunch and had 2 hours of free time and I got to know a fabulous couple from Australia even better. Ann and Damien have been super fun and they are from Melbourne and we have both invited each other to come visit.

We met for the last excursion of the day to visit the salt clay licks for birds and animals of the Amazon.  Macaws are frequent visitors.  The one problem is that they only visit the clay bank when it has not been raining for at least two hours. They don't like to get their feathers wet because they then can't fly.  There was a break from the rain that day for a bit so we decided to chance it and made our way to the screened-in shack to potentially watch Macaws, Tapirs, and other animals. Unfortunately, it had rained too much so Dauger talked about growing up in the jungle and what that was like, also interesting.
We went back for Happy Hour and had another couple of Pisco Sours that were oh-so-good and then went on to have another great dinner.  I ordered another Amazon River fish that was delicious again and Peruvian fruit for dessert.
Another day in Paradise came to an end.

This next morning we woke up to the Howler Monkeys very close to our Lodge. We watched them for a while, with their babies and then went for breakfast.


This morning we made chocolate from scratch. We shelled the Cocoa Beans and ground them with a large grinding stone and slab, then we added icing sugar and powdered milk and put it through a grinder two times. It was warm and soft and oh so good!!  It was fun. As we did all the work with our Aussie friends Ann and Damien, Dauger our guide told us stories of his family in the jungle as we did all of the work.
Eco-Lodge where we met before each excursion and where we made our chocolate from scratch.

Beautfiul Morning in the Rain Forest.



The four of us peeled the bag of Cacao beans and produced this tiny basket of beans.

Grinder for the beans


Add sugar and milk

Grind it two times.

Viola, you have warm delicious freshly made chocolate full of antioxidants.

Later that day Ann and Damien took their first flight back home and we continued on with our day and went Piranha fishing.  Dauger caught two and I caught an Amazonian Sardine much bigger than a regular Atlantic Sardine but still small, so we threw it back into the water.
My sardine.

Dauger's first piranha.

Dauger's second piranha

We were fishing Amazon style with sticks.

We did see a sloth up in the tree and I videotaped him slowly ever so slowly making his escape from our peering gaze.  It was a great excursion.


We opted to not go out on another night safari to see Caiman, they are reptiles and don't really interest me that much.
We loved our place in the jungle and would highly recommend it and we would highly recommend visiting the Amazon Rainforest, it has been quite a memorable trip for us.



Taken on the morning we left for the airport in Puerto Maldonado.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Climbing Mt. Solmar with The Dogs, Los Cabos, Mexico

Ixtapa Island- Ixtapa, Mexico

Kuilau Ridge Trail - Kauai, Hawaii