Amazon Rainforest Jungle

Just got back from the Amazon tonite. I have been jumping from one adventure to the next.

Manu National Park

Manu is a world heritage site and is one of the largest bioreserves in the world. This part of the Amazon is not technically on the Amazon River (it is way up north). However, there is a big river that runs through it. There are three zones. About 90% of it is off limits to anyone but scientists and it is really well protected. There are a few remote tribes (like the one they found in Brazil) in it, but they do little damage and the government lets them remain, as they should. There is another 5% that is open to tourists, but not this time of year, since it is the rainy season and it is a really dangerous road. I had a hard time finding any tours here at all because of it. The last part is the cultural zone, and that is what we visited. It is essentially populated, but hardly much at all.

Day 1: Got picked up at 5am along with the rest of the group: Two Swedish girls, Lina and Isabel, and an older retired couple from Denmark, Karen and Leif, along with our tour guide, rafting guide, and driver. It was a 10 hour ride and I tried to sleep most of the way, since it was around really sharp curves and along cliffs the entire way (I couldn´t bare to watch too much or I would get really nervous we would go over the cliff....) The scenery was amazing though. We traveled up into the Andes and through the cloudforest before heading down into the Amazon Basin.

Along the way, we stopped at in two small towns that had local markets going on (it was Sunday, a big day for the markets, as well as for rural girls to come to bigger towns to meet men). It is so interesting seeing all the food and goods people are selling. We also stopped at some ruins of tombs where they mummified bodies. It was really cool because they found some of the bodies mummified along with their dogs. I had just finished a book before I left that mentioned that this took place in a lot of cultures so it was cool to hear about it. Evidently, the dogs are taken with them to guide the way to heaven.

Up in the cloudforest, our Guide (YoYo, or Jojo?) was talking about the cows up on the hill and the Swedish girls and I gave each other funny looks because...they were horses! This pretty much clued us into the fact our guide was not the greatest...unfortunately, Marco on The Inca Trail really set the bar high. We laughed about the cows the entire trip! He did know his birds, etc., but he really just wasn´t into it, and seemed kind of lazy, and we were looking for lots of adventure.

Anyway, we finally arrived near our lodge and went to a viewing platform to see the ¨Cock of the Rock¨ , the official Peru bird. It is clack and white with a bright red head that is similar to a rooster (kind of). Anyway, there were a bunch of males, they are usually in a 10:1 ratio, not bad odds :). They come to this place to fight for the females - like a discoteque (per our guide). Afterwards, we went to our lodge, which was really rustic but nice (we had real toilets). We had electricity from 6-8. Slept really well that night, listening to the rain in the jungle.

Day 2: We got up about 6:30am and hiked about an hour down the road. Here we got to see a couple monkeys! Then we drove a couple hours and ended up making stops in a few small towns (I mean really small!) We made one stop at a bakery, and got to have some fresh rolls, they were so delicious! We then also made a stop to someone´s house where they had a coca plantation, as well as coffee, bananas, and papaya, as well as other stuff. Here we got the full rundown on Coca. It is legal in the Andes, but not the northern part of Peru. Supposedly it is not even technically legal but because the Andean people use it for their religion, the govt leaves them alone. However, it is not really found much outside of the Andes (or so our guide said).

After a couple hours, we got to the town where we began our rafting down the river. I had never done river rafting, but it was level 2-3 so it was easy rapids. I had a lot of fun. We rafted down the river for about an hour and then arrived in another small town, where we got on a boat to get to our next lodge, only accessible by boat. The motor on the boat ( a really long skinny boat)died and luckily we were headed downstream. They ended up pushing the boat by hand using a long pole, and also working with the rapids. There were several people that came along on this ride and we found our that a couple did the Canopy zip lines and a few were jungle guides.

The next lodge was cool because it was surrounded by jungle and had several paths to take. Lina and I (one of the swedish girls) went hiking by ourselves since our guide was being lazy. We hiked for about an hour and saw some really cool stuff. Tons of tropical plants, cool fungi and lichens everywhere, and crazy vines that were like ropes hanging from all the trees (like Indiana Jones!). We went back to the lodge and then the whole group went for hike, along with a few of the native guys that came along on the boat. We hiked a little different route this time and ended up seeing some really cool spiders and found out that one of the trees with several above ground roots was a walking palm. The palm grows new roots to leverage itself and move to where there is more light to grow. We ate dinner that nite and went to bed early, really exhausted, and having to get up at 5am the next day.

Day 3: We got up at 5am and took a short boat ride (they fixed the motor) to the Parrot Clay Lick. Essentially, it was a spot along the river with exposed clay (like maybe there had been a landslide at one point). Here we got to watch tons of birds flying around us and landing in the trees. The coolest were the Macaws, which flew in pairs (they mate for life). There were also a bunch of parakeets (but really small parrots) that also flew in pairs but in large groups instead of solo. I had never seen birds fly in pairs before. There were a bunch of other birds but since I am not an ornithologist, I don´t really remember what they were. We thought they would start flying down to eat clay (it helps their digestion), but soon they all left for further down the river and we saw why: There was a huge falcon that was sitting nearby, that preys on parrots. We got to see them further down the river eating clay though.

Went back for breakfast and I took a short nap and then we were off to the Canopy Tour on zip lines. We saw more monkeys on the way. It was just us girls (the older couple from Denmark weren´t into it) and even though I had done it before in Honduras, I was nervous. There is always that element of questioning whether they really know safety in third world countries. There were 4 lines, about 40 meters high in the tree canopies. The first one was 120 meters long as well. There were two guides with us and also a little 5 year old girl named Yasmine, who was so damn cute! (she was the daughter of the family that ran the lodge). This was her first time doing the zip lines and the guys shared turns holding her while they...zipped? (not sure what the term is). It was really fun, although the first time I braked too soon and had to turn around and pull myself along the line to the platform. All was well and good. At the end, we had to rappel down about 60 feet or so (I am so bad at judging distance), which was the first time I had to do something like that. It was pretty cool. All was well and good until the last guide came down with Yasmine. Just below the platform, she had gotten her hair stuck in the line (there was this hook thing that helped control the movement down the rope) The other guide was frantic, and Yasmine was screaming. He asked if we had a knife and no one did (and you would think they would have ...but that is part of the whole safety thing in 3rd world countries). So the other guide had to run to the beginning and zip down all 4 lines to get to them. All the while, we were trying to calm the girl down. The guy holding her did a pretty good job and got her stop crying a few times, but she may also just have been in shock. Once the other guy got there, me and another girl each held their ropes and helped move them to grab the platform and they finally got her hair free and came down. She was so brave but so exhausted as well. She fell asleep in their arms on the hike back. It was pretty scary, listening to her screaming and being so helpless. By the end of the day, she had forgotten all about it and was her happy sweet little self again.

We went back and had lunch and went swimming in the river and relaxed for bit. A little while later, the next group came, which included Andy and Greg, the two brothers I was hiking with on the Inca Trail (I told them about it but they had to leave a day later). They were there with their friend and also 3 German guys. We ended up playing soccer, with the 3 Germans and us 3 girls against 6 of the native guys. They won, but only by a point. I was a damn good goalie and I really had fun playing soccer again. Went swimming again and then got ready for the next hike.

We took a short boat to another part of the river and hiked about 45 mins to a Lake where there were tons of birds. We got on these log rafts and the two guides were were with used poles to push us around the lake. There were some crazy looking birds. On the way back, a dog I befriended (I befriend a lot of dogs when I travel bc I miss mine so much), walked back with us to the boat.

We got back and the German guys were drinking 40 ouncers and were drunk and singing - it was pretty funny. We had a few beers and played cards with Andy and Greg, and their guide and another dude. I learned an new game to teach everyone! Then we had dinner with the whole group, which was fun.

After dinner, our guide was going to take the three of us for a short nite walk, but the other guys wanted to go with us and their guide wanted to do a 3-4 hour nite hike, which were were totally down for. Our guide ended up staying behind (he was lazy), along with the Danish couple. We went with the rest of the people and a few of the guides. Two of the three drunk germans were somehow given machetes and were being really obnoxious and cutting everything in their path (and we were on a trail). The rest of us stayed far away. It was kind of funny because they were like little boys with new toys but it was kinda scary too since they were drunk and waving wildly, in pitch black. It was irritating me that they were killing so many plants too. Although, I must say that the jungle almost seems to grow back immediately, or at least it gives that feeling. We saw tons of insects: several species of wolf spiders, katydids, grasshoppers, walking sticks, and tree frogs. At one point, we tried to go around the river and the Germans were given a real task with the machete and they and the guides bushwacked a trail but it ended up going right back to the river. So, we backtracked and walked across several logs laying across the river. It was pretty slippery, so the guides took our hands and helped us across. (On a side note, I decided, I really like the way Latin men are so chivalrous with women. I could have tried to make it across by myself but it was nice to be helped instead) We finally finished the hike about midnite. When we got back, I took out my poi and played (I p0layed earlier for Yasmine as well) and then the one German guy who did not have the machete, picked up the poi and spun them like a natural. One of the guides also played guitar and another one was hanging out and we just sat and talked for awhile, which was really cool. I like talking to the locals and getting their perspective on things.

Day 4: Not much to say. We left on the boat to go back up the river around 8am. It was raining really hard, which reminded me that we had been so lucky not to have rain much at all except at nite when we were sleeping. We had a 12 hour ride back to Cusco. On the way, something happened to the car but they got it fixed and we were on our way.

So, that was my Amazon trip. It was pretty cool. Manu has one of the most biodiverse rainforests ion the world. Unfortunately, we were not in the thick of it due to the time of year, but all in all it was good.