The Mighty, Amazing Amazon!

Lake Sandoval Bayou

Bats on tree on Lake Sandoval

Rich with Marie at Lake Sandoval break

Matthew at Lake Sandoval break

Clouds over Lake Sandoval

Julie's butterfly encounter

Lake Sandoval

Parrots at the clay lick



Rich on the Madre Dios River

Julie on the Madre Dios River

Julio sharpening his machete

Cacao pods on the tree

Julio with cacao pod



Banana tree

Felipe the jungle farmer

A Little Ese'eja girl

 Ese'eja chief

 Ese'eja man making a fire

Dancing with the  Ese'eja

Tree Sloth in the  Ese'eja "zoo"

Clouds over the Madre Dios River

Julie's muddy boots

Trudging lodge-ward

Sunlight through the trees in Tambopata

Julie washing her boots

Julie looking cool and collected

Andrea, Marie and Julie in the canoe

Bayou launch port

Lake Sandoval

Squirrel Monkey

Squirrel Monkey 2

Julie the warrior

All of us in the canoe

Julie and Andrea

Julie in the jungle mud

Camp Macaw

Peccary in our camp

Corto Maltes grounds

Julio in didactic mode

Sarah and Marie with tribal paint

Hoatzin/Stink birds

K'ala kunka (literally "bare neck" a common chicken breed in Peru) Photo for Linda Petersen

Julie with the tame camp parrot

Camp Macaw



Squirrel Monkey 3

 


Squirrel Monkey 4

Rich and big tree

Rich and Marie washing our boots off

Puerto Maldonado market

While Julie’s brother Matthew and family were here we asked permission to be absent from our work and made a trip to Puerto Maldonado.  This city is in the Amazon rain forest and sits at the confluence of the Madre de Dios and Tambopata rivers, two grand tributaries of the Amazon. We felt the change from high altitude and cool, mostly dry weather. Puerto is humid, warm and lush. It’s a busy port city with lots of motorcycle taxis and some newly paved roads. In the midst of the rain forest, it has such an “alive” feeling. It is a constant effort to keep the jungle at bay, plants literally grow overnight. 

We got into a boat and went down the Madre de Dios River about 45 minutes to our jungle lodge, Corto Maltese. The grounds are gorgeous and full of incredible plants, flowers, parrots, macaws, toucans and agoutis (rodent like critters about the size of a cat) Our bungalows were great and comfortable and each bungalow had two hammocks on the porches to enjoy the surroundings. The food was delicious, and we spent our days in knee-high rubber boots walking/sloshing through the forest. Our guide Julio was excellent and pointed out many animals, birds, plants and edible goodies. We were fortunate on our night excursion to see caiman (small crocodile relatives) and capybara (the largest rodent in the world and related to the guinea pig.) 

On Friday we slogged our way 3 km through knee high mud/water to Lake Sandoval in the Tambopata National Reserve.  It was quite the adventure! Julie was the first off the boat for our hike to the lake and started to follow all the other muddy footprints, only to find there was no bottom to the mud she stepped in and was stuck up to her knees in cement like mud. With our guide and Rich holding on to her boots, and the boat captain pulling on her, she was able to free herself with boots intact and a huge amount of humiliation! That mud on her boots and a bit on her knees was nothing compared with what was to come. The trail was slippery, wet, sticky mud and our group made quite the music as we made sucking, popping, slurping noises as we extracted our boots from the goop.

Once we arrived at the lake we got into canoes and worked our way through the bayou to the spectacular Lake Sandoval. We made our way around the shore and saw hoatzin birds, fish and as we sat in a little cove the trees suddenly came alive with a group of 50+ spider monkeys, jumping, swinging and chattering. They were there to eat the fruit off a bush they like and they were hilarious to watch. We also saw a few Hoatzin. These are pheasant-sized birds with the alternative name of "stink bird," derived from the bird's manure-like odor, caused by its digestive system. We did not get close enough to check this out.

We had a wonderful time and as we headed back to the trail the rain started. We thought it was a nice sprinkle and then the heavens opened and we were in a deluge in the rainforest. The trail became a stream, deep and fast moving. It was warm and we were drenched but we had fun.  We finally made it back to our bungalow where we changed into dry clothes and attempted to dry our muddy, soaked clothes from the hike. Things don’t dry well in the jungle, so our clothes stayed wet and muddy.  After our late lunch the rain continued so we headed to our hammocks to have a rest.

While we walked, Julie stepped on a very slippery, wet stepping stone and fell in the wet muddy greenery and just lay there and cried because she had no dry clothes to put on! Rich was a hero though and didn’t laugh or take pictures (though he regrets this last bit of chivalry bitterly now)! He even washed her clothes for her so they were at least clean. She had clean but wet clothes to wear to dinner and by then she was laughing about the day’s adventures.

On Saturday we got up early and hiked about 20 minutes to a clay lick where we were able to see the parrots that come there to eat the mud that helps their digestion. Not long after we arrived the parrots started coming into high the treetops. Gradually they worked their way down to the clay and it was a spectacular sight.

After breakfast we visited an old farmer up river from us.  Our guide took us through his plantation where we tried wild tomatoes, bananas, various citrus fruit, cacao fruit, herbs etc. right from the trees and plants. 

We then got back in the boat and travelled down river 1 ½ hours to visit a family of the Ese’eja tribe. It was fascinating to hear their language and learn about their daily lives. They make their clothes/smocks out of a tough tree bark that they pound until it is soft and pliable then stich together pieces to make their smock/dresses.  They certainly would be cooler in that climate than western clothes and are probably optional when they are not attending visitors. The chief told us how they hate to wear shoes to go into Puerto Maldonado and that as soon as they’re back on their boat, off come the shoes and shirts.  He invited us to do a kind of a ring around the rosie dance with him and the whole clan. We bought some pretty seed bracelets that the women made and had a lovely boat ride back to the lodge.

The weather was perfect, not terribly hot, even the afternoon of rain was lovely.  The mosquitos even cooperated; we maybe had one bite each. We were able to enjoy some time in the pool watching the macaws, toucans and parrots flying around and watching the spectacular sunsets. What a grand time we had and wonderful memories.