Deep in the jungle....
Trip Start
Mar 25, 2007
1
57
72
Trip End
Feb 16, 2008
Puerto Maldonado,
Peru
Monday, November 26, 2007
Well after surviving the inca trail, we headed straight to the Jungle to try and see some wildlife...
We flew to Puerto Maldonado, on the Rio de Madres River, to visit the Tambopata nature recerve. Our guide met us at the airport, and as he had another group to drop off took us to a nearby snake park, where they rescue snakes that are living in urban areas, keep them for a few months for the tourists, then release them to the wild...It was informative, but animals in Cages just arenīt the same. They did however have a wildcat (canīt remember its proper name) that had been blinded by an infection as a little one, that they had rescued. he was ver cool!!
That afternoon we went for a walk into the jungle at the back of the lodge...we heard monkeys playing, but they were too shy and we didnīt get to see them, but we did see a giant anteater, which was really cool and pretty rare to see, as well as a toucan (at a great distance), tarantulas (there were plenty of these on the tree in the lodge grounds!) and millions upon millions of mossies! Was a nice walk, our guide was very good at spotting things!
The next day it was an early start to head to an oxbow lake, with a big walk through the forest spotting as we went. We saw several groups of monkeys, some of which went right over the top of us, lots of parakeets and Macaws and plenty of butterflys on the way to the lake. Once at the lake we jumped into a small wooden boat so as to paddle around disrupting the wildlife as little as possible. We made it to one end of the lake without seeing anything, and were getting a bit sick of it when we spotted giant river otters fishing for piranhas. There was a group of about 6 adults diving and jumping out of the water and then crunching down on the piranhas. They are really very endangered and so once again we were lucky to see them. On the way back we also saw yellowhead turtles sunning themselves on the logs in the lake.
That afternoon (after our siesta) we headed to monkey island, an island created by the diversion of the river, where a colony of squirrel and carpuchin monkeys live. Unfortunately they need to have their diet supplemented and so associate humans with food, our guide put some bananas down for them, but the leaders chased us none the less. There was a few hairy minutes where the monkeys were dropping from trees between us and the boat, but they calmed down and we escaped un harmed. we did laugh our heads off though at how freaked out we were by little monkeys coming towards us!
That night before dinner we had an impromptu trip on the river with a spotlight, to see caymans (small aligators)m which we saw 3 or 4, and we also saw Capabara (sp?), a giant nocturnal rodent that lives on the river bank. We saw a family of 4, and once gain our guide told us we were lucky to have seen them as most of the river front is farms and lodges and so their habitat is really diminished in that area.
The next day we woke to pouring rain (to be expected it is the rainy season and we were in the rain forest) so aftert a late start we headed up the river to a project that rescues and tries to rehablitate animals that people have kept as pets. They had a taper (very strange looking) wandering round, as well as Macaws, spider and carpuchin monkeys, wild pigs and 2 jaguars who had both been orphaned by hunters. The jaguars were absolutely beautiful, but its such a shame to see an animal like that locked up. They have a male and a female, they arenīt allowed to re release them to the reserve as they are used to people and so they are afraid that they may attack humans, they are both very young at the moment but they intend to breed them there.
This morning we were supposed to visit a Macaw īlickī where the birds come in the morning to feed, but because of the rain the river had risen about 2 metres over night so this wasnīt possible. We just went for a walk in the forest instead, and saw a group of squirrel monkeys, heard but didnīt quite see wild pigs, and saw plenty of butterflys and birds.
All in all a successful trip, weīre now back in Cusco for the last time, and heading for Lake Titicaca tomorrow.
Hope you are all well
Katie and Hamish
