The following morning, we said goodbye to John and Penny and continued our adventure in the jungle! We took a short flight to the tiny town of Puerto Maldonado, and wow, it was a shocker! It was like 40 degrees outside and HOT! What a difference from the high altitude and temperatures of Cusco.
They picked us up in a jungle tour bus and drove us through the town to their office to downgrade our luggage and head on the boat that would take us down the Madre de Dios River. There was a group of us on the same flight who were all staying at the Eco Amazonia Lodge and spent all three days together.
Driving through the town, it was remarkable to see the way they live. Construction at a standstill, dogs everywhere (like the rest of the places in Peru) and the motorcycle taxis who were driving all the kids to/from school without helmets.
It was a 1.5 hour boat ride down the river to the lodge. We saw quite a few goldminers along the river's edge panning for gold. Made me quite nervous for them because who knows how many crocodiles and anacondas are in those waters, but the locals didn't seem to mind. I even saw a few children swimming while the mothers were washing their clothes in the river!!
We had lunch with the group and took a boat to Monkey Island, which is an island close to the lodge where rescued monkeys are released back into the wild. We saw white and brown capachin monkeys, spider monkeys and tamarins. The tour guide used his machete to cut us through the jungle and we also had to veer around quick sand! The monkeys were fed bananas and some were brave enough to take them out of our hands or hop on our shoulders. One funny tidbit was that we all had to completely hide our water bottles, as they know how to unscrew the caps. At the end of our tour, we walked along the beach during a gorgeous red sunset!!! We refreshed in their cold indoor pool and enjoyed a nice dinner. All of the food was included in our package so that was easy to partake in new and interesting things.
We then had a caiman night boat tour, where we took a small boat down the river hunting for some crocs. We did find some and they were nice to look at, but the most spectacular part was the stars. UNBELIEVABLE!!! Absolutely no light pollution so the night sky was the most clear and wonderful thing I had ever seen. It was so peaceful listening to the birds in the jungle and look at the stars.
The adventurous thing about our lodge was that they only had electricity from 5:30 to 10pm ONLY. No warm showers. The fan stops working in our jungle bungalow at 10pm and we are left to sweat all hot and sticky for the evening! The howler monkeys wake you up at 5:30am (if you're not up already) and one of the things that came to mind was that Andrew's mother would have hated this place, ha ha. Andrew and I both loved it though, because it was amazing to lay in bed in the bungalows in the middle of the jungle and just listen to the birds and the monkeys. It was very serene.
Our wake up call the next morning was at 5am. And by wake up call, I mean they came around and banged on our doors! We had breakfast and left the lodge by 6am to hike about 15km back and forth to Lost Lake through the jungle! Of course if we didn't leave until 9 or 10am, we'd hit the major heat and would never survive.
We saw many things walking through the jungle. Our guide was quite incredible at showing us different vines and plants and things that the locals use for medicine or clothing or food. There was wild cotton, we drank from the wonderful vine (helps cure a broken heart), saw a tarantula pulled out of its hole, Andrew ate a sui worm, saw howler monkeys, toucans, macaws, herons, wild pigs were hunting us, green leaves that turned purple for makeup if you added water and rubbed them, and a special iron tree that makes you have erotic dreams if you sleep near it.
We finally made it to Lost Lake and took a small rowboat through the lake looking at lots of turtles and birds and caimans. After we got out of the boat at the end, the guide was nice enough to tell us that there are anacondas in that water!!!!! Good thing he told me AFTER and not before!!!!
We climbed up a 45m high lookout tower and then hiked the 8km back to the lodge. We had lunch, swam in the pool and took pictures around the lodge grounds. Everybody else in our group took naps, but Andrew and I thought it was far too hot to nap in our bungalow.
We had a botanical garden tour in the late afternoon where he showed us the penis root tree, lime trees, lemon trees, avocado trees, bananas, lemon grass, ginger root, coriander, onion, trees that help heal menstrual cramps, and one that helps pass parasites out of your body. These are all grown on the grounds of the lodge. There are also birds that walk around the lodge where if you pet his head, he falls asleep for a few seconds, and beaver-type animals that walk around the grounds.
We also toured their viagara tree (takes 3-4 months to actually brew), and their ayahuasca trees, which give you hallucinations when boiled in water. There was a shaman on the grounds learning how to do these hallucination sessions. It all seems kinda bogus to me but apparently it's the new "piote". People come to this lodge specifically for these sessions to help heal you from addictions or renew your mind. Our tour guide told us this amazing story about once he tried it and dreamed about snakes coming at his head and ex girlfriends. Quite bizarre.
After that we had some drinks out by the hammocks along the river and then enjoyed our last dinner with our group. They were a nice bunch. A mother and daughter from Vancouver, a single Australian woman, two guys from Romania, a couple from Belgium, and a couple from BC. It was very fun to hang out with them and do our trips together. We all enjoyed some drinks in the bar after dinner, and then packed up and went to bed.
The following morning we were up at 6 for breakfast and had to catch the boat back to Puerto Maldonado to fly back to Cusco to hitch our flight to Juliaca.
The jungle part of our trip was really fun. It was unlike anything we'd ever done before. It was so hot but it was really neat to walk through the jungle and experience the Amazon life. Mostly I was thankful for the fact that I didn't get eaten by any anacondas :)
Lake Titicaca (and warm showers....) here we come!
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