A HEADS UP THAT I LOST THIS BLOG DRAFT AND HAD TO REDO ALMOST EVERYTHING TODAY (THURSDAY) SO IT WON'T BE UP TO MY STANDARDS....
Capybara are the largest rodents in the world. Just a heads up that almost every animal, bird, insect, reptile etc. are much larger in the Amazon rain forest. The capybara find safety at the water's edge as they can escape their predators by swimming in the water. Jaguar and Puma love to dine on these cute little creatures. They are grass eaters.
Lana's alarm goes off at 6:15 am. Awake to another foggy morning in Lima. Lots of joggers down below. Lana pre-booked our Uber for 7:15 am pickup. Yes, Uber is cheaper than taxis. Plus, you pay using your credit card directly via the app so no transfer for monies directly from you to the driver. No time for a shower. Head down to the second floor for our breakfast buffet. Rosaria is there with her usual warm greeting and fantastic service. We need to eat quickly and return to our room and grab our luggage and backpacks. The Uber is 64 Sols and is on time.
Wow, even though it is very early in the morning traffic is chaotic and gridlock. The hotel staff were correct in that it would take at least an hour. Horns honking, many red zones on Google Maps. All areas were busy with pedestrians, traffic and general hustle and bustle. Constant changing lanes and honking horns. Somehow we make it to Domestic terminal.
Great online map of Lima relative to Puerto Maldonado, Peru.
I thought I would try to convey the sheer crowds of people at the gates and in the terminal. Try to find a seat! From getting our boarding passes printed, dropped off our self-tagged bags, getting through security and boarding planes, it was pretty chaotic.
Yup, sheer chaos, anarchy and people not knowing what is going on.
On arrival at the airport, we need to figure out how and where to drop our bags. Very weird but at the domestic departures there is a security guard demanding to see some proof of your ticket or boarding pass. But since we are trying to print off our boarding passes, this seems especially ridiculous! My eSIM internet access not working so I cannot access our QR boarding passes, but I do have the email which the guard accepts. We are now into the chaos of this large room full of other travellers who have no idea where to go....So many people, so much noise, no organization or lines it seems. Another lucky thing is Lana has her internet access so we used her cellphone as a Hotspot for me to get internet access.
Despite the crowds, we find a computer kiosk and use my QR codes on my iPhone for the computer to recognize us. This kiosk prints our luggage tags and now we need to find the baggage drop-off. We find one and use the handheld scanner to confirm our luggage and the weight and leave it with our tags attached. Voila our bags are gone and we have our boarding passes on my iPhone to use for Security and at the gate. Up the escalator and follow the signs to the security entrance and the various queues.
Long lines that move at a decent pace. We shuffle along and Lana has her backpack pulled at Security for a manual check. Our Latam Flight 2260 shows as on time and will be at gate 10. More pandemonium at all the gates with all seats taken and people shuffling around. We do find two seats by magic. Lana heads to Starbucks counter for some Queso buns and some banana bread.
There is an announcement and we are now out of Gate 12. We shuffle over and there are no official lines or indication of priorities for zone loading. We are in Zone 5. We get chatting with other travellers from Australia and Wisconsin on the same flight..
A gate agent who speaks English says for us to go in a certain line, but we are dubious. We finally figure out this line is for Seniors and will have some priority with boarding. I finally have status with my age and now Lana can tag along. It is usually me tagging along with her status, but on Latam Airlines there is no consideration of Air Canada status. We scan our passports and our QR boarding passes and load the plane for Row 7A and 7B. Our plane was scheduled for 10:10 and leaves at 10:55 so about 45 minutes late. While on the plane I now see peace and happiness and everyone organized in their seats! Yeh!
Lana meanwhile is recovering from her experience of travelling just like everybody else and not having status on Air Canada for this flight LOL
Mostly cloudy the entire trip and flight time is around 75 minutes. We both did puzzles and listened to music on our headphones. There was a screaming young boy sitting directly behind Lana and she said when she plugged in her noise cancelling head phones and turned on her iPhone for music--she almost wanted to scream in joyful happiness! Lana is a firm believer that noise cancelling headphones are worth every penny!!
ETA was around 12:30. Temperature on landing at 34 degrees Celsius, but with the humidity seems dramatically hotter! It was a bumpy landing but we made it. Lots of farms in the jungle as we descended and a river flowing with brown water. Just as I had imagined.
Landed at Puerto Maldonado airport.
Our luggage arrived on the one conveyor belt so all good.
We have arrived on the tarmac of the Puerto Maldonado very small airport. There are no gates here.
On leaving the small terminal we found this guy holding a sign so we know we will be taken by the bus/van shuttle to the right place. The van is about 10 rows long and has cool air blowing onto our seats. In the end there are 12 of us on the van. My eSIM seems to work here with internet access. Eating the food Lana bought at Starbucks. We were provided fresh cold wet towels and so much appreciated them! Took the sting of the heat and humidity for certain. At least temporarily. We depart the airport around 13:15 and head to their main office located nearby in Puerto Maldonado.
Box lunch provided by the resort. In the green leaf was peruvian fried rice (chaufa) that is a chinese fusion food, Delicious! Also a some plantain chips and roasted brazil nuts. The juice at the bottom is a natural "tomato" fruit that has been sweetened. It's an unusual drink that doesn't taste tomatoey at all.
Porters take our luggage into their offices as some luggage will stay there and it all needs to be tagged by staff.
All luggage secured on the roof of the van.
Transported up and down by porters--talk about getting a work out all day. This made everyone a little nervous about hitting any big bumps in the road or sudden stops"We were debating paying 30 Sol for bug spray and in the end we decided to buy it. Wow, this became an excellent idea once we were at the lodge. Bus was re-loaded and some different people on board. Waiting on the late arrivals and it was 13:45 when we departed. While on the bus, we heard some information about this area of the Peruvian Amazon. Major industries are logging for mahogany and cedar among other woods, mining gold (most illegal) and farming fruit and various animals.There are 900,000 people living in Puerto Maldonado so it is quite large and spread out.
Caimans and not crocodiles are indigenous to the jungle here. Fishing for various species inclusive of giant catfish and paco in the rivers. There are fish farms as well. Tourism is a big industry in Puerto Maldonado. The reason the sky is not very blue is the smoke in the air from farmers burning their acreage to create more farmable land and for their livestock. With the influx of tourism like us, more emphasis now on conservation of plants and animals. Protect the Amazon! It is very overcast here and got to be due to the smoke. Landscape has lots of open land, trees, residences, farms. We are on a very long and straight paved road. Lana trying to nap in the bus. Many fruit stands with tropical fruit of course. Everything very green here despite it being the dry season. Eventually we take a turn at 14:25 down a rough gravel road. Heading to the river to meet up with our boat and guides. Came to a stop around 14:53 with a bathroom nearby. We need to make our way down a steep dusty trail to the river. The guides will take our luggage down the steep slippery hill to the boat below.
We push off and we are now on the river heading to our eco lodge in the middle of the jungle. Leave the riverside around 15:07 on a long and narrow boat with a huge 75 horsepower motor on the back. Pretty exciting to be in the jungle. The boat does not ride very high above the water line. We see some wildlife like Egret. "
Capybara sighting on our first excursion. center Member of the rodent family. People asked if they are edible and our guide said yes, but that there are better tasting things around to eat instead. The family of Capybara video supplied by Lana.
This is the dry season in the Amazon so little rainfall. The Tambopata River is running very low. In wet season the river can run up to 10 metres higher in places. There are some sticks sticking vertically up in the river and we are told they are left by local fishermen who attach hooks/bait and then come by every four hours to see what they have caught.
Map showing our Refugio relative to the Tambopata National Reserve.
You can see where our Refugio Amazonas eco lodge is located relative to other sites.
Arrive at our eco lodge around 16:00 Refugio Amazonas which is a walk from the Tambopata River and very close to the huge national park Tambopata National Reserve which is the very reason we chose this place. Close proximity to much more flora and fauna than other eco lodges.
The entrance to our resort--we are greeted with cold water or just and another cold towel--so refreshing!
We are in the room at the left of this photo. It's a large room and the windows you see have no pane. There are 9 rooms in a row and end rooms have more space for extra comfort. The roof over top of the entire structure is wide open meaning all the rooms are open above so sound travels (voices, showers, foot steps, etc.)
Sitting area because our room is a little larger.
The walk in shower--the water is collected below and recycled. The resort has 24 hour hot water but who wants to take a hot shower when it's 40 degree outside?
Our deluxe accommodations! Note the mosquito/bug netting--very important! Note the beautiful hardwood floors. We're not allowed to wear any outside shoes within the resort so most people wear flip-flops, socks or go barefoot. >Why is mosquito/bug netting so important? Because all rooms have no front closure--there is no glass or wall between the hammock and outside. We are wide open to the Amazon jungle so we can truly experience the wilderness. Up close. 24 hrs a day. Bugs and all. And there's no AC!
Sitting area in our room. We have a small fridge and decide to take one of our hand towels, soak it with water and keep it in the fridge so we have our own on-demand cold towel. BEST. THING. EVER. We tell our tour mates to do same but they tell us that not everyone has a fridge in their room.
To get to our lodge it is a long wooden staircase up a steep hill and then more stairs. Quite an elevation gain. Then it is about another ten minutes walk to the lodge/resort. Lana tired out and rested a few times but made it to the lodge and a fresh cold glass of water. After checking into our room and getting set up we were to meet the others in the dining room. Our guide will be Dennys. There are two other couples in our group. Richard and Diane from Wisconsin. Scott and Charles from New York City (Brooklyn Heights).
We need to confirm our activities for the next two days by reaching consensus between the six of us. There are many activities to choose from and the other two couples are here for two more days while we are staying for a full third day. Our guide Dennys will always accompany us on each activity. We reached consensus on both days pretty quickly and the third day was just for the two of us to decide.
Our Schedule:
Tuesday Chuncho Clay Lick 4 am to 11:15
Tuesday Oxbow Lake Walk 3 pm to 6:30 pm
Tuesday Discovering New Species 8:15 pm to 9:15 pm
Wednesday Canopy Tower 5:15 am to 7:00 am
Wednesday Mammal Clay Lick 9 am to 11:30 am
Wednesday Tambopata Sunset Cruise 4 pm to 6 pm
Wednesday Night Walk 8:15 pm to 9:15 pm
Thursday Mountain Biking Randy 9 am to 10:30 am
Thursday Amazon Trail Camera 4:15 pm to 5:30 pm
Thursday Discovering New Species 8:15 pm to 9:15 pm
There are daily lectures at 18:30 on level two of the main lodge. You do not wear your shoes inside the lodge area. They are kept on shelves in the shoe place where you enter the lodge. When leaving your room never leave the lights on as that will attract more insects. Put any food inside a safe lock box or in our case we put food into our fridge. Mosquito nets set up in all rooms and will be put out each night be staff.
There is a buffet dinner tonight and all nights, breakfasts and lunches. Dinner will be available as of 19:30. The food is excellent. Tonight it was salad, pork, chicken, hearts of palm, rice, fruit, plantain with melted cheese and desserts inclusive of pudding. Any liquor is extra cost. We always sit with the two other couples that we share our guide with.
We did attend the 18:30 presentation given by Arcela the naturalist on staff. She covered aero-botany and citizen science. Some facts covered:
- courtesy of eBirds, Peru has the most bird species in the world
- the Lupuna tree was the inspiration for James Cameron's Avatar film series
- they use drones to catalog Brazil Nut Trees and each tree can produce huge seed pods that are heavy and can contain 17-25 nuts
- Agouti eat these Brazil nuts out of the pods by breaking the pod open
- humans use a machete to bread open the pods
- these trees are protected by Peru law from being chopped down
- "Wired Amazon" project is aero-botany involving drones to collect data
- it can take a new tree up to 30 years to produce the seed pods
Back to our room around 20:30 and we have the ceiling fan on high speed! This is an eco lodge, but they have electricity 24/7 although it can cut in and out at times we discover. The wifi can cut out as well on occasion. We need to get to bed as we will set our cellphone alarms for 03:40. We have our clothes ready, head lamps, bug spray, long pants, hats, hiking boots, wind breaker, binoculars etc. Won't be much sleep tonight.
We are surrounded by the sounds of the jungle but safely protected in our mosquito netting around the outside of the bed. Many different sounds and pitches and it does not ever end. Lana's knee still bothering her so hoping she is good to go tomorrow. For the day we record 6,365 steps.
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