Well ma' ....we survived the amazon and all the ferocious beasts that accompany it.
Emma and I decided to spend a 3day/2night excursion into the amazon jungle at the Posada Amazonia lodge. When we first booked this, we literally had no idea what to expect. Perhaps it was going in with zero expectations and expecting to encounter at least one tarantula in our bedroom, but it was such an amazing experience. The staff and especially our guide for the weekend, Silverio, were perhaps the best I've ever had. The bedrooms and lodge were in such amazing condition, the food was incredible, and the activities were perfect. We honestly had no complaints.
Our fortune began with the flight over from Lima and luck would have it that Emma an I sat right next to a professor from the university of Maryland who brought along his class of 21 students from the masters program of public policy. He has been doing this trip to the same lodge for years now and was very welcoming in answering all the questions we initially had. We decided to be their caboose for the trip with hopes of catching some lectures and other tidbits about their purpose and studies.
Upon landing in Puerto Maldonado, the company picked us up and took us to their headquarters where we were greeted openly with fresh squeezed papaya juice, tea, and coffee. From there we took a half hour bus ride through the various villages of Puerto Maldonado which were composed of: small huts made of various scrap materials/dirt floors, papaya farms, and various haciendas. Although we were merely passing on a bus, it was quite interesting getting a glimpse into the different lifestyle of these citizens of the jungle and how community oriented they appeared.
We then made our way to a canoe shaped power boat where we ventured off onto the Tambota river for a 45min boat ride to the lodge. The Maryland folksmen quickly acclimated and accepted us as one of their own, directing their conversations more towards us than their own kin. That, the marvelous lunch, which consisted of a mixture of rice and chicken wrapped in a banana leaf, and well of course the boat ride down the frickin' amazon river made it quite the jolly introduction. But what really brought this full swing was passing by a tree that was filled by about 50 macaws! Apparently this had never occurred before for the guides as they usually are more hidden in the jungle but with a recent flood that eroded their usual tree, they've been couch surfing around and were testing this one out by the clay lick. We spent about 10min wearing down our cameras when they essentially put on a show for us and all erupted from the tree and started flocking around in various dance formations - it was quite the site.
Going from Lima, which is in the desert, the the jungle lodge, which is well in the jungle, made for quite the change as we soon found out we'd have a persistent sweat and have a coat of water on our skins for the three days. Thus upon making it to the lodge, being greeted with more fresh and cold papaya juice and a cold damp laundered wash cloth just blew our minds. This was then followed by being shown to our rooms which were essentially the ritz-carolton of the jungle by at least my standards. The room only had 3 walls and the supposed 4th was wide open to the jungle. We never had any issue with any wildlife entering, only seeing a red tailed deer once right outside, but no tarantulas which we were expecting as one of the reviews on TripAdvisor had warned they had one in their bathroom. The room's hammock, bed with an awesome canopy bug net, woodpecker door knocker, and the wood work made our dirt ridden jungle bodies feel as comfortable as could be.
With the Maryland group being so big, they had their own guide and so we just lounged around until our guide, Silverio brought the rest of our group from the airport as they were on a later flight. We honestly lucked out once again as our group consisted of two Australian girls, and a couple from Chicago, all being around 26yrs old, which really helped make this trip. They were overly friendly, could talk to them about any topic, and were just the kindest of folk. I ended up getting a tad sick the second day with a stomach bug and the couple from Chicago being both in the medical field, just unloaded their medical supplies and care onto me, even leaving me with a doggy pill bag upon leaving today. After making our introductions and also selecting our Wellies from the ridiculously massive Wellington boot rack, we stomped forth into the real depths of the jungle to the canopy tower they had built. The tower was absurdly huge, 37meters, or 120ft for you yankees, and confirmed that I don't have a fear for heights, but that I seriously question foreign man made structures that probably don't have the same kind of govt regulations as the US has, or well any at all for that matter. Aside from the increased shaking the higher up the tower we went, the view was unimaginably breathtaking. A full 360 view with the river right below us and densely packed trees that continued with the curvature of the earth, it felt like I was Mufasa showing Simba the lay of the land.
We then returned to the lodge where we dabbled upon some more Pisco sours and some other drinks the staff had invented from the natural resources of the jungle. Dinner commenced a phenomenal day as we didn't have to worry about where to eat and the food was all local forest food and tasted phenomenal. We quickly hit the hay as we soon discovered we had to
Wake up at 4:00am to start the day ....
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