Amazon Basin

Almost 50% of Peru is part of the Amazon Basin but only about 5% of Peru's population inhabit the region. There are several areas that the traveller can visit to experience the jungle. Iquitos is the largest city in the Peruvian jungle, it once was the world capital of rubber production. There are flights from Miami once a week and from Lima everyday. Since there is no virgin jungle within a day's river journey of Iquitos we really wanted to go the Manu National Park but visits here are either time consuming (overland route) or expensive (charter flight) so we decided on visiting the Reserva Nacional Tambopata Candamo near Puerto Maldonado, the site of the Colpa de Guacamoyos - South American's longest macaw and parrot salt lick.

If you visit either Manu or Tambopata, Cuzco is the best place to travel from and there are plenty of agencies in town that will make all the arrangements. Although you might get slightly cheaper deals in Puerto Maldonado its probably not worth the trouble. We dealt with SAS Travel who have an office on the west side of the Plaza de Armas. I certainly recommend them after AeroCondor screwed up our flight to Puerto Maldonado. This resulted in wasting over a half day in Cuzco airport (wasted sightseeing time), they arranged to pay for our hotel room that night in Cuzco and made new arrangements with another airline (Santander) and with the jungle safari company in Puerto Maldonado. A jungle trip is not cheap - for a 4 day, 3 night trip including airfare, accommodations, meals, entrance fees, and the services of several guides cost US$385 each. An overland trip will take longer but drop the per day cost. A trip to Manu will cost almost twice as much.

Puerto Maldonado

After one early morning waiting for a flight that never happened, we arrived early again to catch the early morning to Puerto Maldonado. Peruvian airlines are famous for overbooking and you have to arrive for your flight two hours before departure since its first come first serve. LanPeru is probably the only exception, very professional. The German couple we had befriended the previous day shared the cab to the airport. They also booked their trip with SAS Travel but were staying in a different lodge than us. It a short flight to Puerto Maldonado, about an hour aboard an old Soviet plane.

With its many different climate zones, packing for a trip to Peru can be challenging if your trying to pack light. The Andes get cold at high, even below freezing. The jungle is hot and moist. The coast is hot and dry. Keeping your backpack below 15 kilograms is easy if you follow a few simple rules. Pack your backpack then remove half the clothes and take more money. Actually clothes are fairly cheap in developing countries so if you need clothes buy locally. Take three of everything (t-shirts, socks, underwear etc); one to wear, one to wash, and one in case you forgot to wash. Since we left for the airport early in the morning with the temperature near 0°C we were wearing a t-shirt, sweater (purchased in Cuzco) and a jacket when we arrived in Puerto Maldonado where it was over 20°C at 9 in the morning. Everyone was stripping off layers of clothes as we were waiting for our luggage. As you arrive at the airport public nurses will check to make sure you have your yellow fever card. If you can't produce your yellow card they will give you a shot at the nursing station in the airport, no guarantees on the hygiene. One of the women on our flight suddenly became sick, the nurses were helpful.

Just outside the airport were several people holding up signs for the various lodges. The German couple were going to a different lodge than us but we soon meant several couples who were booked with Wasaí Lodge. Ten people were booked for the trip but one person was coming in on a different flight so we waited at the Wasaí Lodge in town, a very nice lodge next to the river. It turned out the sick person at the airport was part of our group. After the last person arrived we began our trip up the Rio Tambopata, the jungle lodges can only be reached by boat.

While in town buy some brazil nuts, not only are they delicious you are supporting the local economy since 30% of the local population is involved with the harvest of these wild nuts.

Jungle

There are many lodges along the river, the Wasaí lodge is one of the furthest from Puerto Maldonado and only about another hour from the salt lick. The only lodge further up the river is the Colpa Lodge or Tambopata Research Station, it can take almost all day to travel here and because of distance is the most expensive lodge, Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger stayed there. The sick women spend the entire river trip lying on a bench in the boat, didn't even get out when we had to register at a park station. Wasaí Lodge is one of the newer lodges, it wasn't even mentioned in our guide book.

All the lodges are rustic but comfortable. There is no electric except for a generator to power the refrigerator, cold beer. Lighting is by kerosene lanterns so pack a flashlight. Cold water showers which are nice after a hot sweaty day in the jungle. The staff of the lodge keep us busy with many activities, strangely the head guide was Italian. He was some sort of engineer back in Italy, we couldn't get a complete story from him.

There were 10 people in the tour group, 4 couples and two singles. Interestingly 2 of the couples were Irish. Usually you will come across plenty of Germans, Australians, and Americans as you travel around the world, I guess the presence of Irish travellers is a good indication of the Irish economy. There was also a British couple and the two singles were one British and one American. Most of the people were also in their 30's. Most travellers usual seem to be in their 20's, probably before getting married and having children. Older travellers tend to do package tourism. Most people in their 30 and 40's tend to visit kid friendly places, which is fine by me. We also often travel in the off-season (late spring or early fall) to avoid children.

The sick women finally made an appearance after supper as we sat around drinking beer. Peru actually makes several good beers. There is an excellent dark beer called Arequipeña (cerveza negra). Our first night's activity was a jungle walk with flashlights. Lots of creepy-crawlers

The jungle foliage hides many animals so don't travel to the jungle hoping to see many animals. Even experienced guides have rarely seen a tapir or jaguar. You will hear many animals, probably see several species of monkeys, birds, reptiles, and insects. We did see several capybaras, at almost 40 kilograms the worlds largest rodents. During a night time boat you will see many caiman which is a type of alligator. If you want you can fish for piranha which is a very tasty fish. There was a waterfall near the lodge where we saw turtles and enjoyed an afternoon dip. One of the guides told us after the swim that there was probably piranha in the water.

Salt Lick

This was the main reason we came to the jungle. The salt lick or Colpa de Guacamoyos is South American's longest macaw and parrot salt lick. The birds need to eat clay to get the needed minerals in their diet and with most of the area covered in vegetation these exposed salt licks, really clay, attracts many birds. The macaws and parrots generally fed at first light so that means getting a very early start on the day. We are travelling upriver under moonlight when we see several capybaras. As you near the salt lick you can hear the birds. We gather in the trees near the salt lick drinking coffee and eating some biscuits as we wait for the arrival of the birds. It starts to rain, after all it is a tropical rainforest. The guides inform as that the birds will not eat wet clay and as it gets brighter the birds fly off. Everyone is disappointed, apparently the birds only show up about 75% of the time. Rotten luck.

After a day of swimming and jungle walks the head guide tells us at supper that we will make another attempt in the morning to see the macaws and parrots at the salt lick. We are suppose to leave the lodge in the morning to return to Puerto Maldonado and another visit to the salt lick is not schedule but what the main office does not know they can't stop.

When the guides came around to wake us the next morning it was raining. Although the birds will not eat wet clay they said we might as well try. The British couple decided to sleep instead. When we arrived at the lick it was dry and the birds were started to gather. There was a lot of green parrots feeding on the clay. The macaws stayed in the nearby trees but we saw a lot of them, along with other birds, a birders paradise. The people who stayed behind were certainly disappointed when we got back for a late breakfast, especially when we told them we also saw a jaguar. We let them stew for a bit before confessing about the non-jaguar sighting. After breakfast we started the long trip downstream to Puerto Maldonado.

Lago Sandoval

The trip downstream does not take as long as upstream but since we left late we could only do one of two options for the late afternoon, Monkey Island or Lago Sandoval. Both involve a boat trip down the Madre de Dios River. Monkey Island is apparently a bit of zoo without cages containing five species of partially domesticated monkeys. Lago Sandoval is a jungle lake that involves a hike to get to, the various guide books we had said it was nice. We decided on Lago Sandoval, when we arrived at the trail head the sky was looking heavy but we decided to chance it and started to hike. Its an easy hike, a wide level trail. Once we arrived at the lake the sky opened up and it poured, after all we were in a tropical rainforest. Several people were not happy, as if you can control the weather, and complained to the guides about the rain. They grumbled the entire way back to the boat. Never did see much of Lago Sandoval, this close to Puerto Maldonado the jungle is second and third growth but there are plenty of birds, turtles and caimans at the lake and you can fish for piranha.

Most everyone was grumpingly on the boat ride back to Puerto Maldonado, we were all soaked to the bone and people just glared at me anytime I said "After all it's a tropical rainforest."

Everyone had planes to catch the next morning, some to Lima, others to Cuzco. We were catching a flight to Cuzco then another flight to Arequipa. Picked up a couple of Brazil nuts at the airport, a delicious way to support the local economy.