The lodge employs around twenty Peruvian staff, the majority of whom are residents of Puerto Maldonado. In addition, there are a number of naturalist guides, both from Peru and abroad, who are at your service throughout your stay. As well as guiding and introducing visitors to the many marvels of the forest, a number are undertaking research projects, thereby contributing to a greater ecological understanding of the area."
I copied the two statements above from the website of the lodge as I all of a sudden had a moment of weary, and my mind just won't let me write anything. So I will post some pictures here, and hopefully have enough oomph to at least write underneath them.
My first "wildlife" sighting. Our selection of rubber boots. We could either wear these, or our own, for a jungle hike. I'm glad I chose to wear theirs...the mud was not only deep, it was everywhere. Heading down the river on a misty morning....very mysterious looking. Ricardo, looking for creatures.
Elvis, one of the guides who took us through the jungle. He gave us a fascinating glimpse into the wonders of the medicinal aspects of the rainforest. This plant is used as an aspirin...cures headaches and general aches and pains and fevers.
This looks like a worm, but it's actually a type of mushroom that grows on logs. If you squeeze it, a drop of liquid comes out, you can see it on his hand. Drop it in your ear and it cures an earache.
This reddish coloured tree root is called Chicken Leg, I don't know why, it doesn't look like one, but if you slice it, a white liquid oozes out, you put it on broken bones and it hardens like plaster of Paris, and there was another one, a type of rubber tree, that oozed a liquid that's used like a liquid bandage. There were trees and plants for everything imaginable....from cures for organ and blood problems to hallucinogenics to hair loss cures to the jungle Viagra...which is the one you see here:
It was really informative and I fully enjoyed it, both of our guides knew an astounding amount about jungle medicine and jungle lore, both from courses they had to take, as well as growing up in the rainforest area. Ricardo discreetly tucked the Viagra plant into his pocket as we were leaving.
This is the tree that is used to make darts for blowguns:
And this is that frog that I'm sure you've heard of, the one that secretes the deadly poison that is used to put on the tips of these darts. The frog was no bigger than an egg yolk. I have no idea how Elvis spotted it. It's black, and sitting on the black leaf, you can just see the yellow spot by its eye.
He also spotted two tarantula holes and poked about with a stick, hoping the spider would think it was dinner and hang on to the stick and be hauled out. Spider #1 was either too smart or not hungry, or maybe not even home (eeek...then where
was he? behind me?) but spider #2 hung on and was dragged out, and as all the flashes went off, like spider paparazzi, he flinched and ran back in. When I saw it start to come out, and when I realized how
huge it was, I couldn't really look anyhow, I stuck my camera in the general direction and pushed the shutter. Thus the blurry picture. Which is just fine by me.
This is a telephone tree, called this because if you get lost in the jungle, you "whack" it with a log or a sturdy branch, and it it echoes incredibly loudly through the jungle and people can find you. There are different codes and rhythms to use for various "calls". Obviously it hasn't been called The Telephone Tree for too many years, but I forget the botanical name.
The jungle isn't all creepy though, there were some beautiful butterflies:
And birds...
And more birds...
And other butterflies....
(That's my fancy, artistic photo!)
And creepy, but not as creepy as spider creatures, like the white caimen.
And the sweetest capybara who thought he was hiding behind this "tree".
And turtles...
And symbiotic relationship turtles....
A while ago there was a post or a blurb or a "thing" circulating on Facebook, (I don't know what those items are called) and it was a picture of turtles like this, surrounded by fluttering butterflies, like this little orange one, but the picture was extraordinarily much more professional. The write-up was how these butterflies survive on the tears of the turtles, and how amazing nature is. And I agree....nature and Morher Earth are astounding , to say the least, but I was cynical and "pooh-poohed" the sappyness of the article. It was one of those sugary, smarmy write-ups, and I was quite sure that it was just another made up Facebook story. So, imagine my surprise and somewhat guilty feeling when someone commented on the butterflies near the turtles and Elvis casually commented on how the butterflies feed on the tears of the turtles, of course by then I couldn't get a decent picture. Karma. But it's true, the butterflies (all different kinds) need the minerals and salt that the turtles eyes secrete, and the turtles get a good eye cleaning. It was very cool to see.
And this beetle! I almost forgot about the beetle. It's called a crying beetle, and when Ricardo picked it up and held it on its back and put it close to my ear (which momentarily made me goose-bumply) it
cried! Like a human baby...a tiny, high pitched cry. It was both sweet and terrifying. Cute and horrible. Reminded me of the the last scene in The Fly, with Jeff Goldblum. "Heeeeelp meeeeee." I didn't know whether to say "awwwww...." or to shriek and bat it away. Yup, the jungle is strange.
I had forgotten that I wanted to see leaf cutter ants so I was excited when Margy noticed these ones just outside the dining hall. They are so busy, just hurrying along with such serious little movements. They all went to a hole in the ground and tucked their little piece of leaf up and pulled it down the hole. It was astounding. I kind of run out of good adjectives to describe the things we saw, it's like there just isn't enough descriptive words...awesome, spectacular, phenomenal, amazing, stupendous, breathtaking, I use the same words again and again and they still aren't enough. Maybe I'll make up my own words, you know, like Mary Poppins did.
And we went for a boat drive one afternoon and got to feed pirañas!
They were super quick and leaping and jumping in a froth, so it was really hard to get a picture, the flash of orange that you see is the best I can do. An interesting fact about pirañas is that you can safely swim with them. It's true! That is, as long as you have no open wound or cut. And that means
no open wound or cut. The scent of blood sends them into a frenzy, and that's what you see on TV shows when they devour a cow or a zebra. As long as your skin is fine, you can swim with them like the dolphins. Did I try it? Don't be silly....I threw crackers in the water and dipped my fingers in, just so I could say I did.
It was seriously aquaspectaculargenic. (Oh. That's new word, should be in Websters Dictionary in a few years. I just made it up, it means: pertaining to overly spectacular things that happen in the water.)
We also went to a farm, maybe I should say The Farm because its the farm that is part of the lodge. There are caretakers, pigs, chickens, a garden, lots of fruit trees and I thought I heard mention of beef as well. We were to see they everyday lifestyle of the farmers.
However, it seems the caretakers had just resigned a few weeks ago and all that was there were two snorty, squealy pigs named Ham and Bacon that didnt want anything to do with us. It was a bit of a let down actually, and if there was one thing in the entire trip (from Day One until The End) that was misrepresented, it would be this, but it was still interesting, we wandered through the gardens and saw lots of fruit trees and plants...I mean, I was still in a garden in the Amazon Rainforest...how much can you complain about that?
After a good, long hike. I call this: "Sweaty with my Machete." 😜
I'll post this entry now before I lose it all, and the next one will be about the night walk...think spiders, and some final thoughts of photos of my jungle stay. Then it was on to a whole new adventure waaaaay up to Puno and Lake Titicaca.
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