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| arroz con venduras y huevo |
I got up at 6AM, and we decided to get some breakfast in San Pedro Market. We ordered the same thing (arroz con venduras y heuvos) and we bought some flowers and brought it back to House Namaste.
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| Plaza San Francisco |
I was invited to go to Vamsi's home to hang out after we went for grocery shopping at San Pedro Market. He lives on the hill not too far from the northwest side of Plaza de Armas with a woman from Argentina and her daughter. I first thought Vamsi is the father and later found out that he just hangs out with them. Anyway, he made some curry for us and there were fucking delicious. I almost wanted to take siesta and I made it to Plaza de Armas at 3:50.
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| The dinner in the bus from Cusco to Puerto Maldanado |
My bus to Puerto Maldonado departed at 9:30 and I found a juice place to go on the Internet around 8PM. I went on TESPA bus and I was awaiting messages by my friend. :-( I slept until the following day and I thought it would be an interesting jungle tour. A dinner was provided by TESPA bus company, but it's nothing exciting about it.
It took the bus 9 hours for the to drive the windy road form the Andes to the flatland in the Amazon Jungle. Puerto Maldonado is located in the Madre de Dios part of the Amazon Rain Forest and a lot of development was done by the Japanese Peruvians during the first half of the 20th century.
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| The beautiful Lake Sandoval |
The bus arrived at about 6, and we were picked up by the tourist agency at 8. They said the port to the Amazon does not open until 8 anyway so we had to wait. It took us about 45 minute motorboat ride from the port to the dock close to Lake Sandoval. Omar, our tourist guide, picked us up and we started our venture from the river. We walked for three kilometers through the muddy path and we sailed through the lake to my jungle lodge in Tampobata National Reserve.
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| Ancient Hoatzin birds |
One of the first things I have noticed in the amazon is it was unbearably humid and hot. I was sweating as soon as I walked through the muddy path. Residents tend to get up 4 o'clock, work until 10, and take break until 3, and worked again. The best time to observe animals are also in early morning and evening, when the temperature was not too hot. The food there was absolutely delicious and I have to admit that I had the best meals there in my entire trip in Peru.
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| heron of unknown species |
The tour I joined was an Ecotour, which means tourism is strictly controlled in protected areas with a well-trained tourist guide in small groups.
Needless to say, the accomendation was very 'primitive' by western standards (hey, we are expericing in a jungle, not trying to live in luxury!), but there are basically stuff like showers and mosquitos net.
I could feel that I was sweating constantly due to the humidity. The first activity did not start until 4 in the afternoon when the temperature started to cool down, and animals started to reappear from their naps. Omar took us out to the lake and we some cool animals for a few hours. He was very knowledgeable and he explained a bit of how the Peruvian government was not doing a good enough job to protect the pristine rain forest. We had a dinner afterwards and we were assigned to sit with the tourist guide and so we had some random conversations about lives in Peru.
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The lodge
The best fried rice I had in Peru |
The following morning I got up at 3:30 and I was with another tours guide whose name I could not remember, unfortunately. This time, we walked to see a the colorful macaws who like to dwell up high on the trees. We also took saw some gorgeous butterflies as well. We had our breakfast at 7:30 and Omar took over for the last part of the jungle tour. The last part was about jungle survival. Omar took us a walk and taught us some valuable survival knowledge in jungle, including finding herbal medicine and termite turfs in the jungle.
The tour was official over after we had our lunch, and Omar took us back to Puerto Maldonado. I hung out around the plaza for a few hours with two French tourists. The food we had in Puerto Maldonadowere very bad compared to the one we had in the jungle. We took the taxi back to the bus station. We took the TEPSA bus back to Cusco. It was another 12 hours of mountain climbing switchbacks before we reached Cusco again.
It was the first time in the life that I stepped into a tropical jungle, and of the course the experience was amazing. The jungle was hot and humid. I started to sweat as soon as I walk. There were also mosquitos everywhere so it is a harsh place to live. However, therwas great biodiversity there and I saw many species of floras and faunas that I would not be able to observe elsewhere.
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