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| Red and Green Macaws |
After leaving the Inca Trail, the
next stop on our Peruvian Adventure was the Amazon jungle. Six intrepid travelers,
including my husband Jeff, flew east from Cusco’s highlands to the small town
of Puerto Maldonado. Puerto Maldonado is a jungle town located in southeastern
Peru. It is the gateway to the Tambopata National Reserve, a primary rainforest
of enormous biodiversity. Courtesy of G Adventures (https://www.gadventures.com/trips/g-lodge-amazon-and-camping-4-day-independent-adventure/TSPJ4TC/?ref=asearch),
our destination was the Pata Ecolodge on the Tambopata River. After meeting our
guide Elvis, we boarded a small bus. The ride from town to the river was eye
opening.
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| Painted Pumas in Puerto Maldonado |
The town oozed energy and purpose. We drove past crowds of people and
busy storefronts, well kept two- and three-story apartment buildings and
streams of motorbikes. On the outskirts of town the scene change radically – we
passed rough, clear-cut fields filled with ramshackle, tarp-covered shelters –
sadly reminiscent of the homeless encampments on the freeway shoulders around
my hometown of Seattle.
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| Condors of the Amazon and their fellow vultures |
After the settlements, we passed by productive papaya
plantations. Papaya is the only commercial crop exported from the region. In about 30 minutes, we arrived at the banks of the muddy Tambopata River.
Like the main stem of the Amazon River, the smaller tributaries that rise in
the Andes carry a heavy silt load that makes the water the color of café au
lait. Elvis said we’d be eating lunch on the boat since the trip to the
Ecolodge would be two to three hours. We purchased cold beer from a riverside kiosk,
walked down steep wooden stairs to the dock, donned our life jackets and
embarked on our river adventure. Elvis handed out individual lunch boxes –
delightfully packed in insulated cloth bags. Inside we found individual
canteens stuffed full of hot fried chicken, manioc (or yucca as it is called in
Peru) fries, a nice selection of vegetables and a couple of small sweet
bananas. That’s what I call a box lunch.
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| Capybaras in their native habitat |
The flat-bottomed, canopied boat was the perfect site from
which to observe the river and the birds and animals on shore. Elvis told us to
get our cameras and binoculars ready in case we encountered any wildlife.
Within a few moments, the boat driver stopped near the shore. We had the
pleasure of watching two huge vultures the so-called “Condors of the Amazon”
finish off a dead capybara while a flock of smaller black vultures pecked at
the edges. Capybaras are the world’s largest rodent, a round brown-furred
animal that lives along the shores of tropical rivers. Capybaras are herbaceous
and can consume up to 50 kilos of grass a day.
After watching the vultures, aptly named “garbage men of the
jungle” clean up the carcass, we continued upstream. The banks of the river
were broad, muddy berms that stepped up to the edge of the forest. Here and
there, exposed clay cliffs rose more than twenty feet above the water. Suddenly
Elvis started jumping up and down. The driver swung our boat towards the shore.
In front of us, perched in twos and threes on the mud cliff, was an
extraordinary sight. More than 50 green and red macaws hung on the exposed
cliff, feeding on the clay lick, ingesting essential minerals. The
sight of these largest of all macaws congregated together on the cliff is
something I will never forget. We sat quietly, in awe, using our binoculars and
cameras to record the majestic birds. Macaws are rarely seen in such abundance.
Sightings of the density we experienced are a matter of chance. My husband, who
is a tropical river scientist and has worked in the Amazon jungle for more than
40 years, was as stunned as the rest of us. All at once, in response to an unheard signal, the macaws
rose in pairs from the clay lick and, flapping their wings, flew into the air, across
the river and out of sight. What a beginning to our jungle adventure.
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| Entralled by the jungle |
Thus began our immersion in the primary rainforest of the
Tambopata ecosystem. Pata Ecolodge is a settlement of small thatched roofed
cottages and a larger building that houses a bar, complete with games and books,
and a dining room. Electricity is solar powered. Trails to a small stream and
through the dense jungle crisscross the site. On our first night Elvis took us
for a walk in the dark on one of the trails– his chief intent was to introduce us
to the sounds of the night jungle. Elvis told us to turn off our headlamps and
follow him in silence and darkness so that we could experience the velvet night
more completely. At first I was nervous but soon the wonderful sounds – frogs,
cicadas, jungle rats and bats – filled my senses and I forgot to be scared.
The next day reminded me of summer camp – there were so many
activities I didn’t have time to worry about mosquitoes! We met for breakfast
at 6:30 am and walked down to our boat before 7:15. We headed upriver to a
jungle trail that led us to Lago Condenado - literally the condemned lake. It is a former oxbow that is now filling in with
sediment and vegetation and likely to disappear over time. The lake is home to an endangered species of giant
river otters and many other animals and birds.
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| A black caiman skulking in the shallows |
As we arrived at the trailhead,
Elvis spotted a juvenile black caiman lurking in the shallow water. After
watching the wary creature for a few minutes, we started out on our hike. Every
few minutes, Elvis, who we discovered was remarkably skilled at spotting hidden
creatures, would stop. He’d flash his green laser beam and show us a monkey, a
bird, an unusual insect or plant that, without his keen eyes, I never would
have seen. Perhaps a favorite siting was a capuchin monkey who sat high in a
fruit tree, lording it over every other monkey around while he feasted on
bright red fruit. He jumped from branch to branch chattering and tossing seeds
down into the leaves below. Capuchin monkeys are very smart – they are the
monkeys you might remember from old movies, the monkey dressed in a smart
little jacket and cap jumping around its organ grinder owner with a tin cup
collecting coins. Watching our wild capuchin I was sure he would have been a most
successful organ grinder monkey.
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| A sampling of the farm's produce |
Later that day, after lunch and a dip in a small stream close
to the main lodge, we crossed the Tambopata by boat to visit the plantation of
a local farmer. Our host farmer practices mixed crop agriculture – the planting
of multiple crops together in clearings rather than the more traditional
contemporary practice of planting endless fields with a single crop. On the
farm we saw multiple fruit and vegetable crops interspersed in fields and
orchards.
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| Young Star Fruit |
Papaya, cacao, lemons, oranges, corn, manioc, bananas, star fruit and plantains
grew in a bright green jumble. Pigs ate the plant waste and chickens ran around
squawking and pecking. The farm was largely a self-sustaining system with cover
crops providing nitrogen and animal and plant wastes providing vital compost.
The farm gave our host a good living through the sale of fresh food to
our lodge and in markets in nearby Puerto Maldonado.Later that night, before dinner but happily after cocktail
hour, we returned to our trusty boat and explored the downstream riverbanks. In
the pitch black darkness Elvis promised us the opportunity to see white caimans.
First he showed us an interesting video about the challenges of protecting the
river from gold mining and the life cycle of the caimans. Next we were cruising
on the river in warm darkness. The green laser shone and there in front of us
were miniature white caimans standing still on the mud bank. Further down the
river we found larger caimans with beautiful black and white markings. The
caimans are solitary creatures. They live alone, abandoned by their mothers at
a few months of age. Only the strongest survive the six or seven years needed
to reach sexual maturity. These primitive creatures look like something that
should have lived several millions years ago. It was a privilege to see them at
home.
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| My husband and a giant Kapok tree |
When we decided to go to Peru together to hike the Inca
Trail, we opted to visit the Tambopata River, a tributary to the Amazon. Despite many visits to the lower Amazon and the Brazilian rainforest, we
wanted to explore a headwater system. Sometimes a place that we think we
know surprises us with new sights and sounds. Our visit to the Tambopata was
filled with such experiences. From the sustainable jungle farm to the giant
kapok and strangler fig trees to the macaws, the caimans and all the
extraordinary creatures in between, we had the privilege of experiencing the
rich diversity of the Peruvian rainforest.
