We took a break from the mountains and headed down to the Amazon basin by flying into Puerto Maldonado. We spent a day about 2 hours west of the city at the edge of Tambopata National Reserve on Rio Tambopata. After that we headed back to the city and then headed about 1 hour downstream of the city on Rio Madres de Dios to spend a few days at a different lodge. Though it rained almost every day, it was very scattered and only in 15-20 minute bursts.
It was also way warmer down in the jungle (actually, super hot and humid with a humidex in the 40s) and we got picked up from the airport by an open air shuttle.
Monte Amazonia Lodge
Most of our journey to our first lodge was by van, but there was short boat ride to get across the river and to the lodge. On the river there were these loud noisy dredging machines that were digging up the bottom of the river. Our guide, shaking his head a little, said they were mining for gold. He didn’t approve.
By the time we got to our lodge, it was mid-afternoon, but our guide took us for a hike out in the jungle just behind the lodge. We have learned that having a local guide is key, as we wouldn’t have seen half the stuff we did see or learned nearly as much. In addition, when there are poisonous plants, snakes, and frogs in play, knowing what is safe and what is not is also a good thing!
The tree on the left is a Walking Tree. It has these long spikey roots, kind of like legs that it sends down in different directions. It can shift its main trunk by about 10cm per year based how it sends down those roots and therefore it “walks” towards better lighting conditions. The tree on the right is a Kapok tree which is one of the largest trees in the jungle here. Though it is only about half the height of the Douglas Firs we saw in western Canada, its base/roots are wider.
After dinner, we also got to take a night walk with our guide. We saw different insects and frogs as well as a baby boa constrictor and a nightjar bird.
The lodge was nice and we got our own hut to sleep in, complete with mosquito netting and a lizard running across the floor.
The next morning we got up bright and early (4:30!) and took a boat ride into the national park to a clay lick. This is a section of the exposed river bank that is full of minerals and the parakeets and macaws fly from miles around to eat the clay (and get the minerals). We were the first group to arrive and setup our chairs and telescope across from the ideal spot.
Most of the birds would stay up in the trees and they would take turns coming down to eat from the clay. It was therefore hard to judge how many were actually there, but boy did they make a ruckus. This video gives a little sense of what it was like.
We also saw a lot of other wildlife on our way to and from the clay lick.
Ecoamazonia Lodge
Our next lodge was more of a resort type of lodge. It owned almost all of its own tour locations and we had a tour scheduled everyday. Since the sun is up at 5am, most tours started between 6am and 7am. So we enjoyed our experience, but it wasn’t much of a restful break after the Inca trail.
Monkey Island
The first excursion we did when we arrived in the afternoon was to Monkey Island which is a 2km by 4km island in the middle of the river, just outside the lodge. It is actually leased to the lodge by the government as a sanctuary for rescued monkeys. Since the monkeys won’t leave the island due to the river, the lodge takes care of the monkeys and feeds them (in exchange for it being a tourist attraction no doubt). So these monkeys were only kind of wild and definitely were used to humans feeding them. On some of our other excursions we also saw monkeys, but always high up in the trees and they never came down to our level.
The one spider monkey on the island was the bravest and actually came and sat on a man’s shoulders. Annika so wanted that to happen to her that she tried to hold the banana back so the monkey would climb on her. Instead, the monkey reached across, pulled her arm, and grabbed the banana.
Attempt two was me holding a banana past Annika. It at least used her shoulder as a step but wouldn’t commit to fully sitting on her shoulder.
Most of the smaller species of monkeys weren’t brave enough to come grab it from your hand so you had to toss the bananas up and they would catch them.
We got to close out the night with a fabulous sunset from Monkey Island.
Cocha Perdida (Lost Lagoon)
The next day was a trip to the Lost Lagoon. This was about a 5 km hike and then a paddle in a canoe in the lagoon, another short hike, and then another paddle back to the lodge. We saw the most wildlife on this trip including a troop of about 50 small monkeys cross over our path.
The largest Kapok tree by far!
We got to climb an observation deck over the jungle.
Our guide enticed a tarantula to come out of its hole.
At our canoe launch point there were a bunch of butterflies in the mud, almost like the clay lick. They scattered as we got close which made it hard to capture on camera, but this video gets close to showing how beautiful that was:
We also saw three other animals that we couldn’t catch on camera very well: a black caiman, an anaconda, and tapir. The caiman was pretty small and we could only really see its tail as it was hidden in the reeds. The anaconda our guide estimated was about 5 meters long. It was also curled up in a nest in some reeds beside the canal we were canoeing in. It was a tippy canoe especially with people trying to stand up and take pictures (Hello, that is an anaconda out there people. Sit down and don’t tip the boat!). So between the rocking and the reeds, our camera could only focus on the reeds and not the snake so we didn’t get a good shot.
Probably the most spectacular was the tapir. As we were walking down the path our guide said “shhhhh” and signal for us to stop. We were walking about 10 meters away from a creek/canal that had bushes between us and the water and something large was moving down in the water. It got right next to us and stopped. As everyone scrambled to get their cameras out, it noticed us and bolted. A tapir is a weird cross between a horse and a pig with a weird elongated snout. It was about the size of pony and it ran like one too. Since I couldn’t get picture of it, here is a photo I stole from the internet:
Lago Apuvictor
This hike was one that we didn’t finish. It was kind of like the Lost Lagoon and I think the Inca Trail and early mornings were catching up to the girls, neither of whom felt the best that morning. Part way through they weren’t feeling very good so we decided to hike back to the lodge and spent the rest of the day relaxing at the lodge.
Even though we shorted our walk, we still got to see a few monkeys and our guide found a frog that had fake eyes on its back which did make it look like something out of Star Wars.
Cocha Caiman
Our last hike was to Caiman lake. There wasn’t much new to see along the way that we hadn’t already seen other than the large number of caiman in the lake. We also saw more birds and some more monkeys. Our guide said that there was a flood a few years ago on the river which trapped a number of other creatures in this lagoon. So in addition to caimans, there were piranhas, anacondas, electric eels, and turtles in the lagoon. Better watch out for those turtles if you fall in.
