The Carey Adventures

This is a daily dispatch from Day 3 of Peter’s Peru Adventure.  Day 2 can be found here.  For the other posts, click on ‘Peru’ up top under Categories.

Tom Jones is crooning, “It’s not usual to be loved by you” in the main house at Inkaterra as I write.  It’s been a day.  A day I’ve enjoyed.

I had a bit of fear going to bed the night before as I can barely hear my watch alarm and needed to catch an 8:35 flight.  Which meant getting up around 6am.  I replaced fear with a constant mantra of, “I will wake up in time, I will wake up in time.”  And it worked.  Too well.  I woke up a LOT in the night.  My over literal brain took its instructions way too literally.  But in the end I made my flight thanks to that brain.  Or possibly the pillows which had as much give as Hoover Dam.

When they tell you on LAN Airlines to make two copies of your boarding pass, take the advice.  You do need two as you pay an exit tax at the airport ($37US for international and $6.05US for domestic, cash only).  And security is super sensitive to tweezers, confiscating both pairs in my bags (and I didn’t even KNOW I had two pair).  The flight to Cusco was interesting near the end as the plane, buffeted by morning winds and tall hills all around,  banks down a slim valley in the Andes to find what at first seems like a hidden runway.  I hope he finds it on the way back as I’ll be spending time there.

More bumps on the way to Puerto Maldonado which is only 30 minutes away by plane, or 10 hours by bus.  The first thing to hit, upon exiting, is the heat and humidity.  Was I expecting something else?  It’s the jungle after all and it lived up to its name with lush trees from Hollywood sets all around.  Ramshackle sheds lay around the runway.  Strange birds were calling from the greenery as the engine exhaust didn’t help with the heat.  I walked through the airport having only taken carry on luggage, to the crowd waiting outside.  Quickly I found my resort operators sign and wash ushered onto an open sided bus slash truck.

When all the other passengers were aboard we headed outside the airport gates to a butterfly conservancy for a welcome drink and cold towel.  This is check in for the resort and a good place to see two dozen different butterfly species.  Puerto Maldonado proper has a few paved boulevards and loud motorcycles and motor driven rickshaws swarming like hornets.  The town was built on the confluence of two rivers who’s names are in the guide book back in my room.  We were loaded onto a boat for a 45 minute ride down the river.  The river was brown with recent rains and the sky was white with clouds.  No, wait, it’s blue.   No, white.  Now blue and so is the river.  I give up.  But don’t worry, there are no piranha in this river, it’s too fast.

Rachel, one of our guides, explains there are over 75 micro-climates in the Peruvian Amazon basin and this causes quick changes in weather.  It’s one of those things as a tourist you think, “Sure, yeah, real quick.  Whatever.”  But I have a  feeling once I experience it probably tomorrow I’ll sing a different tune.  Did I mention the jungle is lush?  Not so many shades of green as I’ve seen elsewhere, but just more and more of it, right down to the river’s edge.  The heat was gone for a bit while the boat moved down river but we were assured sometimes it reaches over 100F and most of the time is around 87F.  This Washingtonian is going to be doing a lot of sweating this week.

A quick reception is followed by introduction to my cabana.  Bug screens envelop the thatch roofed, stilted structure.  it’s pretty open with only half walls where the toilet and shower are.  But screens come down at night as well as mosquito nets for the beds.  And it’s not for show either.  You also don’t want wolf spiders or tarantulas to come in.

Lunch.  Wow.  Lunch.  I’ll include the pictures.  The culinary snobs among you may scoff at what you see, but I’m a simple man.  It doesn’t take much to impress me with presented food and this far from civilization, even less so.  Kim can attest to my rants about some of the things she “just whipped up”.  This has always worked well for her ego and my belly.  All meals are included as well as a nightly happy hour drink (1) and all the water you can chug, which is vital in this heat.

After another orientation and meeting up with some other guests 4 of us head out on a trail with our interpreter Yuri.  He shows us squirrel monkeys which roam wild.  He explains how things are the way they are and how most of the animals  live.  He pokes a stick slowly in a hole Brent has found and coaxes out a tarantula.   This freaks out Susan, one of the other guests.  I think it’s cool.  I’ve never seen a tarantula just being a natural tarantula. Becky asks if they are poisonous?  “Not much”.  We’re ok, we’re adults, well just get sick for a while.  Whew!

The jungle trek is short followed by some ‘get to know me’ time at the bar before our next adventure; a night boat ride up the river looking for camens.  We spot a few and it’s neat watching them slip and slide.  The stars are multiplying by the minute and lack of light on the  river lets them take center stage.  And then dinner.  Catfish, peppers, soup and chocolate tart (again, it’s going to be a theme unless I eat all that they have).  And now my bed without a rock hard pillow is calling.  Someone will wake us up in the morning so my brain doesn’t have to work much more.  We’ll be taking a trip to the jungle canopy with over 10,000′ of suspended bridges high above the jungle floor to observe the different layers of the canopy.  One final thought that came up today:

What I like about travel is the chance to experience the ordinary (street signs, customs, meals, etc…)as something new and exciting.  It dulls after a while, but that initial eye opening is fun.

Time for sleep.