When I arrived in Lima I was shook by how different it was from home. The roads, cars, food, people... everything. Learning zone. Cusco felt even further removed. With cobblestone streets, many questionable foods ingested, and intense elevation, I was definitely moving further into the learning zone. But the jungle, oh man! It bordered on the panic zone at times. We flew into a town called Puerto Maldonado and realized very quickly that both food-wise and activity-wise we were pretty much out of luck. Not for poor planning, Puerto Maldonado is still a huge tourist town, but all of the tourist attractions are tours that go into the jungle for a few nights. We had to attack both our food and activity issues head on. First we walked until we found an open air market where we purchased the following items for bout $12:
For the price of not even one meal for one person anywhere in Europe, we had enough food to survive 6 days. Our next issue to tackle was that we had nothing booked for those 6 days. Luckily our hostel (as with most hostels in this town) ran jungle tours. We sat down with the man in charge of these tours and 20 minutes later had booked a 3 day 2 night adventure at their jungle lodge on the Tambopata River, by the Tambopata Nature Reserve, which is in the Amazon Jungle. Our tour was all inclusive, so for an amazingly low price we got 3 days of activities, food, lodging, and transportation. A backpacker's dream! A 45 minute car ride plus a 20 minute monster truck ride on an extremely muddy dirt road plus a 10 minute boat ride brought us to our new home for the next two nights. I was extremely surprised to see how nice this lodge was. The three meals per day provided here were actually super good. It was a nice relief to be eating food I trusted and didn't make me sick to the stomach like all of the food in Cusco pretty much. Additionally, they always had saltine crackers out which I admittedly ate a ton of (if you know my eating habits well, this will make sense). Day one of our jungle tour had an afternoon walk in the jungle to get to know the forest itself. Our guide was a literal jungle man. Not even 2 minutes after stepping into the forest he was standing up by a tree and put his hand on a termite nest. A half a minute later he came back over to me and Phil with his hand covered in termites, then started EATING THEM off of his hand. "They have lots of great proteins". You've got to be kidding me. Panic zone I tell you. He also could imitate bird and monkey calls so as to locate them better and allow us to hear their sounds. He knew everything about the jungle and showed us so much cool stuff in a short 30 minute walk. ~ We will now pause for a moment of appreciation for our accommodation during this tour ~ This lovely little bungalow was all ours! It was the furthest set back of all the accommodations and practically in the forest. It had a bathroom, shower, lounge area with a bench and hammock, all topped with an adorable thatched roof. Plus the whole thing was screened in! It was literally what I imagine as jungle paradise. Everyone but us was in shared buildings that even had outdoor bathrooms. We have no clue how we lucked out and got this bungalow, but it made this whole experience so much more fun. ~ We will now return to our regularly scheduled programming ~ The evening activity on the first night was cayman hunting. Not hunting to kill, just hunting to see. Robin took the group of 8 out on the boat and shined a light all over the shores looking for shiny eyes poking out of the water. When he would see a pair, we would skrrt over there, and then... with one bare hand... Robin would reach into the water and grab the cayman and pull it out of the water for us to see. Let me rewind a moment and explain for those who may not know (I did not know), a cayman is a small alligator. So this man literally reached a bare hand into a jungle river and took it out holding an alligator. Unbelievable. For the activity on day two we had to wake up at 415am. It was worth it though, to visit something I will probably only ever visit once in my life. We went to a macaw clay lick, which is the feeding and social ground for parrots and macaws. They feed there because the river is so far from the ocean, they have no salt in their diet. The clay provides them salt and other important nutrients. I am not really into birding and can't say that I've ever been before, but this was a dope day trip. There were hundreds of birds, and Robin had a sweet telescope viewer through which he could take awesome pictures on our iPhones for us. A few of these are below in a slideshow. That afternoon before dinner we went piranha fishing. I messed around and caught two. Had a big day... not a huge deal or anything. Our guide for this activity pulled back the piranha's lips and we could see the sharp teeth super clear, very cool. Phil and I were really looking forward to this and enjoyed it very much because we have spent a lot of time during our childhood summers fishing at his family's lake house in New Hampshire. The evening activity for day two was a night walk in the jungle. I'm not going to lie I was jumpy and nervous during this walk. The jungle at night is a scary place to be. I won't say much more, I'll just leave you with the following photo. Our final day in the jungle was a relaxed one, we simply kayaked on the river. Phil and I got a double, but I ended up just laying down and sunbathing while Phil kept us on track. Luckily the river was flowing at a decent speed so (hopefully) it was not too much effort for him. Thanks, Phil! (sorry, no photos of this activity) Everything we did in the jungle was super cool. This was a totally different jungle than the one both Phil and I had visited in the North of Thailand, Khao Sok National Park. The activities, food, and accommodation were all really incredible and we enjoyed our time very much. Back at the hostel for the final 2.5ish days we just hung out by the pool and walked around the town. It has been really nice to get this rest, before we head back to Lima for a packed 4 days. Before I wrap this post up, I need to share the largest (literally) reason for me being out of my comfort zone in the jungle. The bugs. And not just mosquitos, even though they have diseases, or ants, even though they can bite you and send you to the hospital. For me the big (huge, colossal) bugs really paralyze me with fear. Moments after having a deep conversation with Phil about the Thailand jungle, and how the bugs there were the hardest part of that trip for me, I went to go shower. When I opened the curtain there was a massive cockroach, the first one we had seen. I'm seriously talking like a thick (thiccc) 2 inch long bug. A small animal if you will. We got a mug from the dining area, and I volunteered to capture it. With adrenaline pumping I trapped the cockroach and was able to remove it from our corner of paradise. We valiantly captured and released 4 massive cockroaches and 2 spiders, taking turns between Phil and me. One of the times I released a cockroach I threw it off our porch and an instant later a bright green lizard pounced on it and ate it right in front of us. What an exciting way to end that hunt! Of course as a facilitator by nature and profession I am doing my best to take advantage of opportunities like these where I feel that I can push myself. Clearly the bugs in the jungle made me unsettled but nonetheless I was able to tolerate and even, at times, conquer. The jungle was a whole different adventure than Cusco. I have gained a ton of new knowledge as well as fond memories, plus many other benefits that I may not discover for months or even years to come. It's always a good time getting your cortisol levels up for a few days, for the sake of an adventure. Our return to Lima tomorrow for New Year's Eve will bring us many comforts of home as well as an action packed end of the trip.
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