Your In the Jungle Baby!

How we got around for the next 4 days

Welcome to the Jungle!

Kerri and Saay on our way to the bungalow

This was by far my favorite part of the trip to Peru!

Day 1

We finally arrived in Puerto Maldonado and I welcomed the humidity… it felt so good! Our tour guide Saay greeted us and he took us to the Rio Madre de Dios (Mother of God River) and we got into our boat and we down the river for about 20 minutes until we arrived to our home for the next four days – Corto Maltes Amazonia.

                                                        

The beauty of this place was unreal! We were greeted with freshly passion fruit juice as Saay explained what was going to happen the rest of day one. We had until the evening to relax, swim in the pool and nap! All these things were very much needed! Saay showed us to our bungalow and changed into my swimsuit as fast as possible! I figured since we were now in the colorful jungle I should bust out my most colorful swimsuit!

Some Jungle wild flowers

This was the little hut we stayed in! There were even hammocks out front to lay in on the porch

I LOVE POOLS!!

This little guy loved colors! Even when I hopped in the pool to escape him he followed me!

After an afternoon of swimming, sunbathing, and napping in a hammock we were ready to go! We met up with Saay at 4:30 or so for a little excursion into the Jungle to learn about plants, trees and animals. Main lessons learned: 

·      If you are stranded in the Jungle sleep by a garlic tree – most predators don’t like the smell of the tree and avoid it.

·      If you’re hungry in the Jungle eat termites – they are full of protein! Kerri tried some, I wouldn’t do it!

·      There is a cool leave that you can make anesthetic with. We chewed on it – I really wanted to bring the whole plant back with me, but I forgot.

Then at 6:30 we met back up with Saay to learn all about Caymans – crocodile things. Then we boarded the boat in search of them. At night their eyes should shine when light is on them. After an hour and half we finally found 1! After our little adventure it was time for dinner. We had no idea we would be eating 3 course meals for every meal! We always had soup, the main course, and then desert! SO AMAZING!!

The 1 cayman we found that night

We also found Terri the tarantula - we named him

Day 2

The next day started really early. We got up at 5:15 to go see my favorite creature – BIRDS! We walked into the jungle for about 30 so we could find parrots feasting on a clay cliff. There are lots of nutrients in the clay so that’s why they eat it. We waited for 1.5 hours… those big jerks never showed up! We could hear the circling above, but they were nervous about something so they never came down.

The clay wall where the birds never came to

This is Lola and Pedro - they lived at the place

Pedro eating. Birds really freak me out!

When we got back we had breakfast and I found a new fruit to love – PASSION FRUIT! It’s kind of gross because it’s like a goo with crunchy seeds, but I loved it! I knew I loved passion fruit vodka but never thought I would of loved the actual fruit so much! After breakfast we had a quick swim in the pool and a little nap on the hammock and then it was time for the next excursion. 

passion fruit

We took at 20 minute boat ride to Reserve Nacional Tambopata. Once there we hiked about 5k to a little lake. On the way to the little lake I almost walked in front of this tarantula hole.

Saay got him to come out

Butterflies - there are tons of them in the jungle

Once we all got to the lake we boarded a paddleboat and we were off to explore. Saay wouldn’t let us swim in the lake because of two reasons. A) There were sting rays in the water and 2) The barb-bugs that my dad warned me about  do exist! If you pea in the water they swim up your urethra and don’t come out because they have barbs on them! We stopped on this island for lunch. These crazy people were swimming though.

Me and Kerri on the boat

Rice in a banana leaf for lunch - and crazy people swimming in the background. They guy by shore got stung by a sting-ray about 2 seconds after I took this picture.

And then this was behind me

After lunch we went around the lake and saw some wild life…

I got to lay down and relax on the paddle boat - those are yellow neck turtles sun tanning on the log

This crazy looking bird sitting on a log

Diving off the log

And this is what he looks like swimming

Spider Monkey!

After we hiked the trail back we got back in the boat and went back to home base. Of course I went swimming in the pool again. We had dinner and I was so ready for bed that night!

Day 3

We had the option to wake up early to try to go see the birds again, but I decided I don’t even like birds and I wanted to sleep. Today’s agenda was Peruvian farm, Peruvian community and zip lining and canopy walking.

We went to this farm and I tried so many fruits and veggies and LOVED them all! We even found a fruit that when raw you can mix the seeds with alcohol and lemon and make temporary tattoos!

Bird of Paradise Flower

Just ate a pepper

Fresh Papaya anyone?

Little relaxing in a hammock again

Who knew a bird and dog could be best buds! Check out those green oranges - they are super sweet and super good!

Saay gave me this to eat - I ate it - it was bitter and then he told me it was chocolate beans! I was PISSED because I was suppose to be giving up chocolate for lent - I didn't count it was cheating since it was processed chocolate yet ;)

Then we wen to a real Peruvian community and learned all about their way of life. The grandpa man that was talking with us told us all about his 5 wives and 14 children!

The son (holding the net) and g-pa had just chased these boars down to the water and the son captured then with the net

Cute little girl who didn't like me. She brought everyone flowers but me :(

G-pa tells about life in his community

They showed us how they make fire

Then we went to the island where they girls were going to zip line and canopy walk. Moments before arriving to the island I told them I didn’t want to go because I didn’t want to get any more dirty that day. So we get to the island and we step off the boat onto the planks. Then I figured I would walk up the beach… turns out it wasn’t a beach but a GIANT mush muck fake land place. I instantly sank up to my knees in this NASTY muck! I had to wiggle out of my boots and back on the plank while Saay had to dig my boots out of that nastiness. AWESOME! So now I was pissed because I had gotten really dirty – so while I was not in a normal state of mind the girls convinced me to go canopy walking and zip lining. It was SO SCARRY but I did it!

Can you see the fear?

After the canopy walk of death

SO SCARY!!!

That night we also gave ourselves our temporary tattoos thanks to Saay’s help!

Me and Saay with my cool tattoo of his name on my ankle! When he showed us the fruit I joked he should take it so we could all tattoo his name on us later - he put it in his pocket so I had to follow through with what I said!

Day 4
This was a sad morning because it was time to leave the jungle. We had breakfast and had to pack up our things to move on to the next part of the trip. Saay took us back up the river on the boat and we went for a quick tour of the town, learned a little more about all the fruits and whatnot and then it was time to board the plane to head back to Cuzco – and the cold.

One last cayman siting before we left

The jungle was AMAZING and I would totally go back!  Who wants to go? When will we be going?

Sunset