We spent 5 days in the Amazon and are now quite sure of the meaning of the word amazing! Our tour was through Inka Natura and we were lucky to have Jhendy Manzillo as our guide. We flew from Cusco to Puerto Maldonado, transferred to a long motorized canoe-shaped boat and headed down the Rio Madre de Dios, then up the Heath River to the Heath River Wildlife Centre. The lodge is slightly inside the Bolivian border adjacent to two large, unmanaged national parks. Along the river, we saw many turtles and several capybras (just picture a 200 pound guinea pig), and a toucan perched on an easily viewed branch at the Centre as we arrived ...
Luckily, the lodge generator had broken earlier that day, so we enjoyed our delicious dinner by candlelight in the largely open-air, screened dining area. We had our own lovely cabin at the Heath River Wildlife Centre, also lit with candles. After dinner on our first night, Ian headed out with our group and guide to a mammal lick where they saw a night monkey, tarantula and frogs. However, the tapirs were elusive, likely due to the large moon making it riskier for them to come out.
On our first morning, we rose at 5 am and were in the blind at the upriver macaw clay lick by 6 am. We stayed, mesmerized, until almost 10:30. Different species came in at different times, with the respendent red and green macaws providing the finale with over 50 congregating on the lick and trees in front of us at once. Birds, mammals and other critters come to special clay deposits to eat the clay in order to help detoxify the chemicals found in their vegetable diets. We then went for a walk in the selva (woods), a primary forest, with some interesting smaller trees and huge canopy trees, including the sacred ceiba tree, which people come to hug if they are sad. To wrap arms around the tree, you would likely need about 20 people, so it´s an open arm hug!
The second morning, we walked to the new tower being constructed for entering the canopy, 30 metres in the air. We didn´t see much there (except a few jaguar tracks), but the tower will be great for spotting monkeys, macaws and other birds. We then took the boat downstream to the nearby native village where we learned about their community and lifestyle (complete with a solar panel), and bought a small tapestry made from weaving the bark fibres of a rainforest tree. On the way there, the group was thrilled to have a rare, but brief, view of a jaguar. Sue was disappointed to have missed seeing it. On the way back to the lodge from the village, we were rewarded with the viewing of another jaguar close to where the first one was spotted. This time, we were awestruck. The young jaguar was not afraid of the boat and we had a full 7 minutes to stare and soak in the sight of a wild jaguar some 15 metres away, stretching, lounging, and rambling about. Being in the boat, we felt safe, which is a real bonus when jaguar watching! Folks at the lodge were very excited and they will use the photos of the jaguar´s facial patterns to identify and track the cat in future research.
Later that same day, we heard howler monkeys again (their eerie territorial call is frequently heard from the lodge) and then were lucky enough to see them quite close up, high in the trees.
Day 3 brought us to an oxbow lake a 10 minute walk in from the river. We saw interesting birds and black caimans there, with eyes that reflect a freakily bright red back from flashlights. White caimans were also discovered on the river. The big moon made another visit to the mammal lick a no go.
On day 4, we left the lodge at 4:30 am, heading for Sandoval Lake Lodge for us and to Puerto Maldonado for the others in our group. Ian saw a tapir on a beach in the dusky morning light. We hiked the very muddy 3 km into Sandovol Lake, famous for its endangered great river otters. Our luck stayed with us as we were practically greeted and circled by the otters as we were paddled onto the lake. We watched the family of 6 otters catching fish, some of which were pretty darn big! After lunch, we climbed the lookout tower on the lake and found ourselves face-to-face with brown cappuchin monkeys and enjoyed a spectacular sunset.
Staying at this upscale lodge was unfamiliar territory for us. What happened to the addage, paddle your own canoe...? Sue never minds being cooked for, but we would prefer to carry our own gear and paddle our own canoe (both of which our guides did for us)!
On day 5, we explored the lake again before heading back out the muddy (VERY muddy) trail en route to the airport in Puerto Maldonado. We saw 4 kinds of herons (including one with irridescent colours), more monkeys and many macaws flying overhead, including many red-fronted macaws at a wood lick.
Viewing so many animals in the Amazon in one trip is quite unusual. There is a lot of vegetation , and animals and birds are dispersed thinly through the forest. Our guide had only seen one jaguar before our trip. Perhaps seeing such highlights of what the Amazon holds within was a gift for all the environmental work we have done over the years. We have more hope for the Amazon than we did when we visited it in Ecuador, although we now understand better how fragile an ecosystem it is, despite its biodiverisity. From the air, we could see the patterns of small-scale gold mining (with mercury poisoning downstream) and the growing accumulation of small clearings around rivers and jungle roads. It is a tough place to survive, human or not, because the edible food supply is very low and hard to catch. Many of the plants and fruits are toxic, an adaptation developed for self-protection. However, some are great to eat, as we discovered at the lodges and in the Puerto Maldonado market. Thank you Amazon for a great experience!
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