February 15, 2008
We got to sleep in until 5 this am and then we all trekked down the tail to the boat and went to visit the colpa one final time before leaving. This time we could just enjoy the birds it attracted without focusing on collecting data.
Then it was back to the Center and a 7:30am breakfast and final goodbye to the chico breakfast thieves and the staff again. During breakfast it began to rain hard.
At 8:30am, after handing our cameras to Sally for a parting group shot (all of which came out blurry), we again took the muddy, soggy trail to the boat and climbed aboard for the trip downriver to Posada Amazona. Here we will spend the night again as we did on the way upriver to TRC.
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Back left: Fino, Alice, Sheila, Kathy, Susan (black straps),
Diana, Dean, Joan, Richard, Jhin, Alan |
We again made pit stops at Malinowski and World Wildlife Fund (WWF), and once more saw wonderful birds and wildlife as we were carried downriver, even though it was stormy at first.
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| L - One of our juice fruits being cultivated at WWF; R - A type of lemon at WWF |
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| A storm came upriver to meet us but the skies were clear in an hour or so |
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| On the bote bote eager to return downriver |
We saw another capybara and its attendant giant cowbird, Spotted Sandpipers, a Laughing Falcon, Double-toothed Kite, Curl-crested Aracari, and more Oropendolas, Ringed Kingfishers, and White-winged Swallows. We also saw a Little Blue Heron, which Alan said was an unusual sighting at this time of year as well as more Oronoco Geese and Black-, Turkey- and Greater Yellow-headed Vultures. And of course, pairs and small groups of macaws, and flocks of parrots and parakeets. Alan noted where on the river he saw macaws, each time they were spotted.
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| Spotted Sandpiper and Capybara with two attendant Giant Cowbirds |
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| Double-toothed Kite and Laughing Falcon |
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| Curl-crested Aracari |
When we neared Posada, those of us who wanted to visit the oxbow lake debarked at a landing about 10 minutes upriver from Posada Amazonas and hiked back in to Cocha Tres Chimbadas, an oxbow lake that was a breeding ground for giant river otters.
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| The glimpse we saw of the otter (L), and an Internet photo of one |
We saw some interesting birds at the lake including a Hoatzin, Black-capped Donacobius, Greater Ani, Red-capped Cardinal, Azure Gallinule, Warbling Antbird, Social Flycatcher, Tropical Kingbirds, Ringed Kingfisher, and Little Blue Heron.
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| Red-capped Cardinal and Black-capped Donacobius |
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| Social Flycatcher and Azure Gallinule |
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| Internet photo of a Hoatzin, an odd "aboreal cow" that feeds on leaves that are digested in a specialized crop and foregut; we saw three pairs of Hoatzins at different spots along the shore. It is a large bird nearly the size of a turkey |
While walking the trail to the lake, we came upon a small dock. Here our naturalists urged us to sit with our feet in the water and to fish. . . for piranha. We could put our feet in the water because the guides assured us that piranha lurked at deeper depths. We gingerly did as instructed and did not get bitten. However, Dean, one of those who caught a piranha, did get bitten (see below).
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| Joan and Sheila wisely put up their umbrella. I got sunburned. |
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| Left: Open sky and grass, two things we missed in the close, dark jungle; Right: Richard proudly displays his fierce piranha |
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| Dean proudly displays his piranha catch; the fish though small had fierce teeth and bit Dean on the thumb, causing much bleeding |
Our return night at Posada was prosaic, though we enjoyed a good meal with many others—a large group from the Netherlands and also one from Germany. Posada seemed so much more “civilized” than our TRC, and we again enjoyed baths off our bedrooms. But, my relief at being in a roach-free bedroom was short-lived. I picked my toothbrush from the bathroom shelf before bed that evening and one ran up my arm. UGH! The beds sat in the middle of these rooms, however, and did not snug up to the walls, which was a relief.
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| In case visitors missed the oxbow river otters, this carved one graced the hallways; Right: a bi-color, spined porcupine with prehensile tail. Richard told us that they were regular visitors to the roof at Posadas, but one did not visit the evening we were there, Phooey! |
I forgot to mention that the first night we spent here I saw a Rufous-breasted Hermit at a group of red flowers near the porch. This morning Fino took some pix of a Fork-tailed Woodnymph that came repeatedly to these same flowers.
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| L- Rufous-breasted Hermit; R - Fork-tailed Woodnymph |
The two-hour trip downriver to the Rainforest Expedition shuttle was uneventful. We were again given snacks and a leaf-wrapped lunch, which was a variation of the rice lunch on our way upstream. The rained-out road had been fixed while we were away and was reported to again be passable . . . just. There were some pretty hairy drop-offs and missing-plank bridges, nonetheless.
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| A very good section of road. I was sitting right up front. I would not have been able to stand to take a photo on the bad sections of this road. Wouldn't have turned out anyway as my eyes were squeezed closed. |
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| Marketplace at Puerto Maldonado |
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| L- Store at bus stop; R- Our bus driver walking home |
We made plans to join Alice and Kathy in Lima for dinner at 7 pm. Kathy had rented a room at the Senorial Hotel in the upscale Miraflores tourist district of Lima, which sits high on the cliffs above the ocean. Since Kathy was going to extend her visit and see Lima for a few days, she invited Alice, who had a late-night flight like ours but no place to stay or store her luggage, to shower and rest at the Senorial. Then the plan was that Alice would return with us to the airport as our hotel was very near it.
Our goodbyes said and our airport fee paid, we boarded Lan Peru for our flight to Lima. Ahhh the beauty of air-conditioning. I’d almost forgotten that anything but wet and sweat existed. The AC was being visibly piped in, condensing into a mist as it entered the cabin. I, for one, enjoyed feeling like a misted supermarket vegetable.
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| Dean, Alice, and Diana saying goodbye at Puerto Maldonado Airport |
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| Rainforest shuttles and motocarros at Puerto Maldonado Airport; Our final good bye to the Tambopata as we head for Quito |
We were delayed for an hour and a half in Cusco because of the weather—thunderstorms over the mountains; thus, we didn’t get to Lima until after 5. Dean and I got back to our hotel about 5:30 pm and took turns taking a hot shower in our temp room
, this delight dampened only minimally because our inexpensive room had no AC. Then we found a very few moments to kick back before our taxi was there to take us to Miraflores.
It was a 50-minute drive! Cost only $8, though. The driver, a trusted one obtained through the front desk, had us lock the cab doors. When we got to the Senorial, he asked us if we wanted him to wait. We said no, come back at 10. At first he said “No way!” He finally agreed, but I think he just hung around rather than driving back and forth. At any rate, we were ready to go back at 9:30 pm. I called the front desk at the Manhattan and asked them to notify the driver that he could pick us up a half hour early. He was there within five minutes.
Once Dean and I were hooked up with Kathy and Alice, we were loaded into a van driven by the guide that Kathy had engaged for her three-day stay. He drove us to Cafe de la Paz, an outdoor restaurant near Kennedy Park, which was jammed with people celebrating Festival del Pisco Sour—sort of like Octoberfest but substitute Pisco sours for beer.
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| Cafe de la Paz and Kathy and Alice perusing the menu |
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| A child buying a delicious snack from a street vendor; our Cevichê appetizer |
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| Dean dressed in his city finest perusing the Cafe la Paz menu; he went off after ordering to find something to take back home to Valerie; on his return a good bit later he was disappointed that the Cevichê had been eaten . . . and we were embarrassed not to have saved some of it for him |
At the restaurant we met Kathy’s other guide, a Peruvian woman named Ophelia . . . strange. She helped us with menu selections so we got to taste the famous cevichê (raw seafood marinated in lime juice) and a bit of Ophelia’s mazamorra morada, purple corn pudding. I had crab stuffed flounder as my main course and it was delicious.
Peru loves its emblematic cocktail so much that the Peruvian government has declared the first Saturday in February Día Nacional del Pisco Sour, National Pisco Sour Day.
Pisco sours aside, Dean is a bit of a nervous traveler and it did take us a long time to get over here. Our Lima flight to Houston is supposed to leave at 12:40 am and everyone recommends getting to the airport at least 2 hours early for international flights. Alice decides that she will take Kathy’s guide’s taxi service to the airport. We have already engaged our own driver, so we say our final good-byes.
Dean and I get to the airport in plenty of time for some rushed airport shopping, and sit up ALL NIGHT as the plane is repeatedly delayed because of mechanical problems. It’s torture. We are exhausted and can barely hold our heads up, so find vacant benches, the floor, or anywhere we can rest horizontally for a bit. Finally at 5:30 am—by which time we would have been up for over an hour at TRC—our flight leaves. We fall into unconsciousness.
Jeff is at the OKC airport to pick us up and then we are home.
Everyone advised me to open my suitcase in the carport and to inspect the clothes and then to get them into the washer immediately in order to avoid bringing home Peruvian roaches. I do this and find no malingerers. Dean does not do this and finds two roaches in a roll of toilet paper he has packed. Didn’t hear whether or not he stomped them.
That’s all she wrote.
Well, not quite . . .
I feel very fortunate to have been able to see this part of of our planet while it is still in its pristine state, teeming with healthy flora and fauna and impacted only marginally by eco-tourism. At present, the only way to get to the Tambopata National Reserve is by a long day’s journey in a river boat. Soon, however this will not be the case.
In recent months, local authorities, special interest groups, and the population in general in Madre de Dios have been providing strong political and public support to pave the Trans-Amazon Highway, which will stretch to the ocean. Brazil is paving its stretch of the highway, known locally as the Estrada do Pacifico, and work has moved within 50 km of the Peruvian border.
Under current circumstances, the highway will have a tremendously negative impact on the region in terms of social, environmental, and ecological problems. A paved road will provide access to all kinds of vehicles and hence more people and more pollution and deforestation.
The rain forest spread across this region is one of the most diverse in the world, filled with toucans, parrots, jaguars and indigenous groups so isolated that they have never had contact with modern Peru.
Environmentalists warn that, like the paved highway on the Brazilian side of the border, a road here will mean secondary roads, new cattle ranches and increased logging and gold mining.
The road is also sure to bring commercial construction and vices such as prostitution, drugs, and more contraband, feeding off the Wild West atmosphere of this region.
Alan gave a report on the road one evening, saying that it will come within 30 miles of TRC.
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