Our First Trip to Peru: Part Two

But first I'd like to add that our plane tickets have been bought for our second trip! Our trip is June 26-July 7. We'll be staying 8 nights in the Amazon rainforest, 2 nights at a research center, 1 or 2 nights camping in the forest, and the remaining nights at the main lodge. We booked our tour with Amazonia Expeditions who got wonderful reviews on Tripadvisor. Can't wait to go!

And now back to your regularly scheduled program.

Day 3

Today we woke up around 5 am to go visit the lek again to see if we could see some birds. We were in luck because there were 5 out. We stayed for about half an hour taking pictures and observing them. Then it was back to the lodge for breakfast. It was "tortilla de verdura" or vegetable tortillas (the mother/daughter were vegetarians). It wasn't really a tortilla, it was more like a quiche because it was just egg with veggies. It was really good. After breakfast we boarded the van to get to our second lodge, Erika Lodge. It was over an hour away. After driving about 20 minutes the van stopped at a small shack that had a dog sitting outside. Ronald explained that the driver knew this dog very well and he always left scraps for him. The dog would wait by the road for our driver and if he drove by without stopping then the dog would chase after him!

After the dog was fat and happy from our leftovers we continued on. We stopped in a rural town along the way to pick up some bread. I didn't realize they had so many villages in the national park. We picked up a few dozen pieces of bread and the breadmaker let us all take one fresh out of the oven. Delicious! Then it was back on the road for another 10 miles where we stopped at a local coca plantation. Ronald explained that coca plantations are highly regulated. The farmer can only grow a certain amount of coca and only one company is allowed to take the coca from the farms to the cities. The coca farmers usually supplement their income by growing pineapples, bananas and lemons. After checking out the coca plantation for a while we headed to a town called Pilcopata. There we met our rafting guide for a short trip down the river. It was only Class I and II rapids so we didn't use helmets, just a life vest. There were some parts of the river that were so slow, they seemed to have no current at all. We rafted for about an hour and then some of us took a dip in the river. I was one of those people, so when I slipped off the edge of the raft I went straight down, completely under the water! Eventually the life jacket decided to do its job and I came bobbing back up to the top but everyone had a good laugh at that.

Our breadmaker making our loaves of bread

The coca plantation

We got to a small village called Atalaya Port where the van was waiting for us. We got all of our luggage out of the van and boarded a small motor boat that would take us to Erika Lodge. There was a cute little boy on the boat, obviously the son of one of the employees. I gave him a toy that I had in my backpack but he was too shy to talk to me at all during our time at Erika Lodge. The ride was very refreshing because we actually had a breeze from moving so fast. Usually the air doesn't move much in the Amazon. Combine that with the humidity and you sweat very easily. Erika Lodge was a lot nicer than San Pedro and lunch was waiting for us.


After lunch we took a break for a couple hours before heading off on a hike. Before we left we donned knee-high rubber boots that the lodge provided for us, to protect us from contact with snakes and other animals. Ronald also warned us to make sure the doors to our rooms were shut tight. Apparently there is a resident monkey around the lodge called Pepe who likes to visit unattended rooms and steal things. We caught a glimpse of Pepe on the bank of a river once but unfortunately I didn't get any pictures.

Taking a break at Erika Lodge

On the hike we saw a few macaws and heard some wild turkeys. We hiked for about an hour and by the time we turned around to go back it was dark. Ronald was looking for night animals (read: tarantulas!) on our hike back. We were all using our flashlights because we didn't want to step on a snake or spider. Then all of a sudden we heard something in the dark. We stopped to listen and Ronald told us to turn off our flashlights. So we were huddled in the pitch black rainforest while our guide wandered off the path in the direction of the noise. I was so scared I kept turning my flashlight back off while Ronald kept telling me to turn it off. We never did find the animal. Ronald thinks it may have been an ocelot or wild pig. We made it back to the lodge safely where we had dinner and went to bed.


Day 4

Today was our last day in Manu. It was also another early day. We woke up at 5 am to board our motor boat to see some parrots and macaws. There is a huge clay wall on one side of the river that contains certain types of minerals. The birds come in the morning to lick the clay. The minerals they get aids in their digestion. We hid under a shelter on the opposite bank to watch the birds. About 20 green parrots showed up but no macaws. After about half an hour of observations we headed back to the lodge for breakfast. This morning it was a delicious fruit salad made with papaya, cantelope, strawberries, pineapple, banana and yogurt. They also had some sort of puffed rice topping that tasted like Sugar Smacks. It was wonderful.

After breakfast was our canopy zipline tour. This was the part of the trip I was most excited about. We would ride a zip line to 5 different platforms in the forest. So we trudged up a huge hill to get to the first platform. I was dripping sweat by the time we got there. I took one look at the zip line and was no longer excited. Our platform was on the side of a huge hill and the second platform was about 300 feet away on the other side. The middle of the zip line was at least 100 feet above the canopy. I didn't realize we would be that high. I thought we would be zipping through the canopy, not above it! I no longer wanted to do this. But I put my harness on anyway and we all climbed to the top of the platform. We got a quick lesson on how to move and how to brake. My fears of this canopy tour kept growing even after the first two people went. Ronald was at the bottom of the platform holding a machete and telling me I had to go. I'll take the machete, thank you! Then it was just me and Brandon. By this time my hands were shaking. So Brandon said he would go first. That didn't convince me. So the guide hooked my harness to the pulley. Now my whole body was shaking like a leaf. He told me to sit so I could move down the line but I couldn't. I didn't want to leave the platform. He suggested that we do tandem and ride together but at this point I was too shaky to even stand. So I backed out of the canopy tour and the others continued on. I sat for a while until I stopped shaking and Ronald, me and another Peruvian went looking for monkeys instead. We heard a group of them but as we started to walk in the direction of the sound they went away.

The canopy tour group did see some monkeys though, a mother and her baby. Unfortunately Brandon didn't have the camera, I did, so we didn't get a picture. Ronald and I did find a dung beetle though, how exciting lol. I asked him what it was and he called it a "defecate beetle". Then he asked me what the proper word was and I told him, as well as the curse word. He then told me the curse word in Spanish, which I repeated and cause the other Peruvian to start laughing hysterically. So there we were, me and Ronald teaching each other to say "shit" in our native languages. It was quite comical.

On the way back to the camp Ronald stopped to cut some big leaves. He explained that they would cook dinner in them that evening. Apparently the leaves give the food a special flavor. Back at the lodge I was able to relax for a while before the group came back. I noticed that Pepe had eaten the passion fruit I left out for him. There was a smattering of seeds on the deck. The group returned and we had a very nice buffet-style lunch and toasted it with some local Peruvian wine. The other 4 girls would stay an extra night but Brandon and I gathered our things to go back to Cusco with another group. It was almost noon before we left.

During the boat ride back to Atalaya Port our motor boat got stuck. The water was extremely shallow and it was much easier going downriver than up. So the guides made all the guys get out (including Brandon) and push the boat to deeper water. It took a long time and eventually the ladies had to get out and hang out on a rocky shoal in the middle of the river while the guys helped out another boatman who got stuck in the same situation. Brandon says now that this was one of the highlights of his trip to Manu. He really enjoyed getting to be a part of that, instead of being treated like a tourist.

Pushing the boat upriver

I was nervous that we would be driving on that treacherous mountain road in the dark but it was actually easier for me because I couldn't tell how high up we were. We got to Cusco around 2 am, checked into our hotel and went straight to sleep.