PERU: BUGS AND BIRDS AND BATS, OH MY! Peruvian Animals, Part 1

This post is somewhat inappropriately titled since for the first half of our trip, the only animals we saw were domesticated ones. However, I didn't think a post entitled "Llamas and Dogs" sounded all that interesting. The bugs and birds and bats will be featured in the follow-up to this post.

I love llamas. I think you'll be able to figure that out by looking at these pictures:

Isn't this cute? A llama chilling with two women down the street from our hotel.

We saw lots of llamas at Machu Picchu.

In fact, they use llamas to mow the grass there. Genius.

Aren't they CUTE? I want to have one in my backyard. Think of what we could save on gardeners and fertilizer! (A pet llama would certainly be preferable to a pet rattlesnake, don't you think? I DO.)

Even the Peruvians themselves think llamas are cute. In fact, they like them so much that they had one sculptor put a llama on this poor lady's head. (Actually, they asked for a FLAME to be on her head, and the Spanish word or flame is "llama," and, well, you get the idea.)

In case you, like this sculptor, are confused about llamas, this poem should help:

The one-l lama,
He's a priest.
The two-l llama,
He's a beast.
And I will bet
A silk pajama
There isn't any
Three-l lllama.

--Ogden Nash

Okay, let's move on.

Other than llamas, the animal we saw the most of was dogs. They were EVERYWHERE. I've never seen so many dogs in my life. If happiness is a warm puppy (thank you, Charles Schultz), Peruvians are the happiest people on earth.
This poor lady obviously doesn't have a dog, so she had to take her donkey out for a walk instead. (Still better than walking a rattlesnake.)

And these Peruvians are REALLY confused about why their dogs make such funny noises:

So there you have it. Llamas and dogs.

As a preview of my next Peruvian Animal Post, here is a picture of a lovely visitor to our hotel room in Aguas Calientes:
Totally creepy. (But they get bigger in the Amazon.)

PERU: IN THE LEAFY TREETOPS (It's a Jungle Out There, Part Two)

On our last day in the jungle, we took a canopy walk. We climbed a humongous wooden tower (more than 200 steps) to a platform that was connected by rope and board suspension bridges to observation platforms built 102 feet above the ground. Altogether there were seven bridges with a total length of 1,135 feet. The system was built by Inkaterra Ecological Reserve (our hosts) in partnership with National Geographic and World Bank.
On the observation platforms, we were on level with the tops of the trees. The Inkaterra literature says: "Inkaterra Canopy is considered to be one of the most modern and sophisticated in the world, both due to its camouflage design and because the specialists who built it used ecological materials to prevent negative impact on the environment. The canopy walk enables visitors to enjoy an in-depth look at one of the most productive ecosystems in the rainforest: an enormous food factory where key events for the development of life come together."

One of the preconceptions I had before this trip was that the Amazon jungle was teeming with visible life, that a visitor would be surrounded by birds, monkeys, and all kinds of other animals. After all, millions of species are found there, and many of the new species discoveries are made in the Amazon. Nowhere would this seem to be more true than in the canopy, where 35% of Peru's bird species are supposed to live. Strangely enough, we saw very few, possibly because we were there in the heat of the afternoon. In fact, we see more birds in our backyard in Redlands than we saw on this jaunt!

But while the lack of animal sightings disappointed, the experience as a whole did not. Again, we had the little-kid feeling. It was like Disneyland's Swiss Family Robinson Tree House (now replaced by Tarzan), only a hundred times better.

The bridges varied in length, from quite short (50 yards?) to very long. Only two of us at a time were allowed on a bridge. We heard another group who was also in the canopy while we were there, but the bridge system is so large that we only caught glimpses of them.

Pretty darn fun. Some day I'd like to be there at 5:00 a.m., or maybe even at midnight.

We returned to our cabanas for a rest, then went on one final excursion, a night cruise along the riverbank of the Madre de Dios River. Our expectations were high since the group that went out the previous night had seen a sloth, a capybara, a caiman, and some monkeys. However, the only thing we saw was near the end of the trip--a caiman hidden in the reeds. Still, the ride was refreshing with a cool breeze created by the motion of the boat and a wonderful view of a gorgeous night sky unimpeded by city lights.

We caught a plane to Lima via Cusco the next morning in the bustling Puerto Maldonado Airport, and from Lima we flew home to LAX.

STILL TO COME:

When You Travel with Bob You Eat Interesting Things

Bugs and Birds and Bats, Oh My!

PERU: IT'S A JUNGLE OUT THERE! (Part One)

The final destination of our Grand Peruvian Adventure was an ecological reserve on the Madre de Dios River, an Amazon tributary in the Amazon jungle. (It was pretty wide. I can't imagine what the Amazon itself is like!) We flew into Puerto Malonado, gateway to the Amazon rain forest. You know you are in trouble when the airport you land in has only one runway, two commercial flights a day, and a two-story, wooden air traffic control tower that looks like a prison watchtower. It's also bad when first things you are handed are forms to fill out releasing the tour company from liability in case of an accident, illness, death, etc.

It certainly primed us for adventure.

We left the bulk of our luggage at the airport and took only small bags to our destination, which required a 20-minute drive in an open-air bus and a 30-minute trip downriver in a boat.

Do we look hot? We were. It was 95 degrees and 95% humidity, but we had to wear long sleeves and long pants because of pesky little malaria-ridden mosquitos.

We were delighted with what we found on our arrival, however. Our rooms were cabanas built up on stilts. We had a hammock in the screened-in porch and beds with mosquito netting. It was definitely a kind of Meryl Streep in Out of Africa feel--very fun (only Meryl never looked quite as much like a drowned rat as I did during this portion of the trip). There was no AC and only one electric outlet, which didn't matter since we had electricity for only 2-3 hours a day and used kerosene lamps after dark. It reminded me somewhat of the makeshift clubhouses we used to construct in the hollow when I was growing up. As a matter of fact, the whole time we were in the jungle, I felt like either a) a little kid playing in the mud, or b) an actress in an old movie.

Our first activity was a stroll through the jungle with our guide, who pointed out various growing, creeping, swinging, and crawling things to us. Just after dark, we returned to the trails with our guide and our flashlights. Wearing tall rubber boots provided by the Reserve, we crept along wandering trails and slogged through swampy areas with our flashlights off, not speaking at all until our guide would whisper and point to something, and then we would turn our flashlights into spotlights. Truly, it was like playing hide-n-seek with the neighborhood, only in a far more exotic setting. I think it was Bobby's idea of heaven.

But the MOST fun we had was the next day. Our "wake up call" was a tap on our outside wall at 5:00 a.m. By 6:00 we were on a boat that took us 20 minutes upriver to a wide trail. It started raining about the time we hit the trail, and although we were somewhat protected by the jungle canopy, the rain's run-off turned the path into a river of mud. No worries--we were wearing our awesome rubber boots.

We walked for almost two miles in these conditions until we came to a dock where we boarded a canoe.

Our amazing guide powered the boat with single paddle, maneuvering us away from the dock, down a short river, and out from under the canopy and onto Lake Sandoval, a very large lake surrounded by heavy vegetation growing right up to, and sometimes into the water.

Remember, I said I FELT like Meryl Streep, not that I LOOKED like her.

We felt the full strength of the rain out on the lake, but it wasn't so bad. I'd rather be wet and a bit chilled from rain than drenched in heat- and humidity-induced sweat.

We paddled around the lake a while, encountering a wide range of wildlife, from bats to birds to monkeys to caimans. The rain from our clothing began to fill up our boots, and by the time we got back under the canopy, we were seriously wet. Our journey back was even more of a 12-year-old boy's dream. What had been puddles on the trail that we walked around on our way in were now full blown lakes, and we didn't bother trying to go around them--we just hoped not to drown as we tramped through them, the water and mud coming to the very tops of our boots, and sometimes even into our boots. The rain was so heavy that the canopy ceased to be a protection, and our boots were almost conquered by the deep and sucking mud. Bob, in his khaki-colored clothing, could have been Teddy Roosevelt pressing relentlessly forward in River of Doubt. Heavenly, right Bob?

The most amazing thing of all was how JOLLY everyone was. There was not a single wimp, no whiners, no complainers. We laughed the whole time. I have new respect for Bob's four partners and each of their wonderful, wacky wives.

When we got back to our little cabana, we were able to rest for a bit, dry off somewhat, and enjoy the RAIN forest!