The lodge is nice, with a central building, and about 20 two-bedroom bungalows. The rooms had a private bathroom and the central porch had a table and chairs plus the all-important hammock. The only electricity is from a generator to the central building from 5-10PM. The rooms had candles instead of lights.
After the first dinner, we saw a presentation in the theatre and went on a nighttime bug walk. We say many plants and spiders. After it was off to the bar to meet some fellow guests. The majority of the other guests were from Edmonton and Okotoks.
The next morning was our trip to the oxbow lake. We took the boat upstream for 15 minutes or so to the trailhead. On the boat ride was saw a family of capyburas eating clay on the riverbank. Their grass diet filled with tannins is toxic so they need to eat clay to neutralize their stomachs. The world's largest rodent is an excellent swimmer and can stay underwater for 5 minutes.
Our Peruvian trail expertise now includes Amazonian mud. Even though it's the 'dry' season, it still rains a lot and the trails were mostly mud. Luckily we used the lodge gumboots for the 2 hour trail hike. We saw many more plants and even a couple tarantulas (sorry no pics on my phone). Our guide used a twig with a small leaf on the end plus some spit to coax the spiders out of their holes. They were easily the size of my hand, but I didn't bother putting my hand next to it for comparison.
Once we reached the lake we boarded a large canoe and paddled around looking for cayman, giant river otters, and anacondas. We saw none of them but saw this prehistoric bird. Sorry I forget the name and the picture is on my camera. I know real helpful right?
On the other side of the lake we took a short walk to see a couple fine examples of Amazon tree life. Again a forget the names, but one was a parasitic tree that wrapped around an established tree and slowly strangled it and then it grows in the old trees place once the old tree dies. They often have hollow trunks for the lower part and I was able to crawl inside the tree to have a look around.
Another thing with the Amazon basin is that all of the nutrient soil is in the top 50cm and is made up of decaying biomass. Under that is infertile clay. When farmers clear a section of rainforest they quickly use up the nutrients, and with no new decaying plants, they only get a few growing seasons out of the soil. Next up is cattle grazing for a little bit. But with the nutrients gone and the canopy missing to protect the surface from the equatorial sun, it becomes a desert after 10 years or so and the Amazon ecosystem is gone for generations in that area. And that's saying nothing of the destruction of animal habitats and loss of unique biodiversity!
I bring up the shallow soil because all tree roots grow outwards from just above the surface and twist their way along the jungle floor. The next big tree we saw was 400 years old and had roots spreading everywhere! It would've taken about 30 people to hold hands and encircle the tree.
We also saw a tree that walks! A walking palm can move 25cm in a year as new roots that are above the surface grow further along and drag the palm towards precious light. Light for plants is very precious. Trees will grow straight up and only when they reach the canopy above and sunlight will they branch out to take their piece of the hot sun.
After returning to the rowboat, we fed some piranhas. It's not quite like the movies, but we threw crackers in the water and dozens of them would instantly eat them. It was quite a sight to see. Not like a feeding frenzy, but the crackers were gone quickly.
We spent the afternoon after chillaxing and went on a cayman-hunting boat ride at night. Thanks to our guide Hugo, we saw a small white cayman. It was about 6 feet long (part of the alligator family) and still a youth. They can grow to about 18 feet long. We also saw a very rare dwarf cayman. It was only about 3 feet long but had crazy reptilian skin with lots of spikes and dark scales.
The next day it was a boat ride to Porto Maldonado to fly back to Cusco. We had an excellent lunch at Cafe Morena and a not-so excellent dinner at Papachos (but great company with friends from the tour). I highly recommend Cusco as a place to visit and once you get over the possible altitude sickness (11000' above sea level) you will be rewarded with a fine city!
We are currently on an 8-hour bus ride to Puno where we will spend a few days on the Peru side of Lake Titicaca and will do a home-stay on a floating island with a family that actually lives that way. We will test out our soccer and enjoy the last few days in this amazing country!
This is part of the Andean Plain, and would not be out of place in Alberta or the interior of BC. The camera doesn't show that we are at 13000' above sea level.
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