Peru Part I: Puerto Maldonado: April 26-29th

The first leg of our vacation in Peru was in Puerto Maldonado and the Peruvian Amazon. We had an amazing four days and were actually sad to leave. We got to stay in a lodge in the middle of the rain forest and tour with a guide who was extremely knowledgeable. He would spot animals with his naked eye that I could barely see through a telescope!

Ben and I in the middle of one of our hikes

A picture Ben got like a photo sniper. This is why I made him take all the pictures

There is too much to tell. So I decided to describe Puerto Maldonado by the numbers (an idea I stole from my mother). And I have visual aids provided by Ben! Only the lame jokes are mine.

100s of piranas in the small oxbow lake. We crumbled crackers from a canoe and watched them swim to the surface to feast.

10 yards from a mewing Puma

9 capybaras swimming in the river. These basically look like a slightly cuter version of a huge guinea pig. It’s funny how by the end of the trip we barely cared about the capybaras while at the beginning everyone flashed photos furiously (alliteration not intended)

8 employees at the airport we flew into (a rather high approximation). There was one baggage carousel and virtually no security. Ben joked that the carousel was probably powered by a guy behind a curtain riding a bike. It really was in the middle of nowhere, and once you walked outside you were enveloped in thick rainforest. On the way there, I made Ben take a picture of me walking up the stairs to the airplane. Old School!

7 Hour boat ride to the lodge we stayed in. It was deep in the rainforest and completely isolated. The sight of the lodge emerging from the dense trees when we hiked in was amazing. We had electricity for a few hours every day and otherwise used candles and kerosene lamps. Pretty romantic!

6 different types of fresh fruit eaten on a regular basis. Star fruit, passion fruit, limas (mix between lemon and orange), bananas, pineapple and papaya. Inspired me to eat more fruit at home.
Double Time!
5 people in our tour group. We loved Daniel (our guide), Will, and Kenny. We met up with Will and Kenny on the next leg of our trip in Cusco and Daniel was the guide that none other could measure up to.

Our group saying goodbye at the airport

5 AM wakeup calls. We woke up early to hike around in the morning coolness. Lots of pretty sunrises.

4 species of monkeys hanging out around the lodge and on our hikes (howler, spider, dusky titi, and capuchin)

4 on 4 - the parameters for the fierce game of soccer Ben played with the guys at the lodge one afternoon. I decided to be the cheerleader - less sweaty.

3 delicious home-cooked meals per day. We ate at the lodge with our group almost every meal and had an amazing time.

Our group plus some extra friends at dinner one night. Ben and I are back there. Look closely.

3 picnic lunches wrapped in a big leaf with a string around it.

2 Macaws right outside our bedroom before one of them flew on in

We were watching this macaw on the tree outside before it flew right at our friend Kenny. Lucky for us it followed the rafters into our room next.

2 rarely spotted animals - a tapir and a sloth. So cool!

A tapir we watched as it crossed the river. The face is the coolest part - look up a better picture!

1 time I was really scared. Only the big herd of wild boars (30-40 of them) and their stench scared me. We never got a good picture because they were so skittish. They would cluck their tusks and when we came near scatter. Luckily, neither the bat we woke up to in our room, nor the tarantula we observed near the lodge scared me.

1 termite in my diet. Some of the locals eat termites as a dietary supplement. So we decided to try it. Surprisingly minty!

Ugly picture of me inquisitively tasting my termite

0 Walls between our room and the rainforest. While we had bamboo walls separating our rooms from the other guests’, the side of the room adjacent to the rainforest was completely open.