A very Happy 2014 to all!
After our juice fast and our trip to the coast, we flew back to Cusco and switched out some supplies in Ollantaytambo. On December 31, we hopped a $100 round trip flight to Puerto Maldonado to the jungle where we spent new years and our 1 year anniversary.
Enjoy our photos of the National Reserve of Tambopata and the Sandoval Lake. Gorgeous!
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| Flowers called "the beak of the parrot" in Español |
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| Close up |
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| In the common area in our first, very rustic lodge on new years eve |
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| Cool vine |
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| Light through the trees |
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| Walking through the jungle for the first time |
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| Adam preparing for ziplining with our guide Joamir |
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| Swamp with a cool walkway built in it |
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| Posing for success |
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| Brooke is terrified |
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| Brooke ziplining with rubber boots |
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| Tarantula we found on the trail on our way back from ziplining |
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| Praying mantis baby? |
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| Cool common area at the first lodge |
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| "Bear" (beer) for 5 soles |
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| Our mosquito net that did not fit our bed. |
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| Cute girl at the first lodge |
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| Our first lodge |
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| Enjoying some fresh air |
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| Sweet boat on the Madre de Dios river |
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| On the boat on the way to Tambopata |
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| Brooke suddenly hugged Adam but in doing so, she accidentally pushed a clip from his bag on Adam's neck and we laughed really hard |
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| A sign that says something to the effect of "Respect the life in the area....don't scare or alarm the native animals...this is their home" |
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| Adam and a massive ficus tree. We found out it can be used for terminating a pregnancy and for GI issues. |
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| ¡Welcome to the National Reserve of Tambopata! |
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| Very grateful for rubber boots on a trail like this through the jungle |
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| Our friend Nicola from France |
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| An endangered black caiman, an alligator/crocodile-type animal. It was rare to see them during the day, so we felt lucky to see one right away! |
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| A little green tree frog that fell into my lap from a tree. Cute does not even begin to describe this. |
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Tree with many holes started by woodpeckers that hold nests
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| Lilypads with lotus flowers that opened just at night |
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| View of the jungle |
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| "Snake bird" with his head turned |
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| Walking tree |
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| Adam played chess with me and we enjoyed some beers in the meantime |
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| Good sport |
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| Our tour guide Jord and the lake |
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| Adam looking excellent |
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| Adam and the gorgeous sunset |
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| Monkey! |
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| Beautiful river birds native to the area |
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| Bats on the tree with a squirrel monkey in the background |
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| Squirrel monkey |
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| Macaws |
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| Boat inching up to Sandoval Lake |
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| Monkey! |
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| Endangered species "Lobe del rio" in the lake |
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| Cock block (very helpful in this case) |
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| Our room near Sandoval Lake with well-fitting mosquito nets! |
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| Prints of a jaguar or different jungle animal. Our guide stressed the importance of always staying alert in the jungle, and the story below is a good example of why you need to do that. |
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| Adam and I were talking by a tree and we started hearing this buzzing sound that didn't go away. Brooke felt these bugs on start to land on her face and Adam started hearing buzzing as well. We heard our guide say "RUN"!!! There were these bugs in our hair and on our face that had scissor hands. No injuries were sustained and the guide calmly picked these out of our hair and clothing. He calls them "bees". The reason they attacked us were because we were too loud walking by their nest and this was a defense mechanism. GROSS. |
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| Ficus tree |
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| Crazy relative of a wolf spider |
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| Getting all of our ducks in a row |
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| A fruit I have never seen before |
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| Piña growing! |
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| Guava just knocked off the tree with the machete of our guide |
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| "Guava" off of the tree |
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| Cool mushroom |
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| Harder than it looks to get mangoes off of the tree |
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| Getting the mangoes down! |
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| Our guide Jord and Brooke with mangoes we got off the tree |
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| Our anniversary celebration-beautiful sunset take 2 (last year, we saw sunset on the California coast) |
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| Happy 1-year anniversary, Adam! |
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| Happy second sunset! |
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| Oh mosquitoes |
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| Positive attitude in a mosquito-ridden area |
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| Monkeys picking berries from the trees. |
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| Beautiful monkeys! We got so close. |
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| Adam thrilled about monkeys in the background |
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| Lake during the day |
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| Rainbow over the lake |
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| Jord striking a pose |
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| Pirate "Adancito" |
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| Conquering the lake |
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| Sunset on Lake Sandoval |
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| ¡Mi culo está sucio! (my ass is dirty) |
¡Then we went on a night search for black Caiman at night!
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| Our guide caught a baby black caiman! |
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| Crazy that we got to touch it! |
Before we left, we got up really early the morning of the 3rd and we saw the Macaw clay lick. See this description from Wikipedia-really interesting since Adam and I just had bentonite clay as part of our juice fast!
(Picture from Wikipedia)
"Some foods eaten by macaws in certain regions in the wild are said to contain toxic or caustic substances which they are able to digest. It has been suggested that parrots and macaws in the Amazon basin eat clay from exposed river banks to neutralize these toxins.[11] In the western Amazon hundreds of macaws and other parrots descend to exposed river banks to consume clay on an almost daily basis[12] - except on rainy days.[13]Donald Brightsmith, the principal investigator of the Tambopata Macaw Project, located at the Tambopata Research Center (TRC) in Peru, has studied the clay eating behavior of parrots at clay licks in Peru. He and fellow investigators found that the soils macaws choose to consume at the clay licks do not have higher levels of cation exchange capacity (ability to absorb toxins) than that of unused areas of the clay licks[14] and thus the parrots could not be using the clay to neutralize ingested food toxins. Rather, the macaws and other bird and animal species prefer clays with higher levels of sodium.[15] Sodium is a vital element that is scarce in environments greater than 100 kilometers from the ocean.[16] The distribution of claylicks across South America further supports this hypothesis - as the largest and most species rich claylicks are found on the western side of the Amazon basin far from oceanic influences.[17] Salt-enriched (NaCl) oceanic aerosols are the main source of environmental sodium near coasts and this decreases drastically farther inland.[18]"
After this and a long hike back to the Madre de Dios river with all of our supplies, we got picked up after a long hike back the same way we came. However, there was a very strong current in the river as shown below.
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| The boat that was supposed to pick us up was washing downstream |
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| Adam and one of the largest bridges in South America |
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| Another tarantula wishing us well on our way out of Puerto Maldonado |
We stopped in Pisac again on the way back to get some supplies we had left at Sananda-Wasi and to get some delicious organic food.
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| "We are children of the stars"-a poster in IntiHuatana in Pisac |
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| "Light will set you free" in IntiHuatana in Pisac |
Some extra pictures from our trip from Adam's camera:
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| Adam and Nicola |
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| Cutest cats ever at Sananda-Wasi |
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| "Semáforo" means stoplight in Spanish, and this is a "stoplight" of the UV levels in Lima, so they call it the "solmáforo", or the sun stoplight. |
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| Lima sunset |
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| Another tarantula in the jungle in his home |
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| "VIP" with menorah....we loved it. |
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| Beautiful area during our flight back to Cusco from Puerto Maldonado |
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| Cutest kid in our taxi on the way to the airport |
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| Our jungle hut |
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| Boat with Peruvian flags |
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| Pisac from before |
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| Coconut from the Puerto Maldonado market |
