A Journey Through Peru - Part 2a - The Amazon Rainforest - Night walk, day hike and canopy tower

Just under two hours after leaving Lima our flight lands in Puerto Maldonado. A further hour by bus and 45 minutes by boat and we arrive at the Amazonas Refugio Lodge in the jungle, just a few hundred yards trek from the Tambopata River. That evening our guide, Jair, takes us on a night walk where we encounter snakes, frogs, scorpions, leaf cutter ants and this Net-casting Spider, which catapults the web held between its front legs to capture its prey.

A Net-casting Spider waiting for unsuspecting pray to walk along this leaf


The following day, after being woken in the early hours by the impossibly loud calls of Howler Monkeys we hike through the forest in search of more wildlife. The humidity is so high that we are all sweating after just a few yards of walking. We can hear the wildlife everywhere but it seems impossible to spot without Jair. Who seems to be able to spot the smallest thing on the rainforest floor or high up in the canopy.

A Peruvian Chicken Spider (Tarantula) emerging from its burrow

A Red Howler Monkey, one of our noisy neighbours

Suddenly Jair stops in front of me and points at a white shape just visible through the foliage. He seems quite excited by this one. As I find what he is pointing at in my camera viewfinder my first impression is that the bird I see just doesn't look real. Is it some kind of practical joke the guides play on unsuspecting guests maybe? Actually it is a King Vulture and I do see it move, which dispels any thoughts that he has propped a stuffed penguin in the tree branch for a laugh.

A King Penguin Vulture

Further along the path Jair stops again and points out a less showy member of the family.

Greater Yellow-Headed Vulture

The day ends with a climb up a tall observation tower that reaches above the top of the jungle canopy. Five of our party of twelve do not actually make it all the way to the top of the structure, which sways more and more as we ascend, and have to return to terra firma.


A Double-Toothed Kite incubating two eggs, seen from the canopy observation tower

After watching the sun set below the tree canopy from the observation tower ​I walk back to the lodge after dark thinking how a place I have dreamed of visiting since I was a boy has exceeded all my expectations already and I still have tomorrow and the trip to see the Macaws at their clay lick.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dubrovnik Old Town

Image
For some time I had hankered after travelling to Dubrovnik, the bustling and beautiful UNESCO world heritage city, as part of a wider Croatian ramble  This plan had been foiled last year when my lack of basic Balkans geography had put paid to a plan to visit to the Istrian peninsula before heading south to Dubrovnik. Without direct flights between Pula and Dubrovnik airports the travel logistics of combining the divided north and south of the long, spindly coastal part of Croatia, proved too challenging for a family holiday. A trip by land would mean the significant complication of negotiating the 12-mile wide Neum corridor. Neum gives an otherwise land-locked Bosnian and Herzegovina a corridor to the Adriatic Sea that, undoubtedly to the delight of many Bosnians, but much to my personal annoyance, separates Dubrovnik from the rest of Croatia. By sea, concerns about the reliability of the Adriatic ferries and their ability to disrupt my obsessive-compulsive derived travel plans was...
Read more

Outer Hebrides - Arrival

Image
Ullapool, just before boarding our ferry   “Oh, he’s adorable!” I look down the lead in my hand to the small, scruffy brown and white dog at the other end. Sherlock is slowly dripping water, collected in his undercarriage fur from the rain-soaked streets of Ullapool, onto the hotel reception floor. We’ve just been for Sherlock’s last walk of the day before we turn in ready for our early start tomorrow.   “I have a cockapoo just like him back home.” I return my gaze to the small, white-haired lady standing in front of me. From her accent she is from the US.   “Um, he’s actually a Cavachon.” I reply, knowing that I’m treading a well-worn verbal path. “He’s a cross between a Cavalier King Charles spaniel and a Bichon Frise.” I add.    Not for the first time I am struck by the irony that this handily shortened breed name has to be explained long-windedly every time someone meets Sherlock. Unbowed by my pedantry, Sherlock’s new admirer bends down to pe...
Read more

A Journey Through Peru - Part 1 - Lima

Image
I have just returned from three weeks travelling in Peru and I’d like to share my journey through this amazing country with you in a few words and photos over a series of travelogue posts. Peru is such a large and diverse country with many natural wonders. It is purported to have 28 of the world’s 32 bioclimatic life zones packed within its borders and, whilst I’m sure we didn’t experience them all, it certainly felt like it. We travelled from the extremes of the hot and humid Amazon rain forest to the arid, high altitude of the Altiplano in the Andes and this does present some challenges for the body. There are also man-made wonders to be discovered here with the architectural fusion of the Incan empire and the Spanish colonialists. I hope this series gives you an entertaining insight into the country as we experienced it. Anyway, let me start at the beginning of our adventure…. Most international visitors, like us, fly into Lima and, consequently, tourists tend to view it as a gatewa...
Read more