Puerto Maldanado (Amazon)
We started our adventure on Saturday, June 11th, 2016.
Mike dropped us off in New Orleans and we flew out at 1:15 pm headed to a
layover in Atlanta, then a 6-hour flight to Lima, Peru. Our guide was
there to meet us when we landed at 1 am. She walked us across the airport
drop off lanes and straight into our hotel, Costa del Sol. While waiting in the
long line to check in she answered a few questions about Peru and gave us a
heads up of what to expect the next two weeks. We woke up at 5 am to eat
breakfast at the hotel and then walk across the street to our terminal for our
flight to Puerto Maldanado. Within three hours we arrived and were
greeted by the staff from our lodge. We loaded up onto a bus and the
staff had to lift our heavy (50 lbs. each) bags onto the top of the bus.
The bus dropped us off at the boat dock. From there we took a 20-minute
motorized canoe ride on the Rio Madre de Dios River to our lodge, the beautiful
Inkatera, Hacienda Concepcion in Tambopata, Peru, in the heart of the Amazon
Rain forest!
We were greeted with the most wonderful lemonade we have
ever tasted. We later found out it consisted of water, sugar, lemon
juice, lemongrass and mint. It was absolutely refreshing, but we were
hungry! Finally, a late lunch buffet was served with spinach soup, fish,
pork, pasta with a creamy tomato sauce, salad with starfruit dressing, spinach
quiche, chocolate pie and fruit. After lunch, we did a short jungle walk
where we saw a “walking palm tree”, the tree sends down different roots to
better position itself to receive sunlight. The “strangling fig” is
another interesting Amazon tree. It is a Ficus that seed starts to grow
from a branch of another tree. This fig then sends down roots to the
ground and strangles out the host tree. They can get REALLY big but all
the roots in the Amazon are very shallow due to the acidic soil, with only a
few inches of good top soil. The reason the soil in the Amazon is so
acidic is due to the rain constantly washing away all the nutrients. This
is also why the river is so brown. We then came across a rubber tree on
our hike; our guide cut into the tree with a small knife and pulled out some stretchy
rubber. When the tree began to bleed, we all got a chance to touch it… it felt
like glue. A cacao tree was also spotted, but it was not in season to
produce. After night fall, we took a boat ride to spot the local
wildlife. We found caiman, which are small reptiles, like alligators, and
can be either “black” or “white”. We also spotted some Capybaras eating
on the banks of the river. This is the largest rodent in the world; they
can get as big as 150 lbs. They didn’t seem to mind us getting close and
spotlighting them.
Pisco Sour is the local drink here. It is made with
egg whites shaken up to make a froth on top. It’s pretty good. We
had dinner with another traveler, Sue from the U.K. She is a lot of fun
and is on a 105-day holiday including 14 countries. We had a delicious
dinner, or "fabulous" as our new friend Sue would say. :) We left the
main house/restaurant around 9 pm. It gets cold in the jungle at night so we
were tickled to see a hot water bottled tucked between our sheets and the
mosquito nets lowered for us when we returned to our room. Our cabana has
open screens, no a/c or heat and they shut off the electricity for several
hours a day, although they always left a lantern next to the restroom (that
also had an emergency whistle). Our wake-up call, which was a man
knocking on our door, was at 5 am. Breakfast buffet took place at 5:30
am and by 6 am we were taking the boat to the Tambopata National
Reserve. We walked 2 miles in the jungle watching monkeys play in the tree
tops. We then took a long canoe into Lake Sandoval to see what we could
find. We encountered caiman, a huge blue heron, yellow headed vultures,
parakeets, turtles, butterflies, macaws, king fish, red howler monkeys, etc. We
then hiked the 2 miles back to the boat to have lunch at the lodge.
After lunch, we met our guide at 2 pm for a canopy
tour. We climbed over 100 feet and walked over the jungle at canopy
level. We saw vividly colored macaws and breath-taking views of the
jungle. There were six hanging rope bridges that we had to take turns
going across. The platforms could only hold so many people. We
loved it! You could actually pay to stay at a small tree house there overnight.
Back at the lodge, we met for 6;30 pm to do a night jungle walk. A
few spiders, night howler monkeys and a snake were spotted. A bat flew
right by our heads scaring Holly! Our guide Alan said it was a fruit bat,
but they do have vampire bats who lick you to deaden your skin with
saliva so you never know you were bitten.
Dinner that night was fabulous yet again, we did some
"cultural research" with our new friend Sue. We tried different
flavored Pisco Sours.
They let us sleep till 7 am the next morning, breakfast was
at 7:30 am and at 8:00 we got on the boat to tour a local farm. The river is
the only mode of transportation. It is as big as the Mississippi river, but no
barges or ships, only locals in long canoes with motors. The Gamitana farm had
different types of lumber, starfruit, peppers, lemon grass, chickens, bananas,
pineapple, citrus, sugarcane, etc. We were able to taste the sugarcane and most
of the fruits and nuts. Holly and Mary also tried to walk a tight rope
that was a few feet off the ground that our host, Kenny, had done with ease.
They were both unsuccessful to say the least. We arrived back at
the resort and walked through their botanical garden. Alan showed us
various plants and explained their medicinal uses. He called it
"jungle medicine". He showed us an ointment taken from the sap of a
Palm tree, natural dye made from leaves, The Caco leaves are used for digestion
and altitude sickness. Later Mary volunteered to chew on a Acmella
Oleracea vine, which she quickly found it had numbing properties. Holly was
next to volunteer to open a Brazil nut pod using a machete. The pod was
hard to break as it took several whacks from the machete. Inside the pod
are usually 15-20 Brazil nuts in their individual shells.
A buffet lunch was enjoyed with key lime pie and fresh
fruit. After lunch, we enjoyed a quick nap before our canoe adventure.
Holly decided she needed more than a quick nap, so she stayed behind for
the next adventure. Alan called it a pond, but it looked more like a swamp with
narrow winding passages. Mary volunteered to help paddle the canoe. We
spotted many birds, a big caiman and a 10-foot anaconda!!!! Our guide wanted to
get up close (too close for our liking since he had just mentioned that they
can launch out of the water at their prey). We then stopped to do a
little piranha fishing. Alan handed us a cane with a line and raw meat on
the hook. Alan caught the first one and showed us its sharp teeth and
strong clamping jaws. We were told to slap the water with the pole to attract
the piranha... unlike any fishing we had ever done. Not long after Mary
caught one!! She was terrified when she pulled it up out of the water.
She took a couple pictures and we threw it back.
This was our last night in the jungle so we met Holly and
Sue upstairs at the lodge to have a few drinks and chat over drinks and candlelight
during the "no electricity" hours. Sue told us about Machu
Picchu, since she had just visited. Mary and Holly also found out that
Julie booked the Wayna Picchu hike the day after the "short" Inca
trail hike. They were not thrilled. :) Dinner soon followed, as did
more drinks. We laughed and cut up until we realized we were the only
ones left in the restaurant.
The next morning, we were able to sleep in and have a late breakfast. We then left by boat to meet the bus that would take us to the airport. Along the way we stopped at the Mariposario Tambopata Butterfly Farm. The butterflies loved Mary. They kept landing on her arms, legs and face!
The airport was hot and the wait was long. We said our goodbyes to Sue who was off to her next fabulous destination.
Ollaytaytambo (Sacred Valley)
We were greeted at the Cusco airport by a guide and a hot
cup of coca tea to help us with the altitude sickness since Cusco sits around
11,100 feet in elevation. Another guide was there to brief us on our upcoming
Machu Picchu hike, then we were off to the Sacred Valley. On the way to
Ollantaytambo we decided to stop at a weaving village in Chinchero. The
women showed us the techniques used to make their crafts. They used a
root as a natural shampoo to clean the wool, then used various natural products
to dye it. One was a parasite that they sacrificed to make a blood
red color (which she later used as lipstick as well. ekkk). We sipped on more
coca tea and watched them continue to weave. They explained to us that they do
not use any type of pattern... they only go with their mood. We walked across
the street to one of their farms to see where the wool comes from. They
have several llamas and alpacas. They also had a guinea pig farm... the
guinea pig (or Cuy) is a delicacy in Peru.
We arrived at the, Pakaritampu Hotel late so we just ate at
the restaurant there. We were starving so we ordered too much food, and
called it an early night. We woke refreshed after a good night’s
sleep. We had a free day for acclimation, so we were in no hurry.
We enjoyed our buffet breakfast and wandered around the beautiful hotel
grounds. Later we walked into town (less than a mile), huffing and
puffing from the elevation. The main square was filled with vendors and
restaurants. We did some souvenir shopping and walked through the
streets. We found a tourist shop and we wandered in to try to book a trip
for the next day. The lady spoke no English, and we could say about 15 useless
Spanish words. We thought we booked a Peruvian Paso horseback riding trip
to a couple destinations we had on our list, but were not 100% sure. She
walked us out of the shop and gestured for us to follow her. We stopped
at some stairs and she pointed up, so we said "adios" and started
climbing. We were not in the proper attire for hiking (blue jeans,
purses and souvenir bags), but we thought "why not". :) About 30
seconds into the climb we were rethinking it, but forged ahead anyways.
The trail was steep and the steps at times were just jagged rock with no
shoulder to the path. The higher we hiked the views of the valley became
more spectacular. Finally, we reached (what we later found out) an old
Inca building used for food storage. After our journey back down the
mountain we were again in search of food. We found a pizza shop in the
main square. We enjoyed pizza and Inca Kola. We wandered the
streets more went to rest up at the hotel, then walked back to town for dinner
at a restaurant with a balcony and free wifi! :)
The next morning, we showed up at the excursion office at 8
am as instructed. Luckily our driver was there and he spoke better
English. We drop about 45 minutes up a mountain. We soon see a man
and 4 Peruvian Paso horses. Our guide drops us off with our new guide (who
spoke NO English). Mary got on first, no problem, then Holly, no issue.
Julie then got on a horse the guide called Linda. Linda was not a
happy horse and Julie was scared!! We rode for about 5 minutes before Julie
thought it would be a better idea to walk since Linda had a piss poor attitude.
Mary offered to switch with Julie since she has more experience.
Julie hopped on Dos Debos (I obviously misunderstood the guide, but that
is what I called him). He was much more timid than Linda and all were happy.
We rode through wheat fields with a beautiful mountain backdrop. Our
first stop was at Moray, an archaeological site used by the Incas to
create micro climates for different crops. Since our guide spoke no
English, he stayed with the horses and we walked down and around the terraces.
We enjoyed a bag lunch that was packed for us, then saddled up again to head to
the Maras salt mines. However, it was a scary adventure to get there.
Our guide was not concerned that our horses would fall off the trail (and
off the mountain), although all three of us were!! After a long and
stressful day on the horses we arrived at Maras and happily said our
goodbyes to Linda, Dos Debos and Negro. We meet us with our driver again and
drove a couple miles to the salt mines. These mines were built by the Incas.
It is fed by a natural salt water spring on the mountain. Shallow
pools were formed for the salt water to evaporate in approximately a month.
about 350 families work the mines. We walked along the mines,
sampled the salty spring water and watched the workers carry heavy sacks of
salt along the narrow ridges of the down the mountain. We hiked down the
mountain through a village where a local asked our guide something in
Spanish....our guide giggled and looked at us. After questioning what was
so funny he said the guy asked if the three of us would sit in the back of his
van to weigh it down since it was stuck on an incline. He was very happy
to see some thick boned people to help him out of a jam! LOL Just so happens we
passed the Sacred Valley Brewery on our way back to town so we had to continue
our "cultural research" :)
We called it an early night yet again to get a good night’s
sleep. A guide picked us up at 9 am the next morning for whitewater
rafting on the Urubamba River. Twenty minutes later (and on a cold
morning) we were trying to squeeze into wet suits. The river was 45
degrees. Our guide, Willie, was very nice, spoke great English, and could
read the river expertly. Carmen followed the raft in a kayak in case we
should need help. She is currently the only woman river guide in all of
Peru. The river was low because it was dry season, but we still managed
to find some class 3 rapids. While floating down the river Willis pointed out
several resting houses for the Inca runners, or Chasqui. They could relay
a message at a distance of 200 miles per day. Thank God for cell phones
and email today right?!?! After some fun rapids, we came to a still part
of the river. Willie asked if we wanted to get out of the boat and float.
Mary was the only one to volunteer. Once Mary was back in the boat he
made it known that we were each going to get our turn "the easy way, or
the hard way" LOL. Reluctantly Julie and Holly got in. It was
really funny and were all glad the GoPro captured it all. :) We arrived at our
lunch stop right on the banks of the river. We changed out of our wet
suits and enjoyed the warm sun. We had a great lunch with our guides and
they shared many great stores about Peru and about their families. They
later dropped us back at our hotel and we happily each enjoyed an early shower!
The next morning happened to be Father's Day. We were able to briefly facetime with dad before we were off on our next adventure. Our guide Boris picked us up bright and early and gave us a history lesson on the Inca and pre-Inca civilizations on the way to Pisac. During the ride, we noticed many groups gathered together. Boris told us Father's Day is also celebrated in Peru on that day. We saw many fire pits with roasting guinea pigs/cuy for this special day. We arrived at the Pisac ruins where we saw more architectural terraces. He then showed us some holes in the side of the mountain that the Incas used as burial tombs. We wandered around the ruins for a while, then it was off to the Pisac market. We enjoyed some queso empanadas and some shopping before headed back to the sacred valley. We stopped for lunch at a nice hotel halfway back to Ollantaytambo. Once we got back we toured the Ollantaytambo ruins. Boris was able to point out the brilliant Incan architecture. The walls were built at an incline to withstand earthquakes and the unique way the stones were fit together without using mortar. These stones could weigh as much as 80 tons. Boris brought us back to our hotel to collect our luggage (that we wouldn't see for the next couple days). We were each allowed to bring one backpack, weighting no more than 15 lbs. that we had to carry on our Machu Picchu hike. We were in such a rush that Holly accidentally packed her cell phone in her luggage and didn't notice until Boris had already left with our bags. We were so tired that we skipped dinner and called it a very early night.
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| Lunch Spot |
Aguas Calientes (Machu Picchu)
Our 4 am wakeup call came early!!! Our guide picked us up at
the hotel at 5 am and we walked to the train station just 5 minutes from our
hotel. We boarded the train at 5:20 am and got off at the 104-km mark for the
"short" Inca trail. We started our walk each with our day pack
and a bag lunch. Mary was not feeling well. We quickly stumbled
upon ruins of an Inca resting house, then made our way back to the trail.
The scenery was beautiful, but it got hot quick and the uphill
"stairs" were killer. After a couple of hours, the trail was
shaded and made it much easier on us. Every turn was even more beautiful.
We walked for several hours and saw many Inca ruins and waterfalls on the
way to Machu Picchu. Our guide was great and was perfectly ok with going
slow, even though he makes this trip several times a month. We stopped and had
some fruit at the Winay Wyana ruins, then stopped for our lunch a short
while after. We weren’t all that hungry, but we were excited about
sitting for a bit and resting our feet/legs. Nilo kept reminding us of
the 3 Inca rules. 1) don't steal, 2) don't lie, and 3) don't be lazy. So, after
lunch we got back to it. About 5 pm we arrived at the Sun Gate and our
first view of Machu Picchu. It was almost emotional seeing it for the
first time after such a tough and tiring climb. Machu Picchu was a 30 minute
downhill walk from the Sun Gate. We were able to enjoy Machu Picchu with
few other tourists since it was so late in the day. We walked around,
took some pictures and found the llamas. We later took a bus down a
winding road to the city of Aguas Calientes and our hotel, El Mapi. We at an
early dinner, enjoyed a drink or two and called it an early night.
The next morning, we boarded the bus for the 20-minute winding route back to Machu Picchu. Nilo took us on a tour of the grounds and gave us a history lesson on the Incas. We had a ticket to climb Wayna Picchu (the backdrop of Machu Picchu) at 11 am. We started our accent and not a few minutes into our hike we saw men carrying a stretcher down the mountain. This hike was no joke... one wrong step and you could fall off the mountain. The stones used were small, irregular and sometimes slippery. At some areas, there were cables to hold on to, but not everywhere. It was frightening, exhilarating and challenging. We had spaced out a bit. Julie was ahead, then Mary, then poor Holly (accompanied by Nilo, our guide) with a massive sinus infection and an immense fear of heights. We kept climbing. At each level, we assumed it was the summit, but the path kept going and getting steeper. At several points of the hike we reached terraces with beautiful views of Machu Picchu. Julie reached the summit first and realized that the summit consisted of several huge boulders angled towards each other. Once Julie was atop the mountain she heard Mary's voice and was happy to see her. We each took turns getting a picture with the beautiful backdrop then didn't waste our time getting down and back to sturdy ground. On Julie and Mary's decent, we assumed we would find Holly clinging to the side of the mountain having not made it to the top, but just as we were joking about it, we hear Nilo's voice from the summit letting us know that they both made it safely! We walked back through Machu Picchu and waited in the long lines for the buses back to Aguas Calientes to each lunch and pick up our luggage from our hotel. Then we caught the train to Cusco.
The train from Aguas Calientes to Cusco took 4 hours.
Sitting across from us was Lester, he was originally from Nicaragua, but
lives in Miami, and was traveling solo around Peru. Luckily the train
served wine and the attendants also doubled as models as they walked the runway
with the newest Peruvian fashions made of only the softest baby alpaca.
The entire train car got a kick out of the show (I’m sure the flowing
wine helped). We were also greeted by the Incan dancing diablo. I
don't remember the story behind him, but we all enjoyed the dancing and laughs
(again, I’m sure the wine helped). We enjoyed Lester's company and glad he
had a good sense of humor!
Cusco
The train arrived in Cusco around 10 pm. We got off
the train to the very cold Cusco and found our driver. We drove about 30
minutes to our hotel right by the main square, Terra Via.
We woke up early the next morning to explore Cusco.
The whole town was celebrating the winter solstice and the anniversary of
the city. When we walked to the square shortly after breakfast we noticed
a parade. Each of the 13 regions dressed in their traditional dress and
dance through the streets. The streets were packed with parade watchers.
We found a market our Machu Picchu guide, Nilo, had suggested we visit
called San Pedro market. The market was huge and had everything from
textiles to coffee, to meat, to cheese, to dead baby llamas to hang as a
sacrifice to the gods. We enjoyed buying some souvenirs and eating caramel stuffed
churros from a street vendor. We later found a Starbucks and needed the
caffeine boost, since we had decided to try Salsa dancing later that night.
We had dinner at the Inca Grill and next door was a Salsa club called
African Mama. We went in and the lessons were already wrapping up, but
the music was playing and everyone was dancing. We enjoyed mojitos and
danced till 2:30 am. The place was still crowded, but we were
tired!
We spent the next several days enjoying the parades and the
markets (and more churros). One day we booked an excursion to the historic
capital of the Inca empire, Saksaywaman (pronounced "Sexy Woman").
We found our guide and took a car up a steep mountain to the historic
capital. The complex was built with large stones that were again fit
together perfectly to make their walls. Saksaywaman also overlooks the
town of Cusco which made from some great views. We went back to Cucso and
had lunch in the Plaza de Armas, more shopping, then off to salsa lessons at
Mythology. We had lots of fun and the later it got the more crowded it
got. We stayed for a couple hours then headed back to African Mama for
more dancing and people watching. We thought we would be able to sleep in
and take our time packing, but got a call at 10 am letting us know that they we
had to check out at that moment. We threw out stuff in the bag and
brought them to the front desk for them to hold for us since our flight
didn't leave till later that evening. We did more shopping, enjoyed lunch on a
terrace and watched more parades. Our guide showed us later to bring us
to the airport for our flight back to Lima. At the airport, we met up
with our friend Lester (from the train), and we shared stores about the rest of
our trip since we left each other. Our flight was delayed a little, but
we were finally on our way home by way of Lima and Atlanta!
Until next
time...