A Trip to Peru...... August 2007 (Part 2)  

by Leonard Babin                   

In The Jungle.....

    Judi and our friends, the Hesemans arrived on time (at 4:30 in the morning) and crashed for a few hours. Then we went on a whirlwind city tour of Lima visiting some of the places that I had seen before and a museum of ancient art that I hadn't. The highlight was a display of prehistoric erotic art with ¨sexual themes¨ another with ¨comical themes¨ and a third with ¨moral themes¨. The young female tour guide summed it up with the conclusion that ¨nothing is new¨.

    We stayed in Mira Flores, which is a neighborhood of Lima that's built on cliffs overlooking the ocean.  It's kind of an up market place, and the kind of place that expatriate Americans would live if the company was paying. The souvenirs in the Mira Flores shops were priced at three times what you can buy them for in downtown Lima. The restaurants were also priced 3 to four times as much; but it's a much nicer neighborhood and quieter part of town.

    We met the two other couples that were joining us and took a flight to Puerto Maldonado, near the eastern border with Bolivia and then took a small power boat up the Rio Madre de Dios to the Bolivian border. We then turned south on the Heath river and proceeded slowly up the Heath River to the Heath River Wildlife Center in Bolivia. The Boat ride took about 6 hours. One complication was that there has been no rain in the area for some time and the river is down about 6 feet from normal. The navigation was difficult and although the boat probably took up less than one foot of water, it bottomed out several times. The next few days were spent hiking jungle trails and taking boat trips up and down the Heath River looking for wildlife and learning about the flora and fauna of the jungle.

    We saw a small Tapir, about 185 pounds.  They grow to about 880 pounds. This was very fortunate because there are only estimated to be about 1000 of them left in the wild. We saw lots capybaras, the largest rodents in the world.  They grow up to 185 pounds and looked like big fat guinea pigs. There were Caymans (not caymen) lizards, spider monkeys and red howler monkeys. We heard the red howler monkeys in the morning; but only one of us actually saw any. The birds provided the most entertainment.  We sat in a blind on the river one morning just before sunrise and watched parrots fly to the trees above a steep river bank. There were lots of green parrots; but, there were also blue headed parrots, yellow headed parrots, green parrots with red under their wings and on their breasts, and lots of different types of parakeets of various bright colors. The birds interest was a type of clay that contains a lot of salts. They would survey the situation for 10 to 20 minutes and then drop down to the cliffs and peck at the clay.

    They continued that until the Macaws arrived.  The macaws swooped in pairs, like motorcycle cowboys ready to terrorize the neighborhood. The parrots took this as a signal to move out of the neighborhood, squawking in unison, by the dozens.  The macaws were mostly all red macaws, but there we also saw a few blue and yellow ones.  They went through the same process of checking out the security of the area and then dropped down to the cliffs. We counted at least 50 macaws on the cliff pecking, and some were still arriving while some had left already.  In one mass, they all retreated from the cliff at the same time with a cacophony of squawking similar to the parrots.

    We proceeded to Cusco, the traditional take-off point for Machu Picchu and took a day to visit the Sacred Valley and some Inca ruins in the area. It provided an opportunity for acclimatization and a preview of what to expect as we took an hour and a half walk at 11,000 feet on a trail that is ¨like
the Inca trail¨.

    We're going to start the Inca Trail tomorrow and spend four days without showers, and sleeping in tents on the mountains as we hike to Machu Picchu. Our guide has instructed those of us who were taking Diamox to prevent altitude sickness to stop immediately because ¨It only makes your fingers tingle and your stomach feel sick; and you can still get altitude sickness. Instead, drink two cups of coca leaf tea a day and you'll be OK.¨

    Regarding the earthquake. The aftershocks have stopped.  Every city we've visited has had some activity going on to send supplies to the earthquake victims. It's still an awful situation; but, it is, at least being actively worked.

Go To Part 3

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