We met up with the tour guide, Edouardo, for the next 2 weeks all we have to do is stick with the herd. At 7:30 we were of to the aeroporto to catch a TACA flight to Peurto Malardo deep in the Amazon basin. The flight was via Cuzco with no debarking required, due to this, we all got various different combinations of boarding passes. We got 1 for the whole flight, some people got 2 boarding passes and Doug and Ruth just got 1 boarding pass but for the second leg of the trip. No one was concerned except the tourists!
Weather was clear and we got to see Lima from the air. Very flat land, with low buildings. A few highrises downtown. The area was quite large. Quickly we left the city and coast behind for the foothills of the Andres. Terrain was rough featuring green hills with lots of switchbacks road and next to no population. Then came the rugged snowcapped Andes. This was a beautiful site to witness from the airplane window. Beside us at one point was a snowcap mountain peak that you felt you could reach out and touch. It's top was through the clouds to the blue sky where we were flying. We took numerous photos on the first leg of the flight The flight gained lots of altitude as we were going from sea level to 10,000 feet. We landed in Cuzco to exchange some passengers and then we were off to the Amazon Basin. The second leg was to the river city Puerto Maldonadole, on the Tambopata River was only about 30 minutes. The Tambopata river is one of the main tributaries of the Amazon River.
This flight was overcast so not much to see until we started our decent into Puerto Maldonadole, here we got our first glimpse of the rain forest. Lowland with winding muddy rivers and cotton ball clouds in the trees like gorillas in the mist but without the gorillas and hopefully no guerilles (shining path terrorists used to be in Peru until 1995). Once we got off and picked up our luggage we were off to the Tour companies local office to pack for our two day visit to the rain forest.
Normally the trip to the lodge would be via bus and then a river boat but due to recent rainfall the tour company made the decision to eliminate the bus ride, thus lengthen the 2 hour boat trip to a 3.5 hour one. This in it self was not a bad thing as it gave us a good opportunity for sightseeing along the river. Notable animal sightings along the way was a pair of cappabera the largest rodent in the world. Think guinea pig but 1.2 meters high, we also saw a number of birds along with excellent views along the river. We arrived at the Tambopata Eco Lodge just at dusk, were assigned our rooms and then dinner. Once fed we headed out for our night hike. We were heavily prepared for mosquitoes which were almost non existent. The night walk consisted of a 300 m hike in company with our local guides. The guides would point out insects, birds, spiders and mammals as well as the local flora. Some army ants on the move Pretty neat. Looking forward to tomorrow.
Cheers Julie and Dawson
No comments:
Post a Comment