Today we flew from Cusco in the Andes to Puerto Maldonado in the Amazon Rain Forest. Puerto Maldonado is a small town built on the demand for rubber during world war II. The following photos show us flying in, taking a rickety old bus for a 45 minute trip (this is one of the old bridges we crossed) and then hopping on a boat, with boats being our only transportation for the rest of the visit, other than our feet.
On the boat they provided us with lunch in a leaf, a delicious rice dish with mushrooms,egg, onion. Upon our arrival we found our room, with our private bath. The room is three bamboo walls, the fourth wall is open, kind of like sleeping on an open porch. During dinner the staff unfolds the nets over our beds.
We finished the day with a hike to the 120 foot tall tower, which was just barely enough to get above the tops of most trees. It was a slog up the 185 steps. The bird is a jungle turkey.
The next day started with a 4:30am breakfast followed by a bat trip and hike to an oxbow lake. we rode on pontoon boats, powered and directed by a single oar in the stern. At one point we were a on Ryan powered boat. We saw lots of birds, looked for river otters, but never saw them, and went piranha fishing. Here is Ryan with one of the catches.
We saw McCaws in flight. Over the four days we saw a number of tarantulas like this one, as well as a number of termite nests like this one.
Please continue to part two for the next portion of the visit.
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