Journey into the Amazon

I can barely believe that I have already been back from Peru for an entire week! Despite a few minor glitches, I believe that everyone involved considered it a smashing success! With so much to share, I will have to chronicle our adventure in steps.

Part 1: Journey into the Amazon

After a quick (10 hour) stop in Lima and 24 hours in Cusco, our adventure really started when Jolene and I boarded the plane to Puerto Maldanado, the port to the Peruvian Amazon.  Our flight was mostly empty... all 9 rows of it. We spent the short flight hopping from seat to seat to get the best view and watched the mountains of Cusco fade into the green lush amazon forest snaked with thick muddy rivers. Stepping off the plane we were hit with a wall of humidity, much different than the weather we had experienced in Cusco, which sits at 11,200ft. We had spent hours trying to confirm our reservation with Wasai Amazon Lodge so were nervous that our plans were ruined (Western Union was so blame, not Wasai.) We breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing Jorge, our guide, holding a sign with my name on it after we landed.

Standing in front of our 9 row plane in Puerto Maldanado

We were whisked away to Wasai's Puerto Maldanado Lodge and were served fresh squeezed juice, a welcomed staple in Peru. There we found out who would be in our group. Our group consisted of myself, Jolene and our guide, Jorge. That's it! We counted ourselves as lucky since we were already getting along with Jorge, who not only seemed knowledgeable but was also an excellent story teller with a great sense of humor. After we paid our balance we set out to board a motorized canoe. In attempt to update their marketing, Wasai had a film crew on sight so we were filmed boarding the boat and taking off. (We keep checking the website to see if we made the cut! www.wasai.com)

Aboard our canoe with a the film crew on the bank

We left Wasai Maldanado Lodge by canoe and arrive in the Wasai Tambopata Lodge a little more than 3 hours later.

When researching our trip, one thing that we really wanted to do was see the Amazon by boat. Our research uncovered giant river cruise vessels that were not only expensive but also looked out of place and separate from nature. We were thinking more along the lines of long canoes and paddling with the natives. We weren't exactly paddling (it would have been a long long journey) but we were in a motorized canoe with a canopy providing much needed shade. Our eyes wide, we snapped photos of everything we saw! Motorized covered canoes seemed to be the preferred mode of transportation by both locals and by companies transporting their tourists. Jorge pointed out caiman (think little gators), capybaras (think large dog sized hamsters), turtles and butterflies. Lunch was provided on our boat which we fully expected to be sandwiches with mystery meat... we were wrong. Jorge handed us our lunch bags with chicken, rice, and veggies wrapped in giant banana leafs (delicious!) and homemade plantain chips.

We spotted a caiman right before it slipped back into the river.

Lunch in a banana leaf... Yum!

The canoes parked at Wasai Tambopata Lodge

After a little more than three hours, we pulled up to Wasai Lodge...

A New Leaf

Exciting things are happening... I've graduated graduate school,  I'm opening myself up to job opportunities across the country and I'm about to embark on an international journey!

First off I’m done with my MBA. Graduate school really flew by and I’m hoping that the connections I made and knowledge I acquired will help me in the future. I’ve come a long way since my first day of class in the summer of 2010. I was a bit overwhelmed with all of the business lingo after living and working as a glorified ski bum for so long! (Going from measuring the return student ratio to return on investment wasn’t so hard!) I can now interpret the business lingo and have realized how much my experiences in Breckenridge have help develop me both personally and professionally.

With nothing holding me back, I’m currently applying to marketing and PR positions all over the country. This is both exciting and scary! While I’d love to stay within the snowsports or outdoor industries, I’m also open to other opportunities that will help me grow. I’ve developed a keen interested in Internet marketing so thought… why not start my own blog?

To celebrate my graduation (and scratch my international travel itch before I jump head first to a new position... hopefully soon) I am traveling to Peru. While Peru might not have been a big spot on my radar a year ago, a brave Breckenridge friend who is trekking the entire length of South America, and a new adventurous friend from graduate school enticed me.  I will be traveling into the Amazon for about a week with my friend Jolene and then we will be meeting up with Shelley Brooke and Las Tres Chicas Locas to hike to Machu Picchu.

I look forward to sharing and chronicling both my professional and personal experiences!  Here I hope to learn more about blogging and the blogging community!