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.
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| 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)
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| Aboard our canoe with a the film crew on the bank |
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| 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.
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| We spotted a caiman right before it slipped back into the river. |
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| Lunch in a banana leaf... Yum! |
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| The canoes parked at Wasai Tambopata Lodge |
After a little more than three hours, we pulled up to Wasai Lodge...
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.
