Life on the Amazon

   If you visit Peru, there are a couple of things you just sort of have to do… visit Machu Picchu (more on that next week), and go to the Amazon.  Granted, Peru has a whole host of other things that should be high on your list, but those two are musts.  Both are simply awesome.

   Most everyone's trip to the Amazon in Peru begins in Puerto Maldonado, a small town with an airport that sits on the Rio Madre de Dios, not too far from the Bolivian border.  From there you'll hop on a boat and head out away from any semblance of civilization.  For Holly and I, that was a three hour boat ride down the Rio Madre de Dios to the Bolivian border, and then up the smaller river that seperates the two countries.  It was quite the adventure!  As we were on our way, we would pass boats like the one pictured above.  Really long, skinny boats, piled high with all manner of things being ferried from one place to another and propelled with what looked like a lawnmower engine attached to a long shaft that disappeared into the water.  We also passed the remains of several house boat looking vessels with a conveyor type belt coming out of the water which had evidently been used during the area's gold rush.  Our guide told us tales of people striking it rich and then losing it all on bad business deals, a scenario that seemed somewhat par for the course for the area.  

   The area is extremely pretty.  I remember thinking that everything seemed really big; the plants, the trees, and even some of the animals.  As we were working our way up the river we passed several groups of caiman, sunning themselves on the banks of the river.  We also saw families of capybara (which are basically REALLY big guinea pigs) and more types of birds then I can remember.  On hikes we saw all sorts of critters, and I almost stepped on a small fer de lance… which would have been exciting I'm sure.  We were hoping to see a tapir, but were only lucky enough to see its three toed footprint in the mud.  The most exhilarating find though, was on a night hike.  I had my headlamp on and was scanning the jungle as we walked, when I spotted a pair of eyes looking back at us.  I called the guide over and he shown his flashlight in that direction… which revealed white, black, and yellow spots!  At first we thought it was a leopard, but when it got up to move our guide identified it as an ocelot.  We didn't get too good of a look at it, but it was exciting (and maybe a little scary) to know that we had been so close to such a beautiful animal.  As it disappeared into the thick foliage, our guide meowed at it, like you would a house cat, to which I started cracking up laughing.  My laughter was quickly hushed though, when the cat meowed back!  Holly and I were completely blown away that it would do that!  So cool!

   In all we spent 3 days in the jungle, exploring and learning about life there… I think I could have spent much longer there though.  Our trip ended just the way it began, floating down the river, watching the locals go about their business.  As we got closer to town we could see thick, dark smoke coming from different parts of the city.  Our guide and the boat driver seemed concerned as they talked to people on their cell phones.  It turned out lots of people had taken to the streets to protest a new tax that had been imposed on the farmers of the area, and were burning tires and who knows what else.  Our guide told us that similar protests in the past had ended in the burning down of government buildings.  As a precaution we went to a landing on the other side of town that had a more direct route to the airport, and we were on our way.  While all this was a little nerve-racking for us, it was all just part of living there for them.

–Dan Thompson