Postcards from Peru: The Amazon (3)

Peru: Itinerary (1)
Peru: Lima and coastal Peru (2)

To explore the Amazon, the best way is to fly to one of the towns there and stay at one of the nearby ecolodges in the jungle. We flew to Puerto Maldonado (PM), which was quite a small town, located at the intersection of two rivers, the Madre de Dios and the Tambopata. These rivers go deeper into the forest and are lined with hotels and ecolodges. If you stay at one of these places, you basically need a boat to leave your accommodation. So any exploration either in the forest or the city has to be booked with the lodge itself.

PM from above

We stayed at one such place, the Hacienda Herrera Tambopata, an ecolodge on the Madre de Dios river, close to town and did a few excursions from there. We went to a nearby lake, for a sunset cruise on the river, as well as to a Macaw Clay Lick deep in the forest. I liked these explorations and all the animals and plants we saw, but somehow did not get the feeling that we were really in the Amazon, as most of the activities we did were quite near town. So the whole experience did not feel as wild as I expected. I think if we had stayed at one of the lodges deeper in the forest, the experience would have been different.

Also, for the entire 4 days we were there, there were winds blowing from Patagonia (called the friajes). So it was cloudy, windy, humid with no sun the entire time, and the temperatures had dropped sharply. What is generally hot and humid 30+ degrees weather turned out to be extremely cold weather and we felt like we were freezing all the time. So the experience was not as great as it could have been, but it was still very different from anything else I have seen before.


Getting there

Our flight was delayed by an hour as the LATAM airlines we were flying were missing a passenger but they did not know who. So they kept counting and recounting the passengers for more than an hour! And not one of the service staff spoke English, so we couldn't ask them much about what they were doing either 😃. The flight to PM was uneventful, all we saw were clouds over the Amazon.

We were received by a person from the Hacienda who first drove us by car through town to the boat jetty. The town looked big enough, though most of the houses were simple, with just one to two floors. And there were some good restaurants to eat too. (We never got to come back to the city as we realised later we would be living in a lodge on the river and the only way to get out is to take a boat to the city!)

At the boat jetty

From the boat jetty, we got onto a wooden boat which took us on the Madre de Dios river to our lodge. By the time we had got onto the boat, it had already become dark and was raining intermittently too. As we moved along the river, the city lights were left behind and there was no light around other than one small bulb on the boat. And that was it! All around was darkness, with a rapidly gushing river under us, rain above and no sign of any civilisation anywhere close by. We did have a few moments when we were wondering what we had gotten ourselves into! 


Hacienda Herrera Tambopata

When we got off at the lodge, all we could see was the jetty. The person asked us to get off and walk towards the reception while he got our luggage. We had to jump off in the dark, and had no clue how he would get our suitcases. Anyways, as we went up the wooden stairs using our phone light, we ended up in a forest with no lights to guide us! And it was still raining!

We tried looking for a path towards the lodge reception but got lost. So we just came back to where we had got off from the boat and waited, as it felt scary to walk into the forest in the rain, not knowing where you were going, with just your phone light to guide you!

Then we finally saw the person come with our luggage on a small wagon, and we walked with him to the reception to check in. That night, we were the only 2 guests in the lodge. And so the owner, the only one who spoke some English, had decided not to come in from town. So there were a total of 2 people other than us staying in this huge lodge and farm in the Amazon, one was the cook and the other was the attendant, both of whom did not speak English.

Anyways we checked in to our “luxury huts”. But when we went to look at our room, it felt like it was not the same we had booked. This one had open bathrooms with no doors, looking out onto the tropical forest, in the wind, cold and rain! We had a few more tense minutes figuring out where we had turned up, and why?! We asked the attendant to shift us to another accommodation, the bungalows. Which at least had closed bathrooms.

We had dinner at the reception and then walked to our bungalows. Since the weather had been cloudy for a while, the solar lights were not fully charged, so the lights around the lodge were not working properly that night. Our bungalow was cute, made of wood, surrounded by vegetation all around. It had a balcony with a hammock, overlooking huge tropical trees. And the bathroom was inside, with no open access to the wild.

All around on the top, there was a metal net. My guess is this would be great in the humid heat to encourage cross-ventilation inside the bungalow. Except that it was freezing cold. And we had a tough time sleeping. First, it was super cold. Second, it took us time to get used to sleeping with the sounds of birds and animals moving (probably monkeys), twigs breaking and the rustling of the wind all night. But finally we slept, as we had been tired during the day.

The next day we asked for 3 blankets instead of the one we had, as it was so cold and that was the only way we could sleep in an open bungalow. It turned out that the lodge did not have a lot of blankets as it was rarely cold there. At that time we were wondering if it was better to stay at a hotel rather than an ecolodge, as a hotel has more modern amenities. And even heaters.

Our bungalow

In the morning, when we woke up and saw the ecolodge in daylight, kuch saans main saans aayee. It felt a lot better in the morning. We woke up with natural sunlight and it felt amazing. The lodge was a beautiful setup with a few spread out bungalows, all encompassed with dense tropical vegetation. There were loads of different kinds of trees and shrubs all around, and even swamps and farms. There were so many varieties of plants, many of them were laden with exotic flowers. Especially red and orange ones. And birds and bird sounds. There were so many natural sounds around, but it was still so quiet. We could easily spend time exploring the lodge itself.

Once we walked around the place, we were able to better figure out how to get from one place to another. The main reception was a two floor wooden building with an open terrace with a few hammocks to chill in the afternoon heat. Which is where I spent most of my time (even though it was freezing). It was also so relaxing there, as if I was only surrounded by nature. And the ground floor was where we ate all our meals. They had an in-house cook who cooked local food for us daily. It was always fun to chat with him. He showed us some local food stuff too. Including a snake in a jar which was a local delicacy. Needless to say, I never tried it.

Our balcony

And there were thousands of birds in the lodge itself, who would keep coo-ing the whole day. We even started identifying some of them, though it was always tough to spot them. There was a typical sound which we kept hearing regularly, like a water drop sound - and that was the sounds of an Oropendula. I never saw one, but heard it regularly - it was my favourite of the bird sounds here. 

The next day a few more people came to stay in the lodge, so things felt more normal as we had company. And it was fun to chat with people around and learn about their experiences. Overall the lodge was fine, even though the first day felt a bit scary. Maybe because its a family run farm turned lodge, the service is not professional enough. We should have realised that as when we were trying to book activities through the lodge earlier, it had been a mess. The people we were communicating with did not know much english. But given how professional the website looked, we had expected the service to be better. Anyways overall our experience was fine afterwards, after the first night of shock.

For the last two days we even moved into the “luxury huts” we had checked out initially, with the open bathrooms. The bathrooms were definitely scary to use, as there were always sounds of the trees and monkeys jumping on the trees next door. Still we managed to live through it, though it was definitely a different experience.

Over the next few days we spent some time going out for activities, and the rest was either relaxing on the reception terrace or exploring the surrounding farms. Right behind reception were the lodge’s cocoa, banana and orange farms. We walked around them a bit, spotting some agoutis and possums too. And of course, a lot of birds were there.

The reception

The rest of my time at the lodge felt very idyllic, lounging on the hammocks. There was no internet at the lodge except at the reception, which was great. There were no roads around our lodge, and we couldn't walk or drive to get anywhere. Across the river, there was a road and a few hotels. But our side of the river felt totally remote. And so the entire stay we felt we were far away from the outside world.

But the weather definitely made the experience very tough for me. It was cloudy, windy, cold and humid the entire time. And it would rain anytime, randomly. In fact I was wearing the same clothes I had brought along for the Salkantay trail (where temperatures drop to -5 degrees at night) in the Amazon!! At least I had the clothes for this weather. Some of the clothes the locals were wearing felt so thin, I wasn't sure how they were dealing with the cold.


The activities

Over the next four days, we left the lodge only for the activities we did around. They were organised mostly by the Somos Selva guides, and somehow always started extremely early morning or after sunset. I think it made sense given how hot the Amazon usually is, but for now, it felt a bit of an overkill as it was cold the entire time.

I went out for 4 different activities, all of which were different: Night walk (1 hour) Sandoval lake tour (6 hours) Tambopata sunset cruise (3 hours) and Chuncho Macaw Clay Lick tour (8 hours).

Night walk

Pink toe tarantula

This was organised by a guide at the lodge itself, who took us out for a walk around the lodge for an hour, to show us the (mostly) insect life that came out of hiding after sunset. Most of these were spiders, and some of them were interesting too. We spotted a praying mantis; a possum on the trees looking for eggs to eat; a small spider who adds trash to its body length, to make it look longer; a chicken spider coming out from its hole (its the second largest spider in the world); a golden orb spider cocooning a moth and a few pink toe tarantula on trees which were scary but also fun to observe under the light. Overall it was fine for an activity to do close by but nothing major to write home about.

Sandoval lake tour

Madre De Dios river

This was a half day tour (almost 6 hours from when we left the lodge) to one of the nearby lakes, the Sandoval lake. We first had a 30 mins boat ride to reach the entry point to the lake, the Tambopata National Reserve. Then we walked on a boardwalk through the forest for 2 kms, and the guide showed us some interesting Amazonian trees. He pointed out some medicinal plants which gave out chilli or avocado or garlic smells when we rubbed the leaves between our hands.  

We saw the parasitic strangler figs which first start wrapping itself around a tree and then slowly over the next 50-60 years eat and finish off the old tree taking its place. We saw some younger ficus creepers growing around the trees, and then one new tree growing around the remains of the old tree, with a hollow centre where the old tree was. Apparently, birds defecate the seeds on top of the trees. They slowly grow roots, reaching all the way to the soil and then surround the tree, killing it slowly. It was interesting to see, but more scary at the same time.

Path to Sandoval

We saw some farmer ants, many different kinds of mushrooms, various flowers and creepers going up trees, and of course many many birds like kingfishers, parrots, blue and yellow macaws, the mother-in-law bird (called so because of her loud birdsong), the tiger heron, a few ibises, many hoatzins (a huge weird looking yellow bird), cormorants and the Great Ani. And then we could hear two groups of howler monkeys screaming at each other from afar. They can really howl!

 

Sandoval lake

Then we reached the Sandoval, a huge lake in the middle of dense forests. We took a small wooden boat, and a local guide took us all around the lake along the forested shoreline. The guides were able to spot some animals on the banks, the rest of the time telling us their stories from this part of the world. We saw the two groups of howler monkeys (with binoculars) we had heard earlier. Given how cold it was, they were sitting on top of the trees, completely huddled up, wishing for some sun. We spotted some yellow spotted-neck river turtles and two black caimans around the lake.

The sightings were less than usual given the cold. But it was so refreshing to be out in the wild like this, and hearing all the stories from the guide. Apparently, there are only four families who still live inside this regulated area and are allowed to engage in tourism activities. They run a shop to sell snacks etc., close to where we got onto our boat. For our lunch also, we stopped at the farm house of one such family. There were a few hammocks and benches there, plus we could buy some snacks from them.

The Puerto Maldonado area has only about 10% local Amazonian people living here. The others have all come from other parts of Peru. The population of the town has grown from 50k to 100k people in the last 15 years. And more and more people are moving in regularly. One of the reasons is the older road from PM to Cusco used to take 2 weeks to traverse while the new road which was completed recently has reduced that time to only 10 hours now.

Earlier logging used to be a major employment provider, but that is not allowed anymore. Of course, tourism is huge here. But the largest employer is gold mining from the sand in the rivers, which is very popular and lucrative, though illegal. It's a tough job as the workers work 24 hour shifts. But they still do it as the profits are high.

The guide also told us about all the illegal poachers and miners in the forests who kill anyone going into the jungle to stop them. From what he told us, a lot of illegal activities are still going on in the Amazon as it's so tough to control.

On the walk back, we saw groups of capuchin monkeys jumping around and making a ruckus on the trees. And then of course took the boat back to our lodge. Overall, I liked this experience a lot as we actually got out into the deeper forest, though not deep enough for me.

Tambopata sunset tour

This was a 3 hour cruise along the Madre de Dios river first and then along the Tambopata river. We mostly cruised along the riverbank, trying to spot animals, with the naked eye initially and later using a spotlight after the sun had set. The river was quite muddy and red, probably because of all the minerals flowing down it.

We first spotted a few sloths with patterned skin, lazing on the trees. They were hanging from the trees, and so slow to move. Next we saw two capybara families chilling in the grass next to the river. But when we went close, they turned ‘statue’. As if that will prevent us from spotting them😁. We saw many groups of hoatzins, which are prehistoric-looking birds. They were beautiful and such a pleasure to observe. Then some Yellow Flycatchers. And lastly a baby caiman. Of course, we didn't see much of the sunset as there were clouds the whole time so there are no sunset photos from the cruise.

Collpa Chuncho Macaw clay lick

This was my favourite of all the excursions we went for in the Amazon. We had to wake up at an ungodly 3 am for the tour. We first went by boat to the city of PM. Then we were driven in a car on the east west highway to Brazil. Once we entered the Tambopata national reserve, we drove to the boat jetty, got onto another boat on the Tambopata and were off to Chuncho. The boat ride was quite adventurous as the pilots swerved the boats very dangerously while trying to avoid all the driftwood floating in the river. We got off onto a small sandy island in the river, and plonked ourselves there for the next few hours. There were a few groups already there, all taking up spots along the island to be able to see the clay lick clearly.

Around the island

From this island, we can get a clear (though far) view of the clay lick, a sand cliff with many kinds of minerals in it which is apparently healthy for the macaws. So daily, 100s of macaws come there and take their time to get down to the cliffs to lick the clay. It's almost a dance that happens daily. There are three types of macaws who turn up here - blue and yellow ones, the scarlet ones, and the red and green macaws - plus some types of parrots also join them for the feasting.

The macaws mostly fly in pairs as they are monogamous, and mate for life. As the macaws fly in, in groups or couples, they first sit on top of the tree canopy. They stay there for hours, chatting to each other and scouring the surroundings for any potential predators. Step by step, they slowly shift down the forest canopy layers, to get closer to the clay lick. The entire group keeps doing this almost in tandem, slowly, step by step.

Finally one macaw who is brave enough, volunteers to fly down to the clay lick and start pecking. And then if no predator jumps on it, one by one more macaws fly down and start pecking. And suddenly there is a riot of colours and sounds as all of them try to lick as much clay as possible, in a short span of time before they all fly away for the day. Or at any moment because of a sound or any perceived danger, they can all just fly away, leaving the tens of tourists with nothing to see in spite of all their efforts in getting there.

What happened with us of course was very interesting, and shows how wildlife safaris work, at their own whim and fancy. When we got off the boat at the small sandy beach next to the river, our guide set up his telescope and then we waited. For 4 hours. We saw the macaws come in, and observed them on the canopies using our binoculars. For a long time. They kept talking to each other but refused to fly down to the clay lick.

Macaws waiting

We kept observing them on the trees, counting them too. I could count only about 25 macaws and parrots among all the trees, but my guide said there were at least 70-100. And then we would count again and keep re-counting to keep us busy. We ate breakfast, tea, lunch (trying out the local guardia fruit) to keep us busy. We walked around the sandbank, putting our feet in the water (it was warmer than the ambient temperatures) to keep us busy. We spotted some Orinoco goose on the island. And some capybara footprints, again to keep ourselves busy.

Then one macaw flew down to the click but within minutes it panicked and then all the macaws flew away, leaving the clay lick empty. Our guide told us to give up and leave. But we didn't. We stayed, just a bit more. And then a stunning scene unfolded.

One by one, the macaws flew back. And then they slowly went down some levels. And then the volunteer macaw flew down to the clay lick. And then the rest of them descended. The blue and yellow macaws. The scarlet macaws. The red and green macaws. All of them. Hundreds of them. And some parrots too. A few blue-headed parrots. Making noises and pecking.

Macaws at clay lick

What a magnificent sight it was. I loved it, enjoying every moment of it. Observing them through the binoculars, how they behaved. It was just so much fun and exciting. It was such an incredible experience, a mesmerising natural spectacle, watching 100s of these stunning birds congregate at one location to eat minerals from the clay cliffs. I absolutely loved it. Such a simple scene, but completely enthralling. The macaws were there for some 20-30 minutes and then they all flew away. And we all felt satiated, having witnessed such a beautiful spectacle of nature.

Capybaras

While coming back, the boat took us around the riverbanks, trying to spot some more animals around. We saw some capybara families, two speckled caimans and capuchin monkeys on the trees. We also saw some people floating on a wooden barge, mining gold from the river sand, of course illegally. Other than that, it was such a pleasant ride back home as the weather had warmed up a bit by then. We reached our lodge by 11am, after spending a whole day out. It felt like the day was so long, we had already seen and experienced so much already by 11am!


Overall, I enjoyed our experience in the Amazon forest. We spotted so many animals and bird sounds and so many unique trees, it was definitely a new experience for me. Also this trip made me realise what is the best way to explore the Amazon. Our experience this time was too sanitised, so for next time I would definitely like to go deeper, into the real Amazon. Maybe even go for a week or two at least (as well as pray that there are no Patagonian winds at that time 😂).

And just like that, our trip was over. While leaving, we again drove through town to the airport. It felt quite small and simple. And then we were off on our next adventure, to the Andes.