Friday we woke up and started to do a re-pack of everything we had. After living out of a day-pack while hiking for four days, and needing to pair down to another day pack for two nights in the jungle, it took a bit of work. Time was also taken up by everyone wanting a good shower (after four days without one, I can’t imagine why). We met up with Mom and Dad who were heading back home earlier than us. We got to the airport and onto our plane, where we sat on the tarmac for a very long time. Finally we were told there was a severe thunderstorm in Puerto Maldonado and we were awaiting it to clear up before departing. We were only an hour late in leaving, which wasn’t too bad, and it was incredible when we broke through the clouds and saw our first glimpse of the river and rainforest.
We landed, got our luggage, and headed off with our tour operator to their office. We had starfruit juice and a lunch of rice and chicken wrapped in a banana leaf. We went back to the airport and picked up two more people that were on the next flight in, then headed out on the road. It was about a 45 minute ride down a dirt road to the Infierno village, which was our boarding point. The road was slick from the rain, and it looked like there was a plan to build something proper there (with concrete bridge abutments, culverts, etc.) but it was never completed; one of the abutments was just the rebar cage, left to rust. We boarded our motorized canoe and headed up river to the Explorer’s Inn.
While the river looked like chocolate milk, it was interesting and relaxing to be cruising on a boat. Puerto Maldonado is at 183m so quite the change from the 3,500m of Cusco. Explorer’s Inn is just inside the Tambopata National Reserve, which is one of the reasons we picked it, looking for the authentic experience, with protected trees and animals. It was quite the gorgeous place, and so different from anything we had seen up to that point.
After getting settled into our rooms, our first thing was the caiman search. We met in the lodge to learn about them (they are a subspecies of alligator), then boarded the boat in the dark to go looking. There was a great spotlight on the front of the boat that one of the guides used to spot the animals, then when we found one the boat came in close for pictures. Despite looking for caimans, the first thing we found was a capybara, the world’s largest rodent.
He was happily munching on some grass, then going out to swim. We did also come across some caimans, typically starting on the shore then moving into the water. We didn’t see any large ones, only those in the 0.8 to 1.4m long range.
We also saw a peca on the riverbank.
After the peca we saw another caiman, before turning back around to the lodge, cutting the engine, and having “meditation time” quietly floating downriver with the only light provided by the stars. We docked up and had dinner before heading off to bed for our early start for the jungle walk.
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