4 days hanging out with monkeys

hiking through the jungle
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well we made it! we are back from the Amazon and in Cusco again. there is no way anything i could write, take video of or show photos of that could do the jungle justice.

this will be a long blog so i can get all of the days we were gone into one blog...

the sloth was very cool...

when i last left you we on our way to the jungle, Dad and mom had no idea what they were getting themselves into..i didnt tell them all i knew until they were trapped in the jungle. we arrived with another two people from denver, which was kind of crazy, and we had a great lunch while taking a boat ride to our hiking spot. we put on knee high rubber boats and started the 3km trek. the trek would have been a lot easier had it not been for the 90 degree heat and the extreme humid air. and of course the downpour that hit us as soon as we started our hike. mom and dad had their hiking pants on and their rain jackets sinched down around their heads as tight as they could get...first of many shocking sights i saw from them while in the amazon. we eventually hiked into the nature reserve area where we were staying, just 5 of us and our guide jesus, who was a really great guide. we saw some spiders and some cool birds and some long lines of leaf cutter ants that were returning to their nest with leaves..all cool and very interesting but we wanted more. suddenly our guide stopped and motioned for us to be silent..then we heard the canopy above us moving, it sounded like limbs falling from the trees. the a huge group of squirrel monkeys appeared. they are very small but they were sweet. there were bigger capachine monkeys with them. they were eating fruit and jumping around on the trees. a few came down to about 10ft off the ground and only 20ft away...it was amazing, i swear we were standing in a zoo because you dont see these kinds of sights in the wild it seemed. we watched them for awhile and then moved on..our guide who had been working for 3 yrs have never gotten that close to the monkeys before...we felt real lucky.

a nice sunny day on the lake
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we eventually reached our waiting canoe and were paddled out of a very small channel where we saw several camens. finally we broke free of the dark under canopy and came out through very tall palm trees onto a huge empty lake. it was a very cool site. the paddled us around the lake showing us many types of birds, all were very brightly colored and made very cool sounds. ones chirp sounds like water drops. we eventually reached our lodge which overlooked the lake.

quick note about our lodge, sandoval lodge, it is the only true lodge on the lake and 5 families live their, but no one else is around. other lodges back on the river can do day trips there but they never get to see what we get to since we are right there. part of the lake and many, many acres only scientist can enter into, but you need special permisson. so im trying to say it was a very isolated place in the heart of the amazon. the rooms have no ceilings so you can hear everyone that is staying in the lodge, not private at all. two walls were just netting to keep the bugs out and there was another net over your bed to keep you safe from the bugs. the shower actually had hot water and the water came from a stream near buy, i have taken showers in many natural setting with water from mountain lakes, water flowing into the grand canyon, etc..but showering with water from a stream in the amazon was a new one. the lodge was very nice, but if you dont like bugs its not a place for you. moths with a good 5in wingspan, 2in beatles and so on all live there and dont care if they are in your room or not. they only have power certain hours of the day and lights go out at 10pm. so if you needed to go to the bathroom in the middle of hte night you better have a flashlight and look before you step out of bed. the first night when the lights went out i laid there listening to all the jungle sounds with my eyes open. after about 15mins i put my hand about an inch away from my face and it was so dark i couldnt see my hand. absolute darkness, like being in a cave. it was a great place...

some monkey friends
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a few more stroms came through that afternoon so we hungout in the hammocks that overlooked the water until night arrived. we headed back out on a canoe ride and spotted a howler monkey, their calls they make sound like a 747 flying buy...pretty amazing. then we took a night hike with our guide and learned about many plants and saw some tarantulas, frogs and other very large spiders. we finished the night with a great dinner, dinner was a local fish that was caught in the lake there, the fish was 9ft long with lots of teeth. that kept me out of the lake!

a cold day on the lake
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the next morning the plan was to wake up very early to get on the lake to see birds...but mother nature had something else for us. we woke up shivering! thats right, the temp was probably in the 50s, the skies were cloudy and it was very windy. not what we were expecting. every fall they get 3 cold spells that is produced by el nina. our luck! we still took the boat ride on a small pontoon that the two guys paddling could barely control because the waves and wind. but we saw more great birds and learned much more. once we ended with that we took another long hike and saw many more animals. that night we headed out for another canoe ride and found the 3 toed sloth! all i wanted to see was monkeys and a sloth..i got both. the sloth was very cool sleeping in the tree. the problem is that the whole lodge is made of netting so there was no place to get warm after our hike. we finally called it a night and headed for bed.

some bats sleeping on a tree
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the next mornign we woke up to sunny skies and much warmer weather. again we headed backout on the lake to try and find the giant otters that live in the lake, they grow to 6ft, but they moved their home into the restricted waters so we had no luck. we still saw many birds, including several types of parrots, macaws and tucans...the 3 birds i was hoping to see. that afternoon we took a hike with our guide to a trail that they usally dont take clients to. it was on the otherside of the hike and he wearned its not well established, i knew what that meant and mom and dad were about to findout. on the hike we had to push through plants when the trail would nearly disappear and climb over huge logs and under vines. all in the wet and muddy forest. mom and dad were champs...never thought i woudl see either of them hiking like that, but they loved every min of it. we saw many very huge trees and got lots of great pics. we also heard ahead of us more monkeys so we started speeding down the path to reach them. more squirrle monkeys..they were all around us dropping from the trees to check us out and then move on to find food. it was so amazing, all of us just stood their with our mouths open..even our guide. he was amazed that we got the chance to see them twice on our trip. it was the best hike we took yet. later that night we took another canoe ride to spot bats and birds and along the shore we heard more nosie..yup, more monkeys looking for a place to sleep for the night! we were amazed, this time they were the larger capachine monkeys and had their babies on their backs..it was one more amazing moment.

taking a canoe trip
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we had our last meal at the lodge that night and then went out and to look at the dark sky and all the stars, there were so many. mom and dad called it a night and i hungout in the pure darkness for another 30mins looking at the stars, with bats flying around me and monkeys calling from the trees. it took me a little while for it all to hit me that i was sitting in the middle of the amazon rainforest. i finally had to call it a night so we could leaver early in the morning. i didnt want to leave though.

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in the morning we were up before 5, had some eggs and boarded our canoes for the paddle back to our hiking point. we saw our first sunrise over the lake as the steam was rising from the lake. it was very quite with just birds flying around and a few fish jumping. a great way to leave the lake. as we were pulling up to the shore to start our hike we spotted more monkeys in the trees! this was our 5 sighting of monkeys!! we were told by our guide that most people go the whole time without seeing one monkey and we saw them 5 times, we were very lucky. it was partly due to it not being the busy season yet so no loud humans to scare them off. once we got back to the river we got on our boats and cruised upstream back to puerto maldonado. we also spotted a few white camens which were a bonus for our trip. dad never got to see any snakes though...he really wanted to see an anaconda..oh well, maybe next trip to the jungle he can spot one..

so here we are back in the city, the amazon was absolutly amazing and we all feel very lucky to have seen so many animals. it was the highlight of the trip so far for sure. it was a nice change of pace from the churches and plaza de armes. tomorrow we catch a train down to aguas calientes to prepare for our arrival into Machu Picchu. i have heard from many that the site of the ruins have brought them to tears, it should be one more unreal site here in peru...

i will try to add many great photos later on tonight, we are off to the market..