In the jungle the
mighty jungle the lion sleeps tonight ♫♬♩♫♬♩
Oh yeah, we danced to
that song in our giant jungle river boots in the middle of the night, fully aware of
the tarantulas and snakes in the near vicinity. A few minutes later all eight
of us, three guides and five tourists, were making animal sounds and actions in
a circle, playing the “Jungle version” of what I remember as the camp game
called “King Jesus”. The guides
were all expertly imitating toucans, parakeets and squirrel monkeys, local
animals, while the rest of us tried and hilariously failed to imitate more
“commonly known” jungle animals such as tigers, elephants and chimpanzees. I think we scared the real animals away.
So, this excursion
took place in Puerto Maldonado, actually just outside the town in the Tambopata
Reserve, which is part of the Amazon basin on the border of Peru and northern Bolivia.
I decided to travel into the jungle for a few days before leaving southern
Peru, so I took the ten hour bus ride to Puerto Maldonado, the “doorway to the
jungle” of Peru. Ten hours was
really quite short as only two years ago the journey could take up to two days
since the road was not paved and the weather always unpredictable. From P. Maldonado I joined a tour group
via my hostel (Tambopata Hostel) of three days and two nights in the reserve at
a basic lodge with daily excursions out into the natural rainforest. It was gorgeous! We were very lucky to
see many different kinds of animals: seven species of monkeys, several parrots,
various colors of macaws, the river otters, tarantulas, snakes, lizards,
butterflies, some kind of large musk rat…
many things! And the TREES were amazing, the flowers enormous, and the fruit exotic.
It was everything I thought the jungle would be.
Anyway, I will put up
pictures in a few days for everyone to see. Tomorrow night I leave for Lima on the 22-hour bus ride
(blegh), but will arrive to beautiful beach weather and time to spend with my
friend Diana and her baby, Julieta!
I’ll spend a few days there resting and making headbands with my
newfound CHEAP scarves that will soon become decorative flowers. Along with
selling headbands I will fry up some tasty crepes and do some beach perusing to
earn a few extra soles before the journey North. A girl’s gotta work!
Ok, so hopefully this
blog gets more attention (from me and from YOU) now that it’s all shiny
and new. Woo hoo! Rhyming rocks. I will update often and send mails to those of
you that read it!
Love love love,
Maia
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