We completed our Peru
Adventure with a side-trip deep into the Amazon Jungle. We flew into Puerto Maldonado and we taken by
river boat down the fast moving Rio Bajo Madre De Dios approx 30km to our to
the Eco Amazonia Lodge located in the middle of the 10,000 hectare ecological
reserve know as The Tambopata, for the
beginning of our three day Jungle adventure.
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River Boat in Puerto Maldanodo, and Gold Sluicing river boat
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Along the way we witnessed
many gold sluicing vessels. These are
really not much more than a long ponga with a generator powering a long sucking
hose stuck into the river to create a large sluice on board. We were told that many of these illegal
operator were pulling 20+ ounces of raw gold per day...if you do the
math...that’s a lot of money!....sounds like a great way to spend your
retirement, however, as the process is illegal there are no guarantees that
your competitors might not put you out of business in not so friendly a manner.
Our time at the Lodge was
fairly structured with walking tours once or twice daily. Our accommodation, altho Spartan was
comfortable enough.
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Eco Amazonia Lodge accommodations, Spartan but comfortable!
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Altho, we only had power from
5-8 in the evening...and no power, ie...lights when you were up at 5 am for the
first tour...in my humble opinion, someone needs to rethink that program. However, the food was good, and we did get to
see a lot of jungle. More jungle than
critters...a lot of birds...
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Birds of the Amazon
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...monkeys a plenty, Cayman a plenty, two tarantulas,
a few land snails, a couple of small turtles, a lot of birds, and a ring tailed
quasi raccoon type who was very friendly and wanted to come back to the Lodge in
the riverboat.
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Amazon Critters
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There was a lot of rain and
the trails were mud slick...if I don’t sound totally enamored with it...Kaija was thrilled, and
even went Piranha fishing in the rain with Jerie while John and I took shelter, saddled two
very comfortable hammocks and got caught up on our reading.
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Hammocks a plenty and Jerie fishing for Paranha
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All in all, I will admit that the our foray into the Amazon Jungle was
quite relaxing especially after a month of non-stop hurrying about. Rested up and satiated we departed the jungle for our flight back to
Lima and on to Panama.
We were thrilled to have made this trip and felt luck and good fortune smiled on us in providing two terrific travel buddies,
John and Jerie Milici Mv Peking. Their good humor and willing spirit really added to our experience. Also, we need to mention Maria of Over Peru
Viajes Land Tours for arranging our total adventure. She did a fantastic job, providing in most cases, more than we asked for and all within
budget. Thank you Maria. If you are planning a trip to Peru or Chile she can be reached via email
at over@speedy.com.pe.
Jerie, Maria, Kaija, Gary & John
We will long consider this to
be an adventure of a Lifetime. We can
now check it off our ‘bucket list’ and we encourage each of you to review yours
and if you have not included Peru…you might consider doing so.
