Hustle & Bustle: Peru Pt. 1
- Abby Jones
- Jun 11, 2017
- 8 min read
I have so much to say about this trip and what it has done for me as an individual. instead of word dumping all of my thoughts, I will gradually and coherently share this life-changing experience with you. In this post I will recap the first three days including air travel, city life in Puerto Maldonado, and getting to the jungle in one piece.
Day 1- May 16, 2017
After a long night of being on an airplane and making multiple stops, we arrived in Puerto Maldonado at 2pm. The airport here is nothing I have ever seen before. It has a single landing strip, one level and two rooms: departure and arrival. We descended from the plane and immediately claimed our baggage from the conveyer belt. The gringos had made it.
Our guide, Paul, was there waiting with taxis and the drivers began throwing our bags on top of the vans the moment we walked outside. Everyone was a stranger at that instance, completely oblivious of the experiences we would share together in the coming weeks. what started as brief introductions ended as painful goodbyes.
Wide-eyed I tried to take in every passing image as we made our way into the city. An almost impossible task. The most noticeable aspects were the mangey, skinny dogs roaming the streets, storefronts each with its own dedicated shop owner, and the general lack of "western sophistication" that I am so accustomed to at home. An image I will never forget is a woman driving a covered motorbike with a baby laying across her lap, nothing to stop it from sliding off onto the dirt road. Things are clearly different here.
The drivers stopped on the side of the road, in front of a yellow sign with red lettering, "The Royal Inn." A white marble statue of a naked woman greeted you upon reaching the common area, and shortly after, two green parakeets talking loudly to one another. Everything is an off-white color with green accents and unconventional objects litter the room. I will admit I was a little skeptical of our living arrangements for the next couple of nights, but later would consider the Royal Inn an understated luxury.
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I experienced my first Peruvian meal at a cafe in the main plaza: an empanada de queso and cafe la leche. the waitress brought out a steaming cup of milk, leaving me slightly confused at first, then a few moments later, placed a container of nestle powdered instant coffee in the center of the table. That way, you are able to make it whatever strength you prefer- kind of nifty. As far as empanadas go, I could live without them.
A late Dinner was planned so that we could rest after a long bout of travel. A contentedly laid down on my worn out comforter and watched what I could only assume is the Peru equivalent of Disney Channel. You don't have to know Spanish to spot bad acting.
We ate dinner at a place called Burgos's, apparently a hot spot for travelers. Incense burned around the room as we were seated at a long table. Some, including me, opted for the buffet style dinner that included a lot of veggies and fried foods. Others were served their food on a raised platform with hot coals burning below. That night, we were all grateful for horizontal sleep.
Day 2- May 17, 2017
Desayuno (breakfast) was at a Peruvian chain called Copasu. They serve ice cream, cakes, sandwiches and a lot of other things. Their cappuccino is by far my favorite item along with the torte tres leches (3 milk cake?).
On the agenda for the day was the highly anticipated Animal rehabilitation center. It is owned and run by one dedicated woman whose only goal is to see her animals one day flourish in their rightful habitats. Many of the animals she takes in were wrongfully domesticated, orphaned or injured. You can see in her eyes how much she loves her animals, even the pesky Toucan that hangs around after having been released from the center. It eats the other animals' food and picks fights with the staff and some of the animals still in captivity. Once we were walking by the main lodge area and I saw the toucan pecking at the shins of one of the staff, which made me laugh. The owner currently has howler monkeys, an emperor tamarin monkey, capuchin monkeys, a peccary, parrots, toucan, a yellow footed tortoise, and a baby two-toed sloth. I probably forgot a few, but you get the gist- this lady has her hands full!
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About halfway through the tour, Paul approaches us carrying a massive snake. This was not a planned appearance- Paul had found the Boa making its way across the dirt road near the rehab facility. The snake was beautiful and we had a lot of fun holding her and taking pictures. Paul left the center earlier than the rest of us so that he could take the snake back to the hotel and bag it (which means that he carried it on the dirt bike almost an hour back to Puerto, that's talent!). Later on The group would endearingly name her Georgia.
Every one was hungry when we made it back into town so we split up to curb our appetites. My group went to a funky looking place called Asadazo (Awesome Grill). Out of all the things I could have ordered, I got a platter of tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil leaves stacked on top of each other (caprese). To be fair, the menu did say "ensalada," which I took to be a *real* salad with lettuce and then the caprese ingredients along with a dressing of sorts... but this is what I get for being an English speaker in a Spanish speaking world. Luckily, my friends took care of me by giving me some of their left overs. I began to identify with the mangy strays roaming the streets outside.
The period following lunch was dedicated to starting my research project. With all of my gear in hand, Rachel, Jared, David, and I hit the plaza (the large landmark being the cream and green colored tower pictured above). It was crucial having David and Jared with us because they can actually speak a good bit of Spanish.
Gathering data was much much harder than I had first anticipated. Some of the barriers I faced were language (obviously), lack of interest, the time consuming nature of the research, and teeny tiny print on my survey copies. Due to lack of communication and in an effort to save paper, the professors printed almost microscopic words on our surveys in order to print 4 on one paper. Many people turned down participation simply because it was too small to read. This was frustrating, but I pushed through. We would offer to read to the people or give them a magnifying glass, one time a Peruvian kid (probably 8 or 9) was helping the older people read my surveys because he could actually see them. After an hour and a half i had 7 surveys.
Day 3- May 18, 2017
This was the day that I met the beautiful west Amazon and I will never forget it. We loaded up the bus around 10am and set out towards the Las Piedras Biodiversity Station. Our trip was uneventful for the first several hours. We rode along the transamazonian highway- a road that I would later realize is the worst thing that could have happened to the Amazon. It is because of this highway that there are logging roads all the way to the Las Piedras and beyond, reaching into the very depths of the jungle to suck out life and destroy ecosystems. It gives logging, poaching, and destructive farming an easy outlet to tear down forest and kill off wildlife for business and personal gain. There are too many expanses of land that look like the picture on the left.
We turned off the main highway to travel a dirt road. When we were about 2 miles out from the small river town, Lucerna, our bus couldn't overcome the thick mud anymore, despite having given it a few good pushes from the rear. Bouts of rain were coming down about every 10-20 minutes and the road wasn't getting any better. some of us walked on to Lucerna thinking that lightening the load on the bus would help get it moving.
Walking towards the small town I noticed the wet red clay I was slipping around in, each of us quickly gained a muddy 2 inch lift on our shoes. Two miles felt like much more with the extra weight. An exciting moment was when I looked up at the road for a moment and caught a glimpse of the long black body of a cat. The tail had to be at least three feet long, but it had short legs. No one else had seen it but I knew it had to be in the big cat family. I gave the description to JJ, one of our very knowledgable guides, who told me I had spotted a Jaguarundi.
Arkive.org explains this unique animal: "The jaguarundi (Puma yagouaroundi) is one of the most unusual of the New World cat species, being somewhat weasel-like in appearance. The body is long and slender, with short legs, a small, flattened head, short, rounded ears, and a long tail. Unlike many other small South American cats, the coat lacks spots, but the jaguarundi is probably the most variable in colour of all wild cats (2) (3) (4)(6). The species occurs in two main colour morphs: a dark morph, which is uniform black, brownish or grey in colour, sometimes slightly lighter on the underparts, and a paler red."
Finally in Lucerna, we sat at a storefront with a few locals and quietly watched Edward Scissorhands in spanish. If you can picture this scene in real time, it was quite comical. When we had been there for an hour without any sign of the bus, most of us turned around to see what the problem was. I ran barefoot For most of the way back and it was strangely satisfying to feel the clay forming to the shape of my feet and squishing though my toes. It turned out that the bus was not going to make it to the river and we would have to carry all of our bags on our backs. I loaded up and started back towards the river again, this time toting an extra 25-30lbs.
Some guys from Lucerna on motorbikes were trying their best to help us transport our heavier bags that contained research gear and whatnot. One guy lost control on the way back and had turned his bike over in the mud, it took 5 of us to get it upright. The majority of the group reached Lucerna right at nightfall and when we had regrouped completely, we boarded two boats- now we were getting somewhere. The boat I was on didn't have seats so we leaned against the side for an hour long ride. The motor was so loud and slow compared to the other boat, we had clearly gotten the short end of the stick, but it was all part of the collective jungle experience.
The first meal at the station was God-sent and helped us put a long, tiring day in the past. I couldn't wait to sleep because it meant waking up to a vibrant rainforest landscape.
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