Lauren Takes Peru: Puerto Maldonado (aka The Amazon Rainforest)

*Blogged in attempt to procrastinate my studies...1 exam, 2 papers, and 1 presentation to go in the next 4 days!*

Información

Situated on the southeastern border of Peru, right next to Bolivia, Puerto Maldonado contains the river Madre de Dios which eventually runs into the Amazon River. Much of the area surrounding this town is made up of national reserves in attempt to protect the rainforest and the creatures that call it home. FUN FACT: It contains the greatest variety of animal and plants species of the planet! There are over 600 bird species, 900 butterfly species, and 115 dragonfly species.

We stayed at Monte Amazonico Lodge and it was awesome! Highly recommend for future trips to the Amazon. From there we visited Isla Mono (Monkey Island) and Lago Sandoval.

The weather was such a pleasant surprise compared to Cusco - I finally was sweaty! The lows in the Amazon (60's) are our highs in Cusco so I was pumped to get some nice, South American weather ;)

Viernes (aka Friday)

Friday morning we departed Cusco and flew into the Padre Aldamiz airport in Puerto Maldonado. We arrived around noon and then took a boat to our lodge (about a 45 minute ride on the river). My first thoughts were quite striking - the river was very brown and the air wasn't quite as fresh as I had thought it would be. Upon arriving to our lodge though, my ears quickly filled with monkey and bird sounds I won't ever quite be able to recreate.

After settling in we headed over to Isla Mono (Monkey Island) and got to feed the monkeys! Now these monkeys are not exactly wild - the island was set up as a reserve for monkeys that were being sold in the market (not sure if it was the black market but something similar to this). The government created this area for them where they are protected - they act like little house pets to be honest. They know that when tours come through they will get fed so they come down from the trees and take fruit right from your hand. BUT still can't touch them, nor did I want to because well they are still pretty wild and the animals here aren't quite as fuzzy and cuddly as the US (I haven't wanted to pet a dog for 5 weeks...which is super strange for my dog loving self).

Pictures couldn't do this adventure any justice...videos will be up at the end of the week!

That night we got to experience a river boat trip at night in order to look for caimans. These crocodile like animals come to the surface at night and hug the riverbank. We were fortunate enough to come across all different sizes - seeing both white and black caimans (black caimans can grow up to 4 meters long...12 ft...or more!) Our boat driver even decided to catch a caiman - this one is an adult and veryyy fiesty for it's size!

Sábado (aka Saturday)

This was a FANTASTIC and extremely long day. We did so many amazing things and started at the crack of dawn...well actually a little before it! Wake up call at 4am had us using our head lanterns for light because the lodge only had electricity from 5pm-10pm. Nonetheless, we were headed to Lake Sandoval by 6 and got to watch the sunrise over the Madre de Dios river - quite spectacular!

Our hike from the riverbank to the lake was quite a trek though...an hour through mud - slipping and falling - all while our guides laughed and giggled at us gringas. The rule was that if you fell you had to buy the entire group beer that night...needless to say I was not gonna fall for the life of me ;)

The red line is what we hiked in order to reach the lake:

So upon our trek we came across so many different animals...red, green, and gold macaw (they fly in couples which is so cute - constant dates anywhere they want to go), anteater (way up on the top canopy of the trees - pretty incredible), sloth (it is rare to spot these because they move so slowly but our guide had incredible sight to pick up on these things), and some turtles, caimans, and random birds on the lake - just to name a few.

After our trek we enjoyed an amazing lunch - Juanes - which consists of rice, chicken, kalamata olives, and eggs wrapped in banana leaves and then boiled in water. It is so crazy good - Sarah and I ate at least 4 plates because obviously I take on the role of garbage disposal when no one else wants to finish their plates; I really took one for the team on this one ;)

Since I had about 2.5 plates at lunch worth of Juanes it's only reasonable that we went zip-lining right afterwards! :\ My friend Savannah said they were super sketchy about not following regulations but I am glad I have no knowledge about any of that - I am still alive today and had a blast using my GoPro to capture the zipping! ;) *Videos to come later in the week*

From zip-lining we ventured over to Isla Mono (Monkey Island) again but this time for some kayaking around the beach. The sunset was spectacular and it was an amazing feeling to have the sandy-mud between my toes because in Cusco there simply is no such thing!

To say the least it was a great weekend to end my adventures of Peru! Sad to say that it was my last one, but so glad we could relax and enjoy some great weather before our hectic week of finals began. Although I am covered with mosquito bites, I have to say - the Amazon did not disappoint!