There is a song by Guns and Roses that starts off “Welcome to the Jungle, we´ve got fun and games¨ and continues with ¨Welcome to the jungle we take it day by day. If you want it you’re gonna bleed but it’s the price to pay¨ and that is just what we had to do to have an awesome time in the Amazon Jungle.
We traveld from Cusco to a small town called Puerto Maldonado in the Southeastern part of the Peruvian Amazon. This is a town based on tourism and agricultural production of products such as bananas, papayas, and sugar cane; but mainly tourism since we were allowed to walk around in shorts and tank tops (can you say GET SUM). The town is located 34 mi (or for those of you from places such as Canada, 55 kilometers) west of the Bolivian border on the confluence of the Tambopato and Madre de Dios Rivers. These rivers were some of the basis of our travels and games, as well as pains.
While still in Cusco, Julia acidentaly got her passport taken from her bag while packed into a small Combi, which is a mini van without chairs and used as a taxi service to shuttle people around on certain routes. When pulling up to a stop, there is no stopping a person if they want to get in and often times we would be packed sholder to sholder practically sitting in another person`s lap with as many as 30 people in what you can imagine a typical sized mini van would be. A great experience and lots of fun but could also be a bit dangerous without having somebody to watch your back. It was a big ordeal for her to talk to the US Embassy in Lima and visit all differnt sorts of people to get some official documents to travel with. She first put her documents to the test a week later after the yoga retreat when flying to the Amazon. The people were so confused why this gal had a ticket and bag but no passport. They studied the documents for a while until it was finally clear that it was eligible for the use as a passport. It took lots of different people of high rank to finally let her pass through security where everybody was waiting for her company on the other side.
If they wouldn`t have let her through she would have had to travel by bus for 8 hours to the Amazon while we all relaxed and got accostomed to the heat. We boarded the plane and as soon as we reached 30,000 feet we started to desend down into the Jungle. This flight was the shortest flight I have ever been on and only took 30 minutes from take off to touchdown. Up in the sky we saw our first glimpse of the rainforest. The expansiveness of it was breathtaking and all the trees were the greenest, healithest green I have ever seen. When we were leaving Cusco it made sense to dress in pants and long-sleeve shirts but as soon as the cabin doors were open and the blast of fresh tripical air hit my lungs I instantly knew a birthday suit would have been more apropriate for the climate and temperature. The air was so moist and had a percentage of 75% humidity in the air. With each breath you were replenished in water for hydration but instantly lost it with persperation of the body. I can honestly say I have never sweat as much as I did these past few days.
We stayed one night in a comfortable hostel in Puerto before leaving in the morning for the heart of the jungle,and I mean heart or heat depending on how you interperate my literature. We met up with our new guide for the week named Robin who was our guide and coworker while working on his land and organization called Camino Verde. We all traveled by boat and by which I mean a long wooden boat that was made in the region from one single tree trunk with facing bench seats and an outboard prop motor and 14 travels bags which all gained weight from being in Cusco for so long. It was a great cultural experience and a very scenic ride for 6 hours up the Tambopato river. I looked out and saw the first wildlife of the trip which was a pair of Maca Parrots in a tree. A little more up we saw a log with a bunch of turtles sitting on top of it and after that we econuntered a group of capybaras on the shore munching away at some grass. In case you don`t know what this is, it`s the largest rodent in the world and looks like if you threw a sadel ontop of it you would have a ligitmate sized horse. People read and wrote and chatted which was the start of our group hitting a new ladder rung and becoming more united.
We lodged at this hostel, run by a native Amazonian, called El Gato, about 5 hours up the tambopato river. It was such a scenic environment to be living in for a week. The buildings were all made out of wood that was cut in the area on the land. We arrived to views of lush Amazonian rainforests and a big star fruit tree right in the center of all the bunk houses. This tree was happy and pleased for us to come to it each and every night to eat its sour but ripe and sweet star fruit. It let us climb to the top and throw sticks at it to eats its fruit. It was very nice to us. We all lived in these cabin type bunk houses walled with screened windows, and each bed was wrapped in a bug net. It was a cool experience and it felt as though it was my own room even though I was sharing the room with one other person. It just happened to be that we were all segregated: boys in one, girls in another, and leaders in another. This was fun for a time and made it possible for guys to have guy time and girls to have their time.
This was a very important week for us all as we all got the chance to celebrate 4 days of festivities. It began on the 19th of November with Emily turning 18!! We kind of celebrated her birthday for 4 days but the fun did not stop there. On the 20th was Dan`s (who now goes by Rio) birthday. Then it was Daniel`s birthday, who turned 19. Each night we decorated a different part of the dining hall with streamers, balloons, and masks. We played some fun games and got some really good belly laughs from our energetic group. But to party hard we all got the chance to celebrate our second national holiday in Peru. On the 22nd of November was Thanksgiving. This day was so much fun and we had a blast of a time eating a jungle feast and adding our own touch to it. For our turkeyday meal we ate the following: Rice, fresh river fish, salad and cookies. But then to top it all off we roasted marshmellows over candel light, ate scrambled brownies and oreos, and enjoyed the company of each other.
Our volunteer work for the past week was hard physical labor and it all was extreamly satisfying. We wroked with a NGO called Camino Verde about 5 minutes down steam of our hostel. As I mentioned, the organization is run by Robin-a very influention, awesome person. He is from the states but moved down to Peru when he was 19 years old. He stared this organization for reforestation and sustainable living. When we arrived at his land on the first day I knew that I was going to love working there; prime water front access and many acres of lush rainforest and crops. We started our work building or expanding an existing fish pond. This required digging and building a berm for future perana to live in for consumption by humans. It started out being the size of a small American hot tub. But after we sweat every bit of water from our body it was the size of 6 hot tubs. The work was so rewarding. I was amazed that the Amazon has no rocks in the soil which made the digging easy, but to counteract the lack of rocks, the pond was in some places over 7 feet deep. The group was really into the work and had a great time working hard.
Our second part of the work was really fun. We first learned how to make sour krout, so families, watch out because it`s krout time. But we also made an impact. We worked in a few different areas of Robins land. Half of the group planted a plant call Torch ginger and the other half went to cut banana plants and harvest crops. This was where I worked and loved the work I was doing. We were instructed to clean and harvest the banana and plantain trees. Now you might know this but a banana tree is not a tree at all. It is a plant because it only flowers once before it can`t yield again and needs to be chopped down. The stocks of the plants are mainly water so with a quick and accurate blow with the machete, the stock fell and made more room for the others to grow. The plants live in families, first is the oldest like the father who is about to flower and produce fruits, then their is the second who is the mother and is about half the height and gerth of the father and will flower as the oldest is being choped down. Then there is the smallest one or the baby, which will grow to be a mother and then a father in the future, and which will eventually fruit itself. I have been wanting to do this work for so long and reeped the rewards of sweating bullets, wielding a machete, and cleaning the banana grove for a healthy forest!
This was by far the coolest part of the Amazon. On the not so cool side, and if you recall me saying pain in the begining, we had an injury. Every day after work we would get back to El Gato and go down to the river to swim. It was the perfect temperature of water and there was a waterfall that you could stand behind and look out. We were instructed to make as much noise while getting into the water for dangerous animals. Their was a fish that if you peed in the water it would swim up your pee hole and kill you slowly. There were also electric eels that would sting you if you got too close. But the coolest, and the one that we encoutered, was a Sting Ray.
After a long day of hard hot work we got back to the hostel and went to the river for a swim. I was walking down when I heard Michelle yell ¨ROBBIE GET YOUR MED KIT!¨ I look over and saw Daniel Stone with his foot out of the water, doggie paddeling back to the shore. His face looked fine and he didn`t seem to be in that much pain for that moment. I helped him to the top of the bank were we took a look and instantly knew it was a puncture wound. He was calm and cool and said that he stepped on a rock. Our leaders played doctor on him and got it clean and banadged with smiles and laughs. He then got up from the table and went to pee when the pain set in. It was a terrifying sound of extreme pain and discomfort. He yelled and screamed all in the matter of seconds. People ran to his help as we had no idea what had happened. But thank goodness for local medicine. I was talking to one of the guys who worked at El Gato and he told me it was a sting ray stab. He told me that he knew because of the dubble puncture wound right next to the other. He guessed it was about the size of your household crock pot and that he would live! Well that was a relief: he would live!! The local men took to work and collected a termite mound and lit it on fire, at the same time they collected wild herbs and plants and put them into a big pot of water for boiling.
We began the show with the burning of the termite mound under Stones foot. One thing was for sure, we were not short on hands. Daniel had one of Ians hands and one of Coles (who now goes by Gulab) hands while he was propped up in a chair. Then Elena was under his leg for support and holding his stabbed leg up in the air so as not to touch the burning nest. Then there was Robbie, giving him a back massage that was better then most of you pay for in the states, and to top it off, Michelle was rubbing his legs and talking to him…well we were all talking to him which sounded like a bunch of jiberish. But that`s not all, not all at all. Then there were 4 workers all doing something, from getting more termite mounds to boiling water. But wait! Then there took 3 people to stand around and watch and ask the 4 workers what the heck was going on. That was Katies, Emmas, and my job, as well as getting cold water to dump on his head as if to wake your sleeping brother in the morning.
The pain succumbed and after about 3 hours he had chilled out and was lying down on his back. This was the night of the 19th, just the way Emily wanted to celebrate her birthday. With all the excitment we still had some time for her. We made her surprise mac and cheese-the kraft kind with the fake cheese that is her favorite. She was so thankful to eat that meal in the middle of the amazon. But all is well now after a quick doctor visit back in Puerto. This week we have had a few accidents and hospital visits. Michelle stubbed her right toe on a cactus type thing and had to get lots of little small barbs pulled our of her toe. Katie…well lets just say Katie has a surprise when she gets home.
The Amazon was amazing and one of my most favorite parts of the entire trip. ¨We laughed, we cried, we danced, and had a really really really good time¨ I saw animals that I have been waiting to see after learning about the amazon for years in school. I chopped trees and sweat like it was my job! It`s now off the bucket list but make it heard that I will return to the Amazon for a second round!
When was the first time you did something for the first time? This is what I call fun! CCH
