The Amazon

This entry covers 18, 19, 20 November

Day 1:

A short 30 minute flight (almost inaccessible by road) and we stepped off the plane into a thick curtain of humdity. The warm air (reminiscent of Mozam) left most GAPpers pitting from every nook and cranny within minutes. We made a short bus ride to a tributary of the majestic Amazon River...as we boarded a propelled canoe, I felt a childhood dream coming to fruition. Just like the pictures in National Geographic, the forrest piles in tight with the swollen river bank which plans hundreds of metres wide despite being relatively close to its Andean source. It was great to sit back and soak it all up...while steaming hot, the wind in my face made left a smile across the Dog´s face as I took in all the beauty this forrest had to offer....the canopies of 40m trees draped with creepers and vines in the continual struggle for light. From Capybarras (largest rodent in the world) to cayman, gigantic blue butterflies to scarlet red parrots (amongst many other birds found nowhere else on the planet...this was it...definitely a highlight of my tour so far.

I still don´t think the GAP operators make a profit when they serve buffet dinners for backpackers...not sure if I´m just a pig but I find it very difficult to hold back especially with the lean times ahead in Bolivia and the following 2 months! Packing on a couple extra kilos becomes a priority at these feeding frenzies.

After dinner we were off on a night walk in search of small animals and insects of the forrest. The guides had no chance in requesting a total silence rule as a bunch of 10 years old GAP tourists headed into the unknown...I quite enjoyed taking a photo of Blair taking a photo of a spider (with his custom made Spidy Light clipped onto his telescope of a camera)! Other than that, the most memorable creatures was a cricket sitting on a walking palm tree....yes people, this tree has numerous roots that start about 2 metres above the ground and enter the topsoil in various locations...the tree searches for the best position to intercept light by steadily growing roots in the direction it wants to go with the trail runners dying off to allow the tree to ¨walk¨ across the forrest floor...top speed of only 15cm per annum but still pretty damn impressive!

Day 2:

I was up at 4.45am to catch the sunrise over the Amazon River which was not a spectacular as anticipated as the canopy trees stops the early morning sun from reaching the river bank...this didn´t stop the mist from climbing over the wall of trees and diving into the cool river below (which I dutifully captured on camera). We went for another walk through the forrest. We were advised to were long sleeves and long pants. My multi-purpose zip off longs would have gone down a treat out here but were so nastily dirty, I couldn`t bear pull them on so had my trusty jeans as a backup...they do not breath very well in 98 percent humidity! Observations in the woods:
- Pregnant palm tree: stores water in its trunk
- Fishtail tree: leaves used as cool roof covering for local huts
- Ironwood: 300 year old hardwood, 2nd biggest in South America at 45m
- Climber plant: used for snake bites
- Wild fig: hitting the base of the tree with a paddle makes one helluva racket and is therefore used to tell lumberjacks to pack it in or identify the location of lost individuals
- Killer/Strangler fig: stretching to its next victim from the canopy it squeezes its host of all nutrients until it dies leaving a hollow 40-50m skeleton behind
- Sumnipanga: rubbing its red leaves between your fingers stains a deep red, used by locals for face paints and dying clothes
- Spiky tree: thorns used by locals to make darts for hunting
- Tecada flies: make a similar noise to our Xmas beetles to attract mates...the difference being that the hissing drone comes in waves as the sound makes its way through the forrest as millions of these flies jump on the bandwagon
- Screaming Piha: bird that whistles like a human calling to a pretty girl
- Taranchula: seeing this puppy in real life is something else, coaxed out by the guide using the stem of a leaf this spider crept out of its hole (too heavy to have its own nest) to see whether anything was edible (apparently can whoof down a small bird!)
- Ray snake: didn´t get to check it out properly as it dissappeared into the bush
- Colony of leaf cutter ants: pretty harmless but incredibly efficient

A raft awaited us at a 300 year old oxbow lake. A mecca for animals and birds on vacation...dead still and superbly hot. The following beasts were ticked off the list:
- Greater Anis, American Swallow Tailed Kite, Amazon Kingfisher, Blue Morofr Butterfly, Longnose Bats, Hoatzin, Yellow Rumped Cacique, Cabec Tree (Mother of the forrest between 50-60m, used for plywood, cotton, Harpy Eagle nests, 50 people holding hands to circumvent the base).

We headed to a typical local farm in the afternoon where the local practice polyculture (numerous crops on one piece of land rotated over 3-5 year to allow the thin layer of topsoil to recover). They grow almost every imaginable fruit (avos, papaya, grapes, melons, bananas, pineapples, lemongrass, mangos, starfruit etc).

We had a pretty uneventful night excursion on the motorised canoe spotting more cayman, a paca and a coati (racoon) although the breeze while riding along the river was welcomed with open arms as respite from the sticky heat and mosquitoes.

Day 3:

An early start was required to make the trip on the boat back to Maldinado in time for our connecting flight back to Cusco and then Lima. I wanted to jump off in Cusco and head south into Bolivia although instructing the airline to put my bags in the Cusco hull was going to cost me no less than US50! I decided to give them the finger and sidestep this ridicuous ruling although required rounding up support from the fellow GAPpers to take on some of my stuff as hand luggage so I could take all my kit off the plane in Cusco. Dressed for Alaska to reduce my own hand luggage weight, I boarded the plane and made a successfull exit at the half way point. Following some emotional goodbyes from some of the GAPpers I was officially on my own on a continent of foreign speakers....

I made my way to the bus station and booked a direct ticket to La Paz, Bolivia. This trip was not without its highlights/lowlights and lived up to Peru/Bolivia`s reputation as one of the most dangerous countries to bus around in the world. Cutting across from the wrong lane, our legend of a bus driver decided to stop to investigate a blowout we took on some hours earlier...needless to say the bus trailing thought we were doing the usual hang wide on a corner take it at pace vibe and proceeded to plough into the back right of our bus...thankfully a glancing blow but almost sent the bus behind us down a 5 metre bank off the road. While the drivers fought over who was at falt, I took my gap and made for a nearby stone wall to do the necessaries as number 2´s are not only prohibitted on the buses but also a health risk to all who attempt anything while locked in the cabin of horrors!

Most travellers jumped off just before the border leaving only a handful to face the Bolivian military. Thankfully I had latched onto a couple from Cusco who told me where to get the stamps in what seemed more like a vegetable market than a border crossing. A couple of stamps on the Peruvian side and everything seemed to be going to plan until we were waved into a room by some serious loking dudes in camo. One by one we were called into the leutenant´s office for questioning (in Spanish I might add!) and body checks...they made some joke as I was released leaving me with a weird sensation of relieve. The rest was pretty much stock standard and it was onyl 2 more hours before we reached La Paz..the major city of Bolivia.