Our jungle adventure started out innocently enough. However, traveling with me sometimes becomes very interesting. Our journey began via a short 40-minute plane ride from Cusco to Puerto Maldonado. After meeting other travelers at the Rainforest Expedition office, we headed out for a 45-minute bus ride to reach the Tambopata River. Thus began our 3-hour canoe ride upriver to the Refugio Amazonas jungle lodge. We were greeted with a refreshing drink and a cold towel. Finally rest and relaxation. After a short briefing from our guide, Daniel, we opted for nap time. Hanging out in the hammock and watching the monkeys from our room, it all started so idyllic.
The next morning headed off to find the Macaws. Found a couple flying and a couple in the trees. As it’s the off season for the Macaws in this area, we considered ourselves lucky. It was then time to get ready for our afternoon adventure.
We were going to be ascending a 27-meter Brazilian nut tree. When we got there, we were informed of a slight problem, the rope used to change out the climbing rope had broken; therefore, there was no rope to climb. A worker was climbing a neighboring tree in hopes of resetting the rope for us. Should have been a sign for us to move on to a different activity, but no we waited. They managed to finally reset the rope, and we were ready to climb. We had met a family at dinner the night before and enjoyed their company. The girls wanted to do the tree climbing, but the parents had already planned another activity. We said the girls were more than welcome to come with us. The first girl, Swara, made it halfway with some difficulty and then the guys hauled her the rest of the way. Her sister, Maleha, being only 9 and tiny was pulled to the top by the guides. She was initially screaming to come down and almost immediately saying no, no, I want to go up. Maleha was a great source of entertainment for us as she always had something to say.
My turn was up. The harness given to me was not a proper fit, but of course, that didn’t stop me. Made it maybe a foot off the ground and decided that tree climbing was going to be a no go for me today. Somehow, in telling the guys to let me down, they started dragging me up with the safety rope. This proceeded in nearly choking me out as the upper harness was constricting my air flow. Will and our guide, Daniel came to the rescue and held me up until the other guide could get me released as I was on the verge of passing out. Yes, I was almost hung while being a mere foot from the ground. My night was spent in bed, trying to get over the nausea, while my MIL and stepdaughter were treated to free drinks from the bar. Nice, huh?
The resort did come through and the next morning we were treated to massages. It was a rainy day, so, we just decided to take a muddy walk in the jungle and check out the mammal clay lick. We were in hopes there would be wild boars rolling in the mud. Turns out, I was the only one rolling in the mud as I fell into a fairly large puddle on the walk there.
On our 3rd and last adventure filled day, we decided to take a nice boat ride on the lake. We got there to find all the boats had some water in them from the rain the day before. So, in the process of trying to get enough water out of one of the boats, we somehow managed to sink it. Our guide decided to leave that one as is and attempt getting water out of another boat. Had a nice trip around the lake in the second boat. On the walk back to the lodge, we ran into a coral snake. Yes, the one whose bite can kill you in a matter of hours. Did I mention that our walk back to the lodge was a good hour? Needless to say, we gave the snake a wide berth.
Our afternoon adventure was to be kayaking, but the river was still too high. So, mountain biking here we come. After falling a few times and careening out of control down a hill, I thought I had the hang of it. Well, apparently not, somehow, I ran over a stick which caused major damage to the bike’s derailer. Yes, I broke the bike, at least we were only 2km from the lodge.
Our guide said he really enjoyed us. Hmmmm, I think he was still waiting on his tip at that point. It was probably a good thing we were leaving, who knows what else would’ve happened.