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| Ecotourism |  |
| Peru Trip Report | |
Peru
Trip Report
October 30 to November 14, 2004
Jeff Lockwood, Director Portland Chapter,
Rainforest Relief
www.rainforestrelief.org
The first week of my trip was spent in what was supposed to be a group trip to the lowland rainforests in the Madre de Dios (Mother of God) River Basin. The trip included a visit to the Heath River Wildlife Center on the Peru/Bolivia border and to Sandoval Lake Lodge, through Tropical Nature Travel.
Because some of the in the planned group backed out, we had the guide assigned to the group, Fiorella Caleni, to ourselves. And, since Jack passed on many of the day and night forest walks, We often had private guide service, which greatly enhanced my experience. Fiorella spoke English fluently, knew almost all of the birds by call and sight, and took great care of us, even knocking on our door first thing in the morning to make sure that we woke up on time.
Getting to the Heath River Lodge involves flying or otherwise getting to the jungle boom town of Puerto Maldonado, then a 2-hour ride down the Madre de Dios River and then 4.5 hours upstream on the Heath River.
The
first two hours of the boat ride we passed many farms, ranches and in-river
gold miners (see photo). The Heath River had more forest but even this
had been worked over by rubber tapper settlers since the 1800s, then mahogany
loggers, then gold miners.
For about four hours of the trip, we sped along in a moderate rain and shivered in the cold, wrapped under raincoats and ponchos and protected somewhat by the boat's canopy (the down side of being in the front of the boat). The last couple of hours were at dusk, and we were lucky enough to see several groups of capybara, the world's largest rodents that can be 3-4 feet in length (see typical photos at www.junglewalk.com/photos/Capybara-pictures.asp).
We checked in at both Peruvian and Bolivian checkpoints, and I was surprised to learn that the lodge was on the Bolivian side of the border, as the literature from the travel agent indicated that the lodge was in Peru. Turns out that TNT, which is really a private-NGO partnership that works on conservation through ecotourism, had turned the original lodge over to the Esé Eja indigenous community in which it was located, but they had some disputes and the tribe closed the lodge after a year or two. So, TNT moved their operation to another lodge it had built earlier on the Bolivian side, and so we got to spend 3 nights in Bolivia, including U.S. election night!
The
main draw for this lodge is its proximity (30 minute boat ride) to a river-bank
clay lick that is frequented by hundreds of parrots and macaws, which
must eat clay every couple of days to remove certain toxins from their
rainforest foods. From and anchored boat/blind we watched dusky-headed,
severe, blue-headed, peach-fronted, and Amazon parrots take their turn,
and then up to 21 red and green macaws, plus blue and gold macaws, take
their place. Also dusky titi monkeys. In setting up the lodge, TNT made
an agreement with the Esé Eja to stop hunting the macaws at the
clay lick, and protected some of the land around the lodge. The area upstream
of the lodge, and the headwaters of many other rivers in the area, are
now being invaded by the mahogany loggers and gold miners, threatening
a number of uncontacted tribes with violence and disease. Peru is now
the leading exporter of mahogany.
The gold mining involves either suction dredging of the river or hydraulic sluicing of the river bank, and separation of the mercury from other minerals through the use of mercury. Both steps pollute the rivers, with the mercury a particular risk to ecosystem and human health due to potent neurotoxicity.
Other activities were centered around walking the rainforest trails where we spied many birds I have never seen including the insanely beautiful paradise tanager and the green and gold tanager (see typical photos from www.softbills.com), blue-crowned trogon, razor billed guan, Spix‚s guan, and many others.
The
cabins were wonderful and the food was unbelievable - they had a vegetarian
gourmet cookbook and they weren't afraid to use it - multi-course meals
with soups, entrees with lovely sauces (including local catfish one night),
desserts, etc. Our second night there was election night, and the staff
helped us find BBC news on the short-wave radio, but there was no news
other than "still counting." Not the hoped for Kerry landslide
and boy was I freaking out! Everywhere I went in Peru after that night,
people were asking me about the election, who I voted for, etc.
After three nights at Heath River, we retraced our route and went to the Sandoval Lake lodge (see photo) within the Tambopata nature reserve in Peru. This 25-room lodge is a partnership between Tropical Nature and five Brazil nut-gathering families. It was built to protect the Giant Otters and other endangered wildlife that inhabit the lake and surrounding forest.
The
big attraction at this oxbow lake is the 100-foot-tall Mauritia palms
fringing the lake that support up to 800 red-bellied Macaws that eat only
the fruit of this palm, and a group of Amazon giant otters. Although the
otters, which were seen by some of the boats, managed not to cross my
path, I did see two more species of monkeys, more interesting birds, fish
eating bats in action, and fascinating insects on the lake and trails
behind the lodge.
After 2 nights at Sandoval, it was time to head to Cuzco, the ancient capital of the Incas that sits at over 12,000 feet elevation. Many of the buildings in Cuzco were built by the Spanish on the foundations of the Inca temples and buildings they destroyed.
I spent my time traveling to around a dozen ruin sites within a couple of hours of Cusco by foot, bus, and horse, and enjoying the historical and cultural scene in the city. Oh, and of course the day of food poisoning and regurgitation that has become de rigeur for me in Latin America, unfortunately occurring dangerously close to a rather expensive 2-day trip by train to the mountain citadel of Machu Picchu, legendary religious city of the Incas that somehow escaped the desecration of Pizarro's invaders.
This trip included a 1-day hike along the last stretch of the Inca Trail in a soaking thunderstorm, a visit to the Winay Wayna ruins, and finally approaching Machu Picchu itself through the Sun Gate as the weather cleared. The second day at M.P. was better than the first, as after our 2-hour tour of the ruins most of our group of 7 decided to climb the treacherous Huanay Picchu that overlooks M.P. That is the peak on which in the last few months one person fell to his death and one was electrocuted. From the ground it looks too steep to climb, but the trail is pretty good, very similar to Beacon Rock without as much safety features or one of the hikes on the Oregon coast whose name escapes me. Anyway it was a hard hike and scramble, with the help of quite a few permanently anchored cables and ropes, up to the first set of terraces and walls, then through I narrow, wet and tilted cave to the boulders on top with their incredible 360 view including down on M.P. I think we all felt something of an accomplishment.
On my last night in Cusco, I attended a music and dance presentation at the Native Art center, and ended up being invited with a few other audience members during the closing performance to dance with the women on-stage! Having just completed a 4-hour horseback ride in the hot sun and several hours wandering around the Sacsayhuaman and other ruins above Cusco, I was fairly exhausted, but did my best to keep my feet moving. Wouldn't you know it, something came loose in the back of my partners dress, and she danced us over to the edge of the stage behind a curtain, where while we were dancing someone frantically tried to reattach whatever came loose, while I continued to dance away, my arms disappearing behind the curtain... Must have looked pretty funny from the audience view; unfortunately there are no known photos of this hilarious fiasco so you'll have to take my word for it!
Early the next morning (Saturday) I proceeded to the airport for my flight back to Lima and a 16-hour layover before my flight to Houston. I took a shuttle into the city to visit the archaeology and anthropology museum, as well as the main plaza in the city center, had lunch and dinner, and did a little shopping. Finally around 9:30 p.m. I took a cab to Lima and began the long journey home, arriving back in Portland mid-day on Sunday.
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| Local farm along river | Floating blind for viewing at clay lick |
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| Monkey at Sandoval Lodge | Red Bellied Macaw at nest |
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| Palm root system | Peccary (wild pig) |
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| Hike | View from Sandoval Lodge |
QuickTime Movie: Macaws at Clay Lick (436 KB)
