Where the wild things are

Welcome to the jungle!! sister mouse and i have had a crazy cool past 4 days in the amazon jungle. on thursday we arrived at the office of Rainforest Expeditions at 7am...like they told me. when we arrived they said that they had called our hotel the night before and said we didnt need to be there till noon...did we get the message? clearly not. i was a bit irritated as you can imagine and went in the office to voice my frustration. they lady felt bad and tried to fix it by saying, `oh we can have stuffs for you to do until then...i will send you to see the snakes. wait..i no have a guide for you. oh well, maybe you just go by yourself.´

ok. im in the middle of the freaking amazon jungle...i´ve just pissed off some woman who is now going to send us by ourselve to a pit of snakes?????? wth!! i nervously laughed to myself as i go back and tell sister what mess i´ve gotten us in. she´s still groggy from the 5am wake up call and looks at me as if im crazy to go hiking in the jungle to a snake pit. but at this point im pretty bored, so what the heck, right?
as it turns out, the lady found someone who spoke some englis and took us there. it wasn´t at all wheat i thought i was getting into. we walked down a dirt road a bit to a little wildlife refuge. it had a pen of torises, and ocelot, and about 20 kinds of snakes in fish tanks, mostly boa constictors and anacondas. we learned about allt he different kind of snakes and then walked back...killing a half hour off out time. the rest of the time we just slept on the benched and ate popsicles. FINALLY the bus arrived with the others that were joining us.. we all loaded up on this crazy bus thing and headed down what was supposed to be a road...if you can call it that...for about 45 minutes. then we got out and climbed down the banks of the tambopata river, onto a boat, and headed down the river for an hour. they then pulled the boat up to the side of the river and we got out and hiked all the way up this steep bank of ancient wooden steps and another 20 minute hike through the jungle until we reached our lodge.

it was the coolest thing i have ever seen. there are no walla on the thing, just a series of connected cabanas. there was a hammock lounge, at main lobby, and the dining room. they met you with a cool wash cloth and a glass of freah sqeezed local fruit juice. it was amazing. they they assigned us a guide and showed us our room. the rooms were crazy too. it was set farther into the woods. and itlooked like a big bamboo hut that was sectioned into 4 or 5 individual rooms. no doors. no windows. no wall on the side that opens into the deep jungle. our room had 4 beds, each with there own canopy cover. and a small bathroom with a sink, toilet and shower.

after we got settled in, sister and i, our guide luis, and an older couple from south dakota jon and krista, went on our first expedition. we hiked through the woods for about 40 minutes to a canopy tower that was about 4 feet by 8 feet wide and 120 feet tall. you climbed around and around and around until you reached the top. at the top you were about the tree line and could over the entire jungle. from there luis set up a telescope and pointed out different kinds of birds and parrots and macaws for us to see. it was so beautiful up there.

later we hiked back to the lodge and got ready for dinner. oh yeah, i completely forgot... on our first bus rid to the river they gave us a small woven basked full of snaks made by the local indigenous tribe, the Infierno people. ther were finger bananas, brazil nuts and banana chips. there was also so fresh squeezed juice from a local fruit. it was amazing. sister mouse still hasnt stopped talking about the banana chipss. then on the boat ride they gave us lunch, which was the coolest thing ever. they passed us these large banana leaves that were wrapped up and tied with a natural twine.. i opened it to find warm fried rice. when we finished eating you just tossed the banana leaft into the river. it was all sustainable and biodegradeable and made from local produce. it was awesome!!!!!!!!!

i can´t remember what we had for dinner the first night. but as we were waiting for dinner to begin, i went in the dining room lounge and there was a guy sitting by himself so i sat down and intorduced myself. he was a super cool guy. his name is brad and he is 32, and he is from brisbane, australia. (and, by the way, he´s a redhead.) he had been traveling through south america for the last 2 months, and was at the end of his journy and on his way to visit NYC for the first time, before heading home. after dinner we sat and talked until the place was empty and it was time to turn out the lights. you see, there is no electricity in our cabins, only kerosene lamps and they get turned out at 930. so i bid him farewell because he was leaving the next morning and headed to my room, where sister mouse was already passed out under her mosquito net. in bed by 930. that´s a new one for me. but it was ok, because our wake up call was 4am! i slept really well, and surprizingly the sounds of the jungle were quite peaceful at night. plus it is pitch black and you cant see a bloody thing. so good luck trying to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night...i hope you have a flashlight. or radar.

at 4am, we were awoken, got dressed and headed to the dining room to have breakfast and head out. our first expedition was to a nearby lake called oxbow lake. it was a 20 minute boat ride down the river and another half hour hike throught the jungle to get there. it was sister and i, jon and krista, and peruvian couple who didnt speak much english, and our guild and another guy. we got on a small makeshift catamaran and headed out onto the lake. it was so beautiful and peaceful so early in the morning. the mist was rising off the water and there were birds flying about in the brush. were looked at wild life for awhile, and we did the most awesome thing i have ever done. we went pirahna fishing. the guides gave us the bamboo poles and we baited them with raw meat and put it in the water. i think gramps would be really proud of me. i had some mad fishing skills going on. i caught 3 pirahnas and one sardine. sister caught some kind of flying fish. when i hooked the first pirahna, luis took it off my hook, held its by its body between his fingers, grabbed a leaf, and put it to the pirahnas mouth. it instantly clamped down and bit off the leaf!! luis pulled back the pirahnas lower lip and revealed the crazy sharp teeth. then he handed me the darn thing and let me hold it. it was amazing! after we used up all the meat we went around the lake looking for the giant river otter. we didnt get to see any, so we headed back toe the lodge for our next adventure. it was about 9am at this point and starting to get pretty hot.

next, luis walked us for about 30 minutes to a clay lick where macaws and parrots gather. it was kind of uneventful because it was so hot and the birds stayed up in the tres. we did get to see some, but after a while we hiked back. oh yeah, on the way there luis, who is amazing, by the way...he will walk throuht the jungle, then stop and point out an animal or something that i would have never noticed. we saw poisonpoud toads, snails, bugs, birds, lots of monkeys, capybarras, a tree sloth, more birds, more monkeys, a wild turkey, and my favorite (NOT), a HUGE FREAKING TARANTULA: luis stops us on the path, grabs a long sick with a leaf on the end, lickes it, looks at me and tells me not to move a muscle, and sticks it in a hole at my feet. out comes the biggest trantula i have ever seen. i think i wet myself. but i did not move. mostly out of sheer terror. to say that i am not a spider person is an unserstatment. this thing was twice the size of my hand. it came out biting on the twig luis stuck down there, and it we moved it would go back in. then he´d make it come out again. i would freeze up again. sister would try and take pictures but couldnt get her camera to work and kept telling luis to bring it out again. i was about to killer her beacuse i couldnt take it any more. finnally she got a damn picture, the thing went back into its nest, and i scurried away.

we went back, had lunch, and had a nice afternoon siesta. then that evening we took the boat down the river to see the local shaman. this was really cool. he would tell us about all these different plants, and how to make different medicines with them and what they were good for. they had a plant that gave you energy, he called it the Red Bull of the jungle. they had a plant that made a love potion, one for arthritis, one for parkinsons disease, and ever one that was a natural viagra! after the hike and learning about all these things, we got to go inside his laboratory and we could try some of the medicines he had made. you could try cat´s claw (for strss), the one that gave you energy, or para para (the viagra one. sister tried the energy one. i decided to try the cats claw. it tasted pretty gross. i cant believe i´m in the middle of the amazon jungle drinking some medicinal comcoction made by a shaman. crazy! you could actually buy some of his medicines. i tried to buy the Love Potion No. 9 (no kidding) but i didnt have enought soles on me. oh well... guess i´ll have to just depend on my charm.

we headed back, had dnner and then went to bed. that night i was woken up by a ruckus in our room. i´m still not too sure what the heck was in there, but something was. sister heard it too. but i wasnt about to reach out from under my netting to get my flashlight to find out. some things are better just left unknown. we also ahd a ton of bats in our room that night. they were freaking loud too. cant a girl just get some sleep in the jungle please!

in the morning we got up, had breakfast, and headed onour journey back. when we got to yhr puerto maldonado airport, we checked out bags and waited about 1.5 hours for our flight to lima. as were were getting ready to board, low and behold, who do we see but my aussie friend from the jungle. he was on our flight to lima.

when we arrive in lima yesterday afternoon, we grabbed a bite with the aussie, and our couch surfing host came and met us at the airport. brads flight didnt leave till midnight, so the 4 of us sat in the airport for about 6 hours just talking. it was a ton of fun. then we bid farewell to him once more and headed back to helenas place to change and go out to a disco. she decked us out in her clothes and jewelry, stoped and picked us a canadian friend of hers, and went dancing at this really trendy latin club. it was tons of fun. we danced all night, until about 3 am, then went back to helenas to crash.

that brings us up to now. sister and i are going to go out and explore lima some more today. then this evening there is a big couch curfing get together, that we are going to with helena. then we fly out tonight at midnight and we will get home sometime tomorrow evening.

this trip had been absolutly amazing. never have i met so many kind people. mever have i done such a diverse amount of things all in one country. every single day had been chock full of crazy goodness. i love peru. a piece of my heart stays here now too.

see you at home..a little more rugged...but happily so,
City Mouse (i´ll bring sister mouse too...i think she misses her husband!...)

p.s. i want to say a special thank you to sister mouse. she had been the most wonderful travel partner. i dont think i have ever laughed so much everyday when i wake up, than i do around her. she is amazing. you should all travel somewhere with her. i look forward to our next adventure together! xoxo

ciao.