Yes mosquito nets and no ceiling fans but lots of air just not conditioned

Some photos of lunch on the boat, and our room. The slots are the bathroom floor open to dirt below the other is the forth wall of our room open to outside and our shower. More room photos tomorrow. Too much like camping for me!!

Back into the Jungle

Today a trip to the airport and fly to the town of Puerto Maldonado the gateway to the Tambopata reserve and our lodge in the southern Amazon basin    Back to the heat and humidity. We are prepared so we think.

How wrong I was.    We arrived in Puerto Maldonado and repack what we want to take into the jungle. It is a 1 hour bus ride in a bouncy small bus. Then we get to the dock and it is a 1 hour boat ride to get to the lodge

Lunch and a snack in route.  The first challenge comes when we get to the dock.  In the north Amazon every time we went out in the boat it was a 2 flight of stairs up and a 5-10 walk on wooden walkway to our room.  Here it is a 126 steps up with some wooden hand rails and then a 20 minute or 25 minute walk to the lodge  

There is 24 hour electricity in the rooms. There are No ceiling fans in the rooms or the main dining room. No air conditioning either.  The lodge I’d fairly primitive but there is a bar.  We sleep under mosquitoe netting and the room is open on one side to the jungle. Lots of bugs in the room all the time. There is no way to cool off.  There is no breeze.    Dan is really not happy about that.

Food is okay.   Buffet style fish and chicken at every meal. Various salsas and lots of salads and vegetables. Fruit juice at every meal and tons of water.  All without ice. The lodge is bio ecology friendly so soap and no fresh towels every day.  There is a clothesline outside the open wall of our room and a waterfall type shower in the bathroom.

I will send photos on the next posting

A lot of bird watchers

You would think that a garden sponsored trip would’ve focused on plants flowers etc.   Not so with this trip.  Seems most of the people are bird watchers.  Carrying big binoculars or long telephoto lenses for their cameras.  In looking at the itinerary there will be a focus on birds.

Our excursion on day 2 in Lima took us south of the city to a fishing village then we got to get in small open boats and head to the ocean.  The highlight was seeing the penguins.  I guess this is a rare occurrence. There were tons of sea lions lazing about on the rocks.

After lunch.  A stop at a bird sanctuary to observe the birds living in the protected marsh. The bird lovers with their binoculars were in hog heaven.  We leave for the airport in the morning to go into the Amazon.

A weather update which will jinx us for sure.  We have had perfect weather.  A little scattered rain on a couple of days while we we driving but none at the time we were exploring.  Hope our luck holds

Today’s outing was to a boat ride along the shore south of Lima. As we ride these small open boats through the surf. Took my Dramamine anyway!

Lima day 2

This morning there was an orientation for everyone. Some of our group came from other areas.  There was a highlight of what we would be doing and in the afternoon we went to the Larco Museum for lunch and a museum tour.  Then off to downtown and a tour of the catacombs.  Of course we did this when we were here in January.  The problem is there was no time for shopping.   We had a group dinner at a restaurant that was at the site of some of the ruins from 300 AD.

It was a great day. There are 17 members of our group a couple from Florida among them.  Every one is getting along well.  Lots of single women and 2 single men.  There is the normal tour type of mix with crazy personalities.  We have a single lady is always pushing to the front of the group and taking photos. One of the men is forgetful and is kind of a know it all. It will be an interesting trip 

These are photos of the visit to the village on our last day in the lodge.

Sloth in tree