The Peruvian Amazon
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A morning flight from Lima brought us to Puerto Maldonado, at the confluence of the Tambopata and Madre de Dios rivers, in the Amazon rainforest of Peru. Even though we associate the Amazon withLæs mere
A morning flight from Lima brought us to Puerto Maldonado, at the confluence of the Tambopata and Madre de Dios rivers, in the Amazon rainforest of Peru. Even though we associate the Amazon withLæs mere
In the morning we walked through the rainforest to a canopy lookout built into a Kapok (Ceiba) tree. The platform was built for researchers to monitor the fauna of the forest canopy. Since 2004, overLæs mere
Later on our second day in the Amazon, we walked through the forest to visit the Taricaya Conservation Research Reserve and its wildlife rescue center.
Taricaya is a private entity, not governmentLæs mere
We had to get an early start today because it was going to be even warmer than the previous days—probably around 95 and very humid as usual. There’s no wi-fi or cell reception at the lodge, soLæs mere
This concluded our Amazon adventure, and it was time to move on, first by boat to Puerto Maldonado, then by plane back to Lima. (Check out Puerto Maldonado’s ‘Golden Gate Bridge’ in theLæs mere
Today we took a half-day private tour to Pachacamac, about 20 miles south of downtown Lima. Pachacamac was a pilgrimage site dating from pre-Incan times, beginning around 200 AD. Representatives fromLæs mere
A one-hour flight from Lima took us to Cuzco, which is at an elevation of 11,000 feet. But to get us acclimated to the altitude, our destinations for the next few days are in villages at lowerLæs mere
The main site today was to Ollantaytambo, an ancient city high in the Andes (9,000 feet), dating to pre-Incan times. In the middle of the 15th century, Incan leader Pachacutec essentially destroyedLæs mere
After the archaeological site visits, we were invited to lunch at the home and farm of a Quechua family. Quechua are a pre-Incan culture. All of the food served to us was grown by them. We startedLæs mere