The South American Odyssey

A 147-day adventure by The Craze for Travelling Read more

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The South American Odyssey The Craze for Travelling
Route A, El Gato
November 5, 2017 in Peru ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C
We reached El Gato at around 8:30 am. There, we went on a walk along the route A. At the end of the walk there is a parrot clay lick.
The walk was along a dense forest, it wasn't as wild or dense as in Bolivia. There were boards on all the major trees on the trail.Read more
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Trees and forest along Route A
November 5, 2017 in Peru ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C
All the major trees had boards with their names. We saw the Ceiba tree, Iron tree, Guillaborden (the bark boiled in hot water is useful for treating of fungus on the skin, between toes and nails).
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The South American Odyssey The Craze for Travelling
Toucan on the way
November 5, 2017 in Peru ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C
About 45 min into the trail, we came to an opening where we could see the El Gato stream on the side. Here, Jorge spotted a Toucan quite far up in one of the tall trees on the opposite shore. We set up the telescope and got a nice view of the bird.Read more
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Mushrooms on the way
November 5, 2017 in Peru ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C
On the way, we saw many mushrooms in the shape of small umbrellas. They were white in color and had filaments going from the center to the edges.
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Macaws at the parrot clay lick
November 5, 2017 in Peru ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C
Around 10 am, we reached the parrot clay lick at the end of the walk. There were no parrots there but high up on the tree on the opposite shore we saw some red green and scarlet macaws. We waited in the observation hut for about an hour but no other mammals came by nor did the Macaws come down to the clay lick.Read more
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Back on the Route A
November 5, 2017 in Peru ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
After waiting for about an hour, we started on our way back. Saw more variety of mushrooms.
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Afternoon rain shower
November 5, 2017 in Peru ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C
On the way back from El Gato to our lodge, it started to rain quite heavily. I wasn't carrying my rain jacket, so I got completely drenched but I it was really pleasant in the heat of the day.
At 1 pm, we were served lunch. Again a 3 course meal... Starting with guacamole with crackers, followed by mashed plantains and pumpkin with stuffing and a caramel banana as the dessert.Read more
Traveler Tera guzara theek hi ho raha hai
11/9/17Reply
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Spirit of the Amazon
November 5, 2017 in Peru ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C
Then.... We saw the spirit of the Amazon.. With long ears and interesting eyes and teeth 😄😄😄
Some some more insects and flowers on the way back.
Traveler Giving a feeling that this head will start rotating 360*
11/9/17Reply
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The South American Odyssey The Craze for Travelling
Evening walk
November 5, 2017 in Peru ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C
At 3:30 we went for an evening walk into the jungle, this time a new longer trail.
A few minutes into the hike, we saw a group of bullet ants searching for prey. There were about 20 of them lead by a single ant. Each one of them is about 2 cms long and it is said that a bite from a bullet ant can pain till 12 hours.
Further on, we saw a palm tree with fruits. These fruits are used in ice-cream or even hair oil.
We also saw a wandering spider. This one lives on the ground and moves very fast.
Also saw some varieties of mushrooms.Read more
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A giant fig tree
November 5, 2017 in Peru ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C
45 min into the walk, we came across a giant fig tree. It had massive roots spread across many meters around the tree itself. There was a through and through hole in the tree where a person 170 cms could easily walk through.Read more
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More giant trees
November 5, 2017 in Peru ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C
About an hour into the the walk, we saw a freshly dug hole of an armadillo. The animal was not in there but the mud strewn all around looked very fresh.
We aslo saw some leaf cutter ants and more bullet ants.Read more
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The South American Odyssey The Craze for Travelling
Mammal clay lick
November 5, 2017 in Peru ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C
At the end of the walk after about 1 hour and 45 min, we reached the mammal clay lick. This is a 15 mts long clay and water puddle where mammals come to lick clay. The reason is the same as for the mackaws, to neutralize the toxins in their diets of leaves and fruits. There were a lot of footprints of different animals but no animal there.
We waited for about 20-30 min in the hope of spotting some animal, but none came. Then we moved a bit away from the clay lick since Jorge felt that maybe the animals were able to smell us and that could be why they were not coming. We waited another 10 min. It was getting dark so we decided to head back to the lodge.Read more
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Elfs in the Amazonas
November 5, 2017 in Peru ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C
After waiting for about an hour, we started our way back.
On the way, we saw a column of army ants going across the trail. These are very aggressive ants that can attack like an army and destroy anything in its path.Read more
Traveler Is Haristo walking horizently?......................".."
11/9/17Reply
Traveler Natural Halloween effect....
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Dark dark walk
November 5, 2017 in Peru ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C
While we were walking back, it became extremely dark. The heat, the humidity and the vapor in the air reduced the visibility to a few meters even with a torchlight. We heard many different birds, insects and other denizens of the rainforest.
We saw some crickets, a big tarantula in its nest. Jorge managed to coax it out of the burrow so we got to take some good pictures.
Back at the lodge, we saw a huge cockroach just outside our room.
While we were waiting for the dinner in our room, I saw a sake like creature coming down from the roof. It turned our to be rat like instead and when Hristo pointed his torchlight on it, it froze in its place. He managed to take a picture of it. This, later on we verified with Jorge, was an Opposum.Read more
Traveler 👀. 💀💀. 👀. 👹👹 👀 👀
11/9/17Reply
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Last dinner at Chuncho Lodge
November 5, 2017 in Peru ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C
The dinner, as always, was fantastic. There was fresh juice of Maracuya. The 1st course was a carrot soup with cheese. The 2nd course was an egg maize patty with avocado, fried plantain and salad. The 3rd course was a purple maize pudding.Read more
Traveler Your taste buds must be under lot of strain.
11/9/17Reply
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Leaving Chuncho Lodge
November 6, 2017 in Peru ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C
I woke up around 5 am. It was raining heavily. We got ready and went to have our breakfast in the dining room. We were served fresh cut fruits with papaya juice and a big pancake with eggs. After the sumptuous meal, we were ready to leave bu 7 am. It was still raining quite a bit when we sat in the boat. At Filadelfia, we had to carry our bags and walk for some distance since the jeep was not able to come all the way to the jetty due to the heavy muck near the shore. We were wearing the rain boots so it was not a big problem for us to wade through the muck to reach the jeep.
We changed back to our normal boots at the jeep and started our way back to Porto Maldonado. It had started pouring heavily by now and tge jeep had to be driven in low gears to negotiate the mid and the muck on the jungle road.Read more
Traveler 😋😋😋😋
11/9/17Reply
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The wild jungle road
November 6, 2017 in Peru ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C
The jungle road back to the trans oceanic road was a joyride in itself. The jeep despite being a 4x4 and being driven in low gear, kept skidding off the road and the log bridges were a challenge to cross over.
We reached Porto Maldonado by 8:15 am and re-packed a bit since we would be carrying only our small day bags to Sandoval lake.
Sandoval lake is also part of the amazonas but a lake instead of the main river. Its an oxbow lake and is known to have a lot of animal and bird species in that region.Read more
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Off to Sandoval lake
November 6, 2017 in Peru ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C
By 9:30 am, we at the port of Porto Maldonado on the river Rio Madre de Dios. Rio Madre is a huge tributary of the Amazon river. It had been pouring heavily all the while and even now when we sat in the boat, it was relentless. We had our rain gear on and the bags were covered with eain covers as we set off to Sandoval lake.Read more
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The South American Odyssey The Craze for Travelling
And it poured down in bucketfulls
November 6, 2017 in Peru ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C
The heavy rain grew heavier and heavier. At some point, the driver of the boat had a difficulty in finding the path. We were sitting under the covered part still it was so much water that we were getting drenched anyways.Read more
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The South American Odyssey The Craze for Travelling
Reached Sandoval Lake
November 6, 2017 in Peru ⋅ 🌫 24 °C
We continued on through the heavy rain and reached Lake Sandoval jetty around 10 am. We had to wait for 10-15 minutes for Jorge our guide to pick us up there. Jorge is the owner of the Chuncho Lodge. He would be with us for today and tomorrow.Read more
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The South American Odyssey The Craze for Travelling
At the Sandoval entrance
November 6, 2017 in Peru ⋅ 🌫 24 °C
While we waited in the boat, the driver had to take out bucket loads of water from the boat since it was still pouring like crazy.
Jorge registered us at the control center and then we were off towards the lake. The path is a very muddy one and in the constant rain, it had become a dirt track. Its about 2 kms from the jetty to the lake and the path was a challenge to negotiate in the heavy rain. The rain boots though protecting the feet, were slipping and sliding and sometimes getting stuck in the muck.Read more
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Canoe onto the lake
November 6, 2017 in Peru ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C
After walking into the muck for almost an hour, we reached the end of the walk. There was a small port with canoes there. Jorge told us that this was a man-made canal to connect to the lake.
There were a lot of palm trees in this region. Jorge told us that this variety of palm grows in marsh land and since there are marshes here, these palms grow in abundance.Read more
Traveler Enjoying torture by payments😂
11/9/17Reply
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On the Sandoval lake
November 6, 2017 in Peru ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C
After about 5 min of rowing through the canal, we reached the Sandoval Lake. Here we saw many termite ants flying in the air. This, Jorge told us, was due to the start of the rainy season. One of the termite mound was releasing these next generation of king ants. This is how they extend their reach and form new hills. There were a lot of fish jumping out of the water trying to grab them as well. Jorge told us that these were the Piranas.
There are 5 varieties of piranas in Lake Sandoval but none of them is aggressive. The red bellied piranas are normally the ones that are aggressive but only in dry places when the lake is drying out and they become the dominant of the species. They even become cannibalistic, eating each other to maximize the utilization of the limited oxygen supply in the drying lake. In Sandoval lake, they are not the dominant species so they are not aggressive.Read more
Traveler You must have the taste of termites,how it was?😖Some must have got in to the nostrils also?
11/9/17Reply
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Giant otters
November 6, 2017 in Peru ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C
Still on the canoe, still in the pouring rain, we came across the giant river otters. We watched them for a while before moving on. It was a couple out fishing. They can eat 5-6 kgs of fish a day. At the lake, there seems to be 2 groups. One, a family of 7 and this couple.Read more
Traveler Otters not visible but the photo is very pleasing & attractive.
11/9/17Reply
The Craze for Travelling Thanks 😊
11/9/17Reply
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The South American Odyssey The Craze for Travelling
Red Howler Monkeys
November 6, 2017 in Peru ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C
A bit further along the way, we saw some red howler monkeys huddled together in the heavy rain. We also saw the Birds of Paradise (so called in Bolivia). Here they are called stinking birds. Their actual name is Quatzel. They seem to have not changed at all for mellinia, quite like the crocodile or the armadillo. They feed on leaves and parasites that no other animals feed on. This gives them an evolutionary advantage since they don't have to compere with any other animal for their food. Their stomachs have 3 chambers like the cow. This helps them digest the tough tissue of the leaves they eat. The fermentation of the leaves in their stomach gives them a bad smell which prevents predators from eating them and even humans don't like to eat it due to the bad smell. It still, is a beautiful bird.
We also saw the red headed Red Cap Cardinal. A tiny, beautiful bird with a red head.Read more
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