• The Craze for Travelling
  • The Craze for Travelling

The South American Odyssey

Een 147-daags avontuur van The Craze for Travelling Meer informatie
  • Afternoon rain shower

    5 november 2017, 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.Meer informatie

  • Evening walk

    5 november 2017, 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.
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  • Mammal clay lick

    5 november 2017, 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.
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  • Dark dark walk

    5 november 2017, 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.
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  • Leaving Chuncho Lodge

    6 november 2017, 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.
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  • The wild jungle road

    6 november 2017, 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.
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  • At the Sandoval entrance

    6 november 2017, 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.Meer informatie

  • Canoe onto the lake

    6 november 2017, 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.Meer informatie

  • On the Sandoval lake

    6 november 2017, 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.
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  • Giant otters

    6 november 2017, 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.Meer informatie

  • Red Howler Monkeys

    6 november 2017, 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.
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