I was out cold pretty much instantly when I got into bed at 9:20. To say it’s cold here is a vast understatement. I’d read that every month or so the Amazon gets a cold blast where it hits 50 or lower for a few days. I never thought that would actually happen to me, but it has. And all of my warmer clothes are back in Puerto Maldonado in my suitcase. I saw 70s the last time I looked at the forecast for this weekend, not 50s! I took a second comforter off the other bed and wrapped my legs and upper body in fleece blankets. Believe it or not I slept pretty comfortably!
However, I did hear rain on and off all night. As late as 3:30 I was still hearing it but I crossed my fingers and begged the travel gods to cut me some slack, although I’ve had pretty good luck on this trip so far, I shouldn’t push my luck.
I heard Pat and Wally up and about in the cabin next door and it was 3:45. I wondered what they were doing but knew I had another hour to sleep because we weren’t due to leave for the clay lick until 5:15. I tried to go back to sleep and was just successful when I heard footsteps and saw a light coming up my steps. Pat called out “Amy are you coming?” I looked at my phone again and it was 4:30. I said “I still have 45 minutes”, she said, “no, it’s 5:30 and I know you don’t want to miss this.” Now we’d been having some debate about what the time on the clocks would say since we are technically in Bolivia which is Eastern Standard Time whereas Peru is Central Time and an hour behind. We all agreed to leave our phones on Peru time and would always confirm times to depart as “Peru time”. In my near-sleep fog, I shouted that I’d be out in 10 minutes, and managed to do just that, not putting in my contacts doing my hair and thankfully just stepping into the clothes I laid out last night. It pays to prepare ahead!
I got to the common area and Pat said not to hurry since there’s no sign of Pepe and the staff aren’t done preparing our breakfast to go yet. I asked one of the staff in Spanish what time it is and he said 4:45. I confirmed Peru or Bolivia time? He said “Peru time”. So we all could have had another hour to sleep. We’re still unsure how Pat’s phone got an hour ahead. I went back and did my hair and contacts and we were on the boat by 5:15.
With all the rain we’ve gotten here in the last two days, the rocky beach about 50 feet from the base of the stairs up from the river is now gone. The water runs right up to the stairs and pretty deep too. All of the shallows we had to navigate around are gone as well. We pulled up next to the blind in the middle of the river and in front of the clay lick. It’s essentially a raised platform with a roof from which we can watch the clay lick. And that’s really all we did for 7 hours: watch the clay lick.
It turns out that not much wildlife likes the rain or the cold or the wind, and we had all three today. We sat from 5:30 to 12:30 and while we saw some macaws fly overhead, that was the extent of the macaws and parrots at the clay lick. I guess it just wasn’t meant to be. I know full well from my trips to Africa that you just can’t control Mother Nature, but I’d be lying if I said this isn’t immensely disappointing. It is really the draw for this area and we struck out two days out of two. There’s not a third shot at this.
We did have a good time chatting about the British royals and tv programs worth watching. So all was not lost. The chef sent us with fruit salad, pancakes and little sandwiches with the crusts cut off (mine was olive) and loads of coffee and hot chocolate. I had on a t-shirt, my long sleeved shirt, the hoodie (my uniform of the last 2 days) and wrapped myself in two blankets and draped my still-wet raincoat around me and I was still shivering. We thought for sure around 11:30 the macaws were coming since we saw about 12 circling around at various points and they seemed to be calling to each other, but they just never landed. The best I did for bird photos was a yellow faced vulture and a roadside hawk. Pepe called it a day at 12:30 and we went back for lunch.
Lunch today was good. I had cream of asparagus soup, tuna salad with a half of avocado and a delicious rice pudding. I also had a cup of tea to try to warm up. And the juice today was pineapple, which just might be my favorite so far, although I think I say that about all the juices.
I came back and took a steaming hot shower (thankfully the hot water is very hot here) and climbed into bed with all my blankets and comforters. We’re due to have a nature walk at 3:30 if it doesn’t rain.
I don’t look forward to the 5 hour boat ride tomorrow morning to get back to Puerto Maldonado. Especially if it’s this cold, which Pepe says it likely will be. Ugh.
The jungle walk was pretty neat. We saw absolutely no wildlife clear enough or close enough to take photos. The macaws flew over a few times and we heard toucans, but nothing we could see. That’s the downside. The upside is no snakes.
The trees here were pretty impressive though, from cedar and mahogany to one with fluorescent red bark. There were trees growing around trees, trees over 300 years old. The vines growing up and around trees ranged from leaves adhering themselves to the bark to vines so thick that they’d become winding trees of their own. The smells were wonderful, very fresh and clean and sometimes even floral. There were lots of tree roots above ground, which Pepe is said due to poor soil quality about a meter down. We saw a few termite mounds built on sides of trees. Pepe was good about picking pieces of bark or flowers for us to smell or see up close. He really knows his stuff. Overall I really enjoyed the walk, I just wish there’d been more birdlife or something in the animal world I could have seen.
Before dinner I got as packed as I could be. I won’t be showering tomorrow if I have to then go out and sit on the boat for 5 hours. I’ve found some semi-dry clothes to put on. I hope it’s warmer at Puerto Maldonado so I can feel warm again and dry out a little.
Dinner tonight was a vegetable soup (so good when it’s this cold!), a vegetable stir fry with rice and french fries and mango for dessert, which was absolutely delicious. The juice tonight was black corn and it was incredible! I would have thought it would taste more like beet, but it was sweeter. I had a pisco sour before dinner with some popcorn as the bar snack. I have to say it might have been the best pisco sour I’ve had so far. Little Jesus made it and instead of bitters he put cinnamon on top of the egg white, which was pretty nice.
In bed at 8:30. I’m beat from the long day and gearing up for a long day and a half of travel ahead! Right now I’m focused on getting to Puerto Maldonado and getting some warm, dry clothes! It’s a 5 hour boat ride...
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