This is a woolly monkey. I am worried he will jump onto my head.
Woolly monkey gets closer...
...and climbs into the boat (but not on my head).
Two woolly monkeys!
I'm sorry monkeys, you ate all our fruit and we have none left.
Monday, October 28, 2013
Monkeys
There were lots of monkeys. We saw 7 different species even though most of them just looked like bundles of fur swinging through the treetops and making a racket.
Into The Amazon
I took many excursions through the jungle looking for animals.
Sometimes there were bridges.
BearDog helped search too.
On one of the trips I got mauled by a jaguar with 3 teeth.
Okay, actually it was from a tree. But it was a serious tree that was defending itself. I had to pull 3 of the little spikes out of my shoulder.
Things grow very fast in the Amazon. To get past this area, one of the guides had to cut the trees with his machete. They did not give me a machete.
On the first morning at the lodge I saw pygmy marmosets, which are the smallest monkeys in the world. They like to eat the sap from this breakfast tree (with the holes in it). One of them was carrying two babies on his back as he hopped around the trees, but he was too quick for me to get a photo.
Our guide searches for animals in the treetops. Most of the animals we saw were birds and monkeys, and they liked to be up high.
On that same excursion when I saw the pygmy marmosets, I saw night monkeys. Since it was morning, they were preparing for a long day's sleep.
Later that morning, I did the canopy zipline, like Sean Connery in Medicine Man. I was very nervous. They didn't tell me until I got all the way up there that I had to jump off the platform. (I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't that.)
Wee!
Sometimes there were bridges.
BearDog helped search too.
On one of the trips I got mauled by a jaguar with 3 teeth.
Okay, actually it was from a tree. But it was a serious tree that was defending itself. I had to pull 3 of the little spikes out of my shoulder.
Things grow very fast in the Amazon. To get past this area, one of the guides had to cut the trees with his machete. They did not give me a machete.
On the first morning at the lodge I saw pygmy marmosets, which are the smallest monkeys in the world. They like to eat the sap from this breakfast tree (with the holes in it). One of them was carrying two babies on his back as he hopped around the trees, but he was too quick for me to get a photo.
Our guide searches for animals in the treetops. Most of the animals we saw were birds and monkeys, and they liked to be up high.
On that same excursion when I saw the pygmy marmosets, I saw night monkeys. Since it was morning, they were preparing for a long day's sleep.
Later that morning, I did the canopy zipline, like Sean Connery in Medicine Man. I was very nervous. They didn't tell me until I got all the way up there that I had to jump off the platform. (I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't that.)
Wee!
Iquitos
Iquitos can only be reached by boat or airplane because it is deep in the Amazon Jungle. The city consists of two houses and a boat.
It rains pretty much every day. When driving a mototaxi in the rain, it is more important to stay dry than to be able to see.
The hotel I stayed at stored my steamer trunks in the library.
This is not the Amazon River.
Iquitos pretends to be on the Amazon River, but it's not. The river shifted a while ago and Iquitos is on a little river next to the Amazon.
This is the Amazon River. It contains a pink dolphin.
This is also not the Amazon River. 50 miles up the Amazon River and then another 40 miles up the Tahuayo tributary is the Tahuayo Lodge.
This was my room.
It looks peaceful but don't be fooled. There are no windows and there are many noise-making animals, possibly more at night than during the day.
Everything is on stilts because the river floods in the rainy season. They play underwater volleyball when that happens.
The trees grow multicolored because of the flooding.
Monday, October 21, 2013
Machu Picchu
The weather had been great for the first three days of the trek, and then sometime in the middle of the third night it started pouring. We woke up at 3am to get in line at the checkpoint, and then at 5:30 we started the wet hike to the Sun Gate.
After 4 days of hiking, the first view of Machu Picchu!
BearDog wonders where Machu Picchu went. By the time he posed for the camera, the clouds had moved in.
As we descended, the views improved.
Machu Picchu is quite large and has no shortage of stones.
The Incas really liked their terraces.
I stayed overnight in Aguas Calientes and hiked Wayna Picchu the second day. Wayna Picchu is the mountain behind Machu Picchu in the previous photos. It had more stairs but I was a pro at that point.
Elevation only 2693 meters? No problem!
I was glad I stayed because it was much clearer the second day. The zigzags are the road leading from Aguas Calientes to Machu Picchu. You can take the bus or walk. After walking for 4 days, choosing the bus was the easiest decision I've ever made.
Shhhh... I'm stalking a llama.
I can take a train back!?
Inca Trail Day 3
On Day 3 we hiked through the cloud forest... and down more stairs.
To see more ruins.
And more stairs.
...and more ruins. As our guide said at our pre-trek briefing, "All you have to do is walk, eat, and sleep."
No wonder the llamas like it here. It's nice and steep.
However, all those stairs and ruins did not get old. As planned, we reached our Day 3 campsite by lunchtime because we had gone so far on Day 2. After lunch we had free time, and those of us that were not napping went to see more ruins.
BearDog investigates the Inca ruins.
Perhaps the Incas built those windows just for us.
The Incas built an irrigation system to bring water into their houses down below.
Ruins at sunset.
Machu Picchu is over there somewhere!
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