We knew we’d visit the jungle somewhere and sometime and once we decided to stay in Cusco, Manu National Park made all the sense in the world.
Parque National Manu, is a huge National park NorthEast of Cusco Peru. It’s a vast and wild jungle filled with amazing fora and fauna. Of particular interest are the birds in the park, which out number the species in the rest of the world.
As usual, Kim researched the heck out of the tours available for the Amazon, and for Manu. We settled on a family owned and operated group called Bonanza, in part due to their knowledge and ability to tour the “reserve zone”. Ryse, the owner and one of our guides, grew up on the edge of the reserve zone, and has vast knowledge of the area. He also has a crazy keen eye for spotting animals! Alex, our second guide, much younger, but no less passionate about the jungle. Alex was the bird expert and knew them all by sight and sound (and probably smell). He was amazing too!
Our trip started very early, but it was good practice for us because we had several early mornings on this trip. Alex arranged to pick us up at our apartment in Cusco at 5am on Sunday morning. It came early, but we were all pretty excited about what lay ahead.
The first day, was a long bus ride, with a few stops to break it up. One was a nice colonial town called “Paucartambo”, which was key to the trade industry between the Amazon and Cusco. We stopped here for breakfast, and got a quick walking tour of the town. Because it was Sunday, we got to witness the parade starting in front of the cathedral. The church was amazing, but I was not able to take more pics as it was forbidden (thankfully I took one before somebody let me know)!
After that, we continued on to a camp for the night, and we got our first taste of what “jungle lodge” means. It means a bunch of screened in porches on stilts, containing beds with mostquito nets. Some sort of central building with a kitchen and dining room, and community bathrooms somewhere else. Lighting, and hot water optional! It was pretty amazing though.
Along the way, once we hit the jungle, we got out for an hour or so walk, where we started to be amazed at the scenery, the unique flora, and some really interesting and colorful birds! We did in fact see the “Cock of the Rock”, Kane spotted one close by, but by the time I got a photo, he was quite a distance.
We also got our first taste the food prepared by our crew. It was “admirable” given the circumstances. Overall, I’m pretty proud of how my kids handled themselves on the trip, including surviving on the food provided. They were thankful for the hot chocolate mix that was quite popular during snack time!
Day 1 Pics: (bus from Cusco to camp near Madre de Dios River)
Day two felt good, and we kind of knew what to expect. It was another early morning. We got back on the bus, and our first stop was a small botanical garden, that specialized in Lillies. By this time, we were starting to be acquainted with the others on the tour, and that’s always fun. I personally, had an affinity for Ben and Mel, two botonists from Australia. We had a lot of laughs, and they started on this tour. I think I’m an Australian or a Kiwi, trapped in an American body, really. Or maybe British. I’m so happy to meet people who truly appreciate my dry sense of humor! Bloody Literal Americans!
The little guy who ran the garden, was really sweet, and he was really proud of his little garden. It was beautiful.
When we got back on the bus, we headed for the place where we would change modes of transport for a few days. We did make a quick stop at a viewpoint, where we could see the river we would be taking into the park. At the boat launch, we saw Magda, our neighbor from across the street in Cusco! He son Dante and Kane play soccer together in the street. It turns out she owns a lodge down there somewhere, and basically works part time there.
Our first stop was at some natural hot springs. They were natural hot springs. You either love’m or you think their OK. When you are already hot and in the jungle, you think their OK. A women on our trip got surprised by a “fer-de-lance” (aka yellow chin) snake in the bathroom. She didn’t notice it under the toilet, until after she had used it! We saw some cool leaf cutter ants, and Kat found a huge snail.
After that, we continued down the river toward the Bonanza Ecological Reserve (this is the property where Ryse, our guide was raised). Ryse’s Mom and Dad still live there, and they help run a “jungle lodge” there. Beautiful place, you might say, jungle paradise of sorts. Only this night, we would not stay in the jungle paradise.
Ryse announced earlier that “if the weather is good, we’ll spend the night at the tree house”. Well, evidently, the weather was good, because as soon as we arrived at the lodge, we got rubber rain boots, and we packed bags for an overnight camping trip.
It was about an hour hike through dense jungle, through rivers (both dry and full), and along an intensely muddy trail. The group had split up, and we were with Alex. At one point, everybody stopped, and I could see Alex pointing into the Jungle. An entire group of squirrel monkeys were morning past us headed in the opposite direction. I admired them for a bit, then tried to get some photos. I got one bad one.
A few minutes later, we heard some intense (really intense) squawks coming toward us. We looked up, and 3 HUGE red macaws sailed directly overhead. For me, it was probably the coolest moment of the trip. Just the magnitude of the sounds they made, the size of those things, and the viewpoint that I had… directly under them by 100 feet, nothing but lush green jungle canopy between me and them. It was truly breathtaking.
By the time we arrived at the “tree house”, it was dark already. Alex stopped us 50 yards from the tree and let us know that if we needed to relieve ourselves, or use bug spray, this was our last opportunity. (they don’t allow it at the tree house). That was a reality check for me.
It turned out that the tree house is basically a huge “tree stand”. A large wooden platform (big enough for 15 or so people laying side by side) on stilts, 18-20 feet in the air, no railings, and camouflaged on one side. The side with the camp, faced a “salt lick”… what looked like a shallow pond, where animals come to drink for medicinal purposes. We had all carried in our own mosquito nets, and dinners.
We setup our sleeping bags and mosquito nets, got our instructions from Ryse, and ate our dinners. The plan was to take 45 minute shifts starting from the left end of the platform. When it was your turn, you listen intently for animal sounds in/around the salt lick. You shine a high powered flashlight. If you see an animal, you wake up the two people on either side and they wake everyone else up down the line. So, ideally, you get sleep, and you don’t miss any animals.
Thankfully, I was third from the left, so my shift was like 8:30 – 9:15. Forrest, a recent med school grad from Seattle was first. It wasn’t long after we settled in and finished our dinner that we heard something. I let Forrest know that I thought I heard something. His sister confirmed it. The problem was, the angle Forrest had with the light, was blocked 50% by a big tree. He handed the flashlight to me. I popped it on, and directly in front of me was a HUGE tapir. It looks like a huge pig with an anteater face. He was in no hurry, and in no way bothered by the light. He gave me time to get my camera adjusted for low light, and I got some (good) pics and better video of him. He must have been 200 lbs! Kane was riveted, actually we all were. That really set the tone for the night, and made the whole thing worthwhile. We could not wait to see what came next.
Actually, we could wait. It started to rain, hard. It rained for the next 2 hours, and though we checked the pond from time to time, we could not hear anything over the rain. We didn’t see anything. I fell asleep after my shift, even though it was pretty miserable. We got up at 4am to hike back to the boat and carry on. I heard there was a racoon later, but nobody was woken up for it. I guess it was a judgement call on the part of the spotter at that time, but I did feel slightly jipped.
The hike back was creepy. 100% total darkness, even more slippery/wet than before. Very poor lighting as we managed to lose our best flashlight. I basically had a keychain light. I had to carry Kat part of the way. She was trooper, but it really was a mess. The longest 45 minutes of my life, probably (or one of). In hindsight, it was an incredible adventure, and I knew that at the time, but still. On the way home, we were given a choice to return to the treehouse, and Forrest was the only one game, so nobody went.
Day 2 Pics: (Madre del Dios river to Tree House at Bonanza Ecological Reserve)
We finally entered the reserve zone this day. Once we got back on the river, I knew day 3 would be different. The day started overcast, and it was ominous. It truly was like we were in a different place. Soon we arrived at the park ranger office for checking into the park. This was a nice ranger station, and very informative. My only complaint was the sand fleas on the beach that tore us up while we waited to get back on the boat. Just before we got back on the river, another group came into “check out”. Some of them were really coy about it, but he heard from a couple that they had just watched 2 jaguars mating for like 20 minutes on a sand bar “not far from there”.
Ryse was certain he knew the place, we we “hurried” to see if we could see the Jaguars too. I guess to the guides, places to spot wildlife are like good fishing holes…. you never tell someone where your honey hole is. At any rate, 1/2 hour later, we arrived at the place… but it was empty. We went on up the river, and at the next beach, we pulled over for a “pee break”.
The middle of the boat emptied first. The deckhand has a wooden plank that he moves down the boat. Kane was the first one off, and “had to go”. He skipped up the beach toward the jungle. This particular beach, had a natural berm about halfway between the river and the edge of the jungle. This high spot was made even higher by a bunch of fallen trees that had stacked up there.
I’m waiting my turn to get off, contemplating whether I need to go or not, and I hear Kane (now up at berm level). “LOOK at all these Jaguar tracks!… their fresh!” 7 second pause “JAGUARS! JAGUARS!!!!!”.
By the time I got up there, they were gone. Kim missed it to. About half the boat got to see the 2 jaguars, and half didn’t. Evidently, when Kane turned around, the paired two jaguars were right behind the berm… probably about 15 feet away from him. After he yelled, they bolted to the edge of the jungle (still in view but further away), paused there for a moment, looked back, then dashed into the jungle.
The guides were great. They told Kane that “everybody has the same reaction” and “not to worry”. I’m not sure how everybody else felt. I was disappointed, but also really happy that both of my kids got to see such a rare, beautiful creature. I’d rather have them see it, than the other way around!
Later on, we made a stop at an “Oxbow” lake. This is were the river used to flow, and once the river changes course, the old “bend” of the river is cut off, and becomes a lake. By the time we stopped here, Kat was sleeping and would not budge. Kim stayed at the boat, and Kane and I did the short hike to the lake. It was beautiful. We saw lots of cool trees, and at the late, many pretty birds. Alex, our guide was able to coax a bird out of the trees using a recorded call on his phone. That guy is really something.
When we got back to our pickup point, our boat was not there. We saw them up river 200 yards, and took turns yelling at them. Finally they saw us, and came back for us. Kim had fallen in the mud. It had become a theme.
That night, we camped at another jungle lodge, run by the two indigenous tribes from the area… Casa Matchiguenka. It was about on par with the other lodges, but lacked Electricity. The overcast day had limited their solar power generation ability. It was not good for camera longevity the next day!
Day 3 Pics: (Bonanza Ecological Reserve to Casa ….)
We spent almost the entire next day, out on another oxbow lake, lake Salvador. This place is known to be the home of many monkeys, cayman, and giant otters. We were on a mission to find those otters. Our morning trip was fruitless. It was beautiful, but it soon started raining (like crazy), and we ran out of time before we found the otters. We did some some monkeys, and lots of interesting birds though. It was nice to be on the (calm) water.
In the afternoon, we were much more successful. When we arrived at the pier, the boat was out in use by somebody else. While waiting, our guides spotted the otters way down the lake to the right. The other group was to the left. We were instructed to “play it cool” and not let on that we could see where the otters were. If they knew, they would stay in the boat, and go steal our glory!
The good news is, we got fairly close, and we got to watch the otter for quite some time. The bad news is, I decided to leave my camera at the lodge. My battery was low, and I didn’t think we’d find them etc. I may have been a tad lazy? We also saw a cool Cayman, and we thought for a moment, the cayman was going to hunt down a baby otter, but that didn’t happen.
We stayed to watch the sunset, and to look for Cayman under the water at night with lights. At one point, we gut hung-up on some branches, and the guys (our boat driver and deck hand) who were paddling from the rear of the pontoons, got up to help. Ben jumped into one of their seats and paddled the way back. We rammed the pier. We also saw a cayman in the water just as we parked. It was really cool.
All in all, a very relaxing day, and very different from the rest. After dinner, Ryse found a fed-de-lance snake, and caught it. We got to see it close up, and snap a few photos, then he let it loose down by the river. Odd, to see one of the most poisonous snakes in the world, wild and so close! Kane loved it.
Day 4 Pics: (Otter Hunting and fer-de-lance at Casa Matchiguenka)
Well, it was time to head back to Cusco. Anything we got to see now was “gravy”, and we were pretty beat.
We stopped for breakfast at the same sand bar where Kane stumbled on the Jaguar. We had 10 minutes to kill while they setup our breakfast. I went to snap some photos, the kids scattered to find a way to blow off some energy. At one point, Kane was trying to figure out how to ski down the berm using a piece of driftwood as a ski. That didn’t work.
He moved on, and found a huge dead tree, with a huge branch that was horizontal, and had some give. Naturally, he climbed up and jumped on it. Like a mini diving board, he jumped up and down for awhile, then jump off to the sand. “That was fun!” he said, as he climbed back up. A few second later (it was all a blur), Kim yelled “Kane, watchout, get down!”. I looked up and saw a black cloud enveloping Kane… it looked like a bunch of black moths were swarming up around him. He jumped down to the same place he had before, and started running. 3 seconds later, he lost his footing and fell to the ground. A half dozen or so of the “moths” landed on him. He screamed. He got up and started running again. The black things backed off of him, and continued to follow/swarm him for about 5 seconds, then they flew away. Kane ran all the way to the group near the boat.
I was paralyzed. I had no idea what was happening, only able to yell “Run” and “roll around” from about 30-40 yards away. I didn’t realize until it was too late that he’d been stung by HUGE flying insects of some sort. Kim was comforting Kane, but he was in some serious pain. Once the adrenaline settled, and Kane was encircled by the entire tour, he cried a bit, but he was tough. The guides got some clay from the river to put on this stings (one on an ear, one on wrist, on on his back, and one on his leg). He was luckl it was not worse.
I cautiously went over to the fateful log to see if they were still around. I could see the nest (relatively small actually) hanging directly under where Kane had been jumping. They were still “stirred up”, all around the log. Ryse confirmed that they were “Horse Wasps”. “Very Strong” he said, they are known to kill snakes and small mammals. This was bad news. Kane is allergic to wasps. I fully expected to have to use our epi-pen on him.
Thankfully, Kane had only local reactions to the stings. Each site, pufffed up, hurt for a few hours. Then by the next day, looked like bruises, and started to itch. He still has little scars, and the memory will last forever. It didn’t take him long to appreciate what a great story it would be! Later at coffee time, he was trying to pin Ryse down one his “top 10” list of horrible things that happened on his Amazon tours. He wanted to know where he ranked. After Ryse’s “top 1”, we dropped the subject. (a guy got stung in the leg by a ray in the river and they thought we was going to die).
Our next stop was visiting a village along the river. It was pretty uneventful, other than being shocked by the presence of Direct TV, and the lack of service at the tienda. I think we interrupted somebody’s soap opera or sun bathing one of the two. We were offered some traditional fermented drink with lumps in it. We declined. Forrest tried it and didn’t recommend it. Alex liked it!
When we arrived back at Bonanza, we were all excited to actually stay there and enjoy the landscaping etc. It really is quite nice. Well Ryse’s parents were there, and his dad had a little surprise for us. He had stumbled on a baby anaconda, and caught it for us to see. It truly was magnificent. The pictures don’t do it justice, but the entire body of the thing is covered with an iridescent blue sheen. Kane got a kick out of holding it.
That night, we tried to go fishing. It was on the brochure and one of our main interests. It turned out to be a non-event. They didn’t have gear, just some line on a stick and some chicken. We didn’t get any bites, but we did enjoy being on the river at sundown, not in the boat. Mario caught and ate a small sardine from a stream. Kane did likewise… he liked it.
After that, we went on a nature hike (night hike). There were a couple of highlights. We saw probably a dozen or so huge Tarantulas, nesting in these particular type of short palm trees. After that, Alex was stomping around in a field of “shrubbery” (fairly dense ground cover that was solid and was about a foot deep). We were all stomping around too, and he was looking for something specific.
Pretty soon I hear Kim’s patented “Shriek”, I look over and the ground cover is shaking. The shaking area is moving, quickly from Kim’s feet toward me, and then veering to the right. Alex is hopping toward it with a purpose. He followed that thing about 15 feet, around a tree, then another 5 feet into the jungle. He came back empty-handed, but still smiling.
Evidently, he was looking for a huge reptile of some sort, and nearly caught it for us. For me, watching him scamper and try to jump on that thing was another highlight of the trip for some reason. I’m a huge Alex fan. I started teasing him about being happy all the time. I asked Ryse if he’d ever seen Alex mad, that became a running joke. What a pleasure to be around.
Day 5 Pics: (Casa Matchiguenka to Bonanza Ecological Reserve)
Well, we were coming down to the end, and everybody was totally wupped. Our last night at the rainforest lodge was nice. We enjoyed the hammocks. I lobbied to sleep in a bit, but was vetoed. We were leaving at 4am to “time the construction at the tunnels”. (i.e., the crew wanted to get home to their families). So we dragged our butts out of bed one more time unnaturally early.
All was good, until the bus stopped. We stopped right on a curve in the jungle, and I could see a couple of trucks stopped on the road ahead of us. Some kind of traffic jam? Probably construction related I thought. Ryse got off the bus. 5 minutes later he came back and made an announcement. “We have a little problem. The men will need to get off and move some rocks, let’s go!”
I had no idea what to expect, but never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined what I saw. It was a landslide, and not a small one. The entire road was gone, and covered with rocks. Rocks of ALL sizes. Pea sized gravel all the way to dining room table sized rocks. The good news was we were on a steep hill, so we only needed to get rocks moved to the edge and they would tumble down. I was laughing. I said something to Ryse like “were not gonna make a dent in this without heavy machinery”. He said “you’ll be surprised what we can do… as a team!”.
We started moving rocks. People started showing up with pickaxes and shovels. I guess this happens all the time up there, and they know how to deal with it. We really did make progress. It was amazing.
We worked for probably 1.5 hours. I got tired and hungry. I had to go to the bathroom. It started raining. I walked back down the road beind the bus and relieved myself. On the way back, I ate a pancake at the bus. Ryse showed up and announded that a digger had arrived. The road was basically clear, but the cleaned it up with the digger.
Everybody got on and we started down the road, waiting our turn to pass. Near the slide, I got up and told Ryse that my family was going to walk across. He sort of nodded and ignored me. when we got really close. I basically walked to the front, and demanded the bus stop so we could get out. It was one of those situations where, I was not going to take somebody else’s judgement based on experience. I’m glad we walked. It was really scary watching the bus “get up speed” and cross the narrowly cleared road, partially fresh fill.
What an adventure!
On top of that, some people started getting sick the night before. Mel was really sick, and Anna (Forrest’s sister) was sick the night before. I watched them wash dishes before lunch and realized that they didn’t heat any water. I skipped lunch. We all ended up with some stomach issues after the trip, but Kat was really sick. I felt so bad for her.
Day 6&7 Pics: (Bonanza Ecological Reserve to Cusco)
