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Heather Moore. |
Puerto Maldonado airport The journey to Puerto Maldonado was uneventful but tiring. It took us three flights and almost 24 hours to travel from San Jose, CA to Puerto Maldonado, Peru. The arrival of a plane here is a big event!
From here, we embarked on a three hour ride up the Tambopata River in motorized canoes, to our first stop, Posados Amazonas lodge.
Our first sight of natural fauna were turtles resting on a log along the banks of the Tambopata River. If you look really closely, you can see a red butterfly resting on the uppermost turtle's nose. The butterflies are attracted to the salt excreted from the turtles' skin. Sources of salt are very rare in the Amazon. |
Upon our arrival at Posada Amazonas Lodge we were greeted with a warm welcome and a glass of refreshing freshly squeezed Passionfruit juice. This is without any doubt the best-tasting juice in the world!
Our living quarters at Posada Amazonas were spacious and luxurious, including a bathroom and shower all to ourselves. Of course, there was cold water only and no electric lights. However, the lanterns only added to the romance. Note that the room is open to the jungle - it is amazing how relaxing it is to fall asleep to the sounds of the rainforest. That's mosquito netting over the bed. It's draped tightly around the bed, creating a cozy little cocoon.
Since the soil in the rainforest is very thin, offering little depth for extensive roots, many trees have developed buttressed roots that help support the tree during periods of high wind. |
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