Welcome to Travel Tuesday! Today I’m going to walk you through Day 8 – Tour Tres Chimbadas Lake. This is a nine part series of my excursion to Peru. If you haven’t read the Travel Tuesday entries please take the time to check it out.
Just a quick recap:
Sunday, May 11, 2008 Day 1 - Flying from LAX to Lima, Peru
Monday, May 12 2008 Day 2 – Sightseeing in Lima
Tuesday, May 13, 2008 Day 3 - Flying from Lima to Cusco
Wednesday, May 14, 2008 Day 4 – Traveling by train to Machu Picchu
Thursday, May 15, 2008 Day 5 – Tour Pisac Market & Ollantaytambo
Friday, May 16, 2008 Day 6 – Tour City & Ruins Tour
Saturday, May 17, 2008 Day 7 – Flying to Puerto Maldonado, boat ride to Posada Amazonas
Sunday, May 18, 2008 Day 8 – Tour Tres Chimbadas Lake
Monday, May 19, 2008 Day 9 – Walking tour to the Clay Lick
Tuesday, May 20, 2008 Day 10 – Airfare One Way Puerto Maldonado to Lima then Lima to LAX
In this blog entry I’m going to walk you through my day 8 in Tour Tres Chimbadas Lake.
Let’s begin. Sunday, May 18, 2008 Day 8 – Tour Tres Chimbadas Lake
Before we begin I have to tell you about my first night sleeping in the Amazon. Let me recap how the night started. We returned from our walk to the Canopy Tower. It’s getting late and dark. We arrive back at the lodge for a very late dinner. By this time the lodge was getting close to turning off the lanterns! I’ve never been in this raw experience before so I’m a little scared. Remember my room is the furthest room into the Amazon. I’m going to bed with my flash light and a knife in my pocket. It’s hot and muggy and I’m going to sleeping with my clothes on. I climb into bed and noticed so many noises coming from all three sides of my room. I hear things falling or climbing in the trees outside. The only protection I have between me and the jungle is a mosquito and have you seen them? The net is thin!
I lay down in bed thinking it’s safe and sound as they told us nothing has happened to any guest. I’m worried about the bugs that might be in my bed as the net isn’t really flat against the bed. I’m afraid if I toss and turn in the middle of night like I do at home, I’m gonna let in some blood sucking insect. So already I can’t sleep. To top it all off I hear things flying around me. I don’t recall what bird flies at night.
Finally I fell alseep only to be woken up shortly what felt like an hour of sleep by Luis our guide. It’ s now 4:30 in the am (1 am California time). We need to head to the lake for day break. Birds and wildlife tend to get an early start.
Tres Chimbadas is thirty minutes by boat and forty five minutes hiking from Posada Amazonas.
Once there you will paddle around the lake in a catamaran, searching for the resident family of nine giant river otters (seen by 60% of our lake visitors) and other lakeside wildlife such as caiman, hoatzin and horned screamers. The otters are most active from dawn to eight or nine AM.
The southeastern part of Peru is arguably the most biodiverse place on the planet. This biological wealth extends to the river systems found in this tropical rainforest environment.
This biotope profile will look specifically at two oxbow lakes found along the Madre de Dios and Tambopata rivers in the Madre de Dios river system upstream of Puerto Maldonado.
Virtually all lakes in this part of the Amazon are oxbow lakes. An oxbow lake is a crescent-shaped lake formed when a river changes course. In lowland Amazonia where soft alluvial soils dominate, meandering rivers gradually shift due to erosion and sediment deposition.
Oxbow lakes typically form when loops in the river become so extreme that the main channel erodes a new straighter route, leaving the river bend apart from the river. As time passes, the oxbow lake becomes increasingly distant from the main channel. Water conditions change as the water stagnates.
The characteristics of an oxbow lake generally depend on its age. Younger oxbow lakes may be “flushed” by river currents, especially during the flood season. These lakes tend to be slightly more turbid (less transparent) and less acidic than older lakes more distant from the river channel.
Oxbow lakes in this region have considerable aquatic plant growth. Most conspicuous are free-floating plants including Eichhornia, Pistia, Salvinia, Victoria cruziana, and Bladderwort (Utricularia foliosa), which grows densely and extensively in the lakes.
Amazon sword plants (Echinodorus sp.), Vallisneria, Panicum, and Hymenachne were also present, though in lesser numbers. According to Amazon Headwaters, there are about 35 species of “aquatic herbs and shrubs that are characteristic of floodplain lakes of the rio Madre de Dios lowlands.”
Surrounding vegetation: The oxbow lake is surrounded by reeds. There are thick floating plants where the lake narrows.
Enough education about the lake.
Here two river otters are approaching.
As it gets closer, you might be able to see that it’s swimming backward eating a fish.
A true find was the Hoatzin. These birds are also known as the prehistoric bird.
Even saw a toucan from far across the lake.
Long nose bats.
Meet Keith and Sharon. They became my tour buddies from England.
Here are two very sweet sister also from England who I called sisters. They had the room next to mine. Every morning I would say good morning sisters. And each night good night sisters. Sweet ladies.
Here some of the guests caught piranhas. This one is a yellow belly piranha.
And then we have a blue belly piranha. We caught and then released. As a parting gift to the guides would place a leaf in the piranha’s mouth and take an imprint. These imprints were then given to the person who caught them. I so badly wanted to catch one but no luck. I was fascinated how the piranha’s attached my bait. It was incredible to see.
Watch out for this french girl. She has a horrible aim. She was the first person to catch a piranha. Do you know she’s never fished. Well she was so excited that she caught a piranha she raised her stick (literally a stick) high in the air and flung her piranha across the catamaran. That poor piranha never knew what was coming.
We heard and saw Scarlet Macaws.
We arrive to the lodge and had a nice lunch. I went back into my room showered in the freezing cold shower and put on some clean clothes as we were going to the clay lick next. On my way out of the room I heard some noise again coming from the trees. I looked and was pleasantly surprised to see Black headed Lion Tamarin.
I’ve heard if you see them you are one lucky person. I felt luck and privileged to see them. Look at the fingers this one has.
I loved watching them getting to the fruit.
I had lunch and so are they.
I was able to snap one photograph of a hummingbird. We really didn’t have much lounging around time. Of course I could of decided not to go on these excursions but then again I wasn’t on a relaxation vacation. So I didn’t have much time to set my tripod up and photograph the hummingbirds like I really wanted to.
Now we are off to the clay lick. I’ll explain what a clay lick is in my next blog. We arrive with no activity. Then suddenly we hear a few macaws overhead. Finally we see the Scarlet Macaws in the wild. They have come to the clay lick.
Since we saw just a few macaws our guide told us we’ll come back tomorrow and check again. Usually they see more around this time. So on our way back our guide told us to look up. What was that high in the canopy of the trees? It’s a bunch of Three-striped Night Monkeys.
After this we leave once again for a new adventure on a 20 minute boat drive downriver which leads you to a trail designed by the staff of the Centro Ñape. On our way we say more Scarlet Macaws feeding at a clay lick.
These photographs are taken from the boat.
The Centro Ñape is a communal organization that produces medicines out of forest plants and administers them to patients who choose their little clinic. They have produced a trail which explains the different medicinal (and other) uses of selected plants. Below is the Shaman. He is very knowledable as he walks us around the garden explaining the differnt plants he uses as medicine.
At this point it’s getting late. Some of the guests go inside the Shaman’s hut and test some herbal mixes. I stayed outside as i was pretty tired. Night is coming quickly and we hardly have any day light. We suddenly have bats flying around us. I ask our guide what bird flies at night. He said bird? So now I’m a little more scared to return to bed and sleep. Do I have bats in my room at night flying around my bed?
This concludes Day 8 at Tres Chimbadas Lake, the clay lick and visit with the shaman. Tomorrow we are suppose to see the clay lick again and have a walking tour to the “overlook”. Will I survive the night knowing I have bats flying around my room at night? So please come back and read all about it next week.
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