Some time in South America

Thursday 24 September

2009-10-26T19:58:00.003+11:00

The day started early (OK - it seemed early at the time, but now 6:30 seems positively lethargic) with a visit to Canberra Airport to pick up a hire car and go home to get our luggage, the small dog and Frances. All achieved!

The second stage was to drop small dog off with friends in Aranda who are going to look after her. This is such a great offer (it absolves us of the guilt that would come if she was in kennels for the 3 weeks) that I hope the small beast recognises this. Of course this is traded off, psychologically, by the potential fear that she will not recognise the alternative and we will have generous friends terrorised by a small pooch for 3 weeks. [Note from the future: all went well, to the extent that I think we are now seen by the small dog as far inferior hosts.]

Having done that we headed off to Sydney. That was basically a drive: the interesting item was how readily the car (a Toyota Camry) changed down to 3^rd gear when it met a small hill. This must do bad things for economy, although my subsequent calculations were that it still achieved at least the same mileage as our Subaru.

Having then booked into the hotel at Sydney Airport we used our status as officially old people in NSW by getting cheap train tickets - although the 'airport line" charges more than others - and heading off to (more or less) the CBD. The action there was:

Art Gallery of NSW (Ikats of Central Asia; excellent indigenous art);

Botanic Gardens (many brilliant flower beds; a tree “waratah”; hundreds, if not thousands, of fruit bats); and lots of birds harassing visitors!

Chinatown for a nice meal. The menu price was $18 but we got a special deal of $16. We thought: everywhere in Dixon St was offering the same deal.

But it was a very nice way to start the trip!

Friday 25 September

2009-10-26T19:56:00.001+11:00

The longest (calendar) day. Thanks to the International Date line we leave Sydney, heading for Santiago at 9:45 am on this date and arrive there at about noon on this date. Then try to stay awake until at least dark!

The update of this page was written at 4:45 pm on the 25th of September, Santiago time. Subjectively it was 8am on 26th, and I had not slept for something like 26 hours so what follows may be even less reliable than my usual stuff.

The flight from Sydney to Auckland was unremarkable. On arrival we had to get off the plane (with all our carry on kit) and go through security to get back into the waiting area. I suppose something has to be done to find work for security people. They were even kind enough to run me through the explosives swab rubbish! I noted that all the guards were pakeha: presumably all the Maori have jobs in Sydney. On getting to the departure gates I was impressed by the garbage bins: presumably the language on the signs reflects the target audience.

The flight on to Santiago was basically a long flight. Service was good and only bumpy for about 90 minutes in the middle. There were a good lot of games to play, and about 50 films. I enjoyed watching (again) Shrek and Madagascar but found the latest Terminator boring – basically a series of explosions not connected by a plot.

On arrival the only stupidity was the Chileans hiding their “reciprocity fee” counter so that we got to the front of the immigration queue and then had to go back to pay. This is apparently a well known problem - at least by regular visitors – but has thus far proven resistant to the application of common sense. No other problems and we found the recommended taxi folks. They did a good job of getting us to the Hotel (including taking us along a river - probably the Rio Mapoche - which meant I had several birds on my Chile list, including 3 lifers, before getting to the pub).

A minor problem was that the simplest route into the Hotel Vegas was blocked by a semi-erected marquee. As it turned out that the marquee was for a wine show (and the taxi fare was not increased by the 2km detour) I cut them a little slack

After checking in we went for a stroll around the town trying to find the Tourist Information Centrre. This included a visit to the Plaza del Arrmes (aka Plaza Meior) and the Cathedral. This was a baroque masterpiece worthy of any European city, and free to enter (cf Cusco in a few days time). They also had some info about a forthcoming parade for Carmen of the Snows. I have tried to find out more about this person but neither Google nor Wikipedia have been forthcoming.

Our foray included the Central Market, which wasn’t that good a market. However it did include a very nice café which dealt out a nice seafood lunch together with litres of Cristal (beer). Eventually we found the Information Centre – small and not that helpful – and wandered back towards the hotel.

It was interesting that there were lots of buskers all round the city. Some of these were jugglers at traffic lights – much more worthy of support than windscreen washers – or the usual acrobats but a pair of clown mimes were very clever. They involved passing pedestrians (or occasionally security guards) in their act and had a crowd of some hundreds, spread over an area about 100m long, watching their act.

I suspect we hit the pit about 6pm.

Saturday 26 September

2009-10-26T19:54:00.000+11:00

We actually lasted until 6pm on the first day, and then took an antihistamine to make sure we slept well despite the jetlag. It worked! Frances woke at about 3am but then went back to sleep while I slept more or less solidly until 7:15. There were a few bursts of people talking but otherwise very quiet.

We hit the streets at about 9am and wandered past Cerro (ie hill) Santa Lucia, and across the Rio Mapoche (the river named after the local indigenous folk). This is thoroughly canalised and griffiti'd and the only birds present were Kelp Gulls.

We then found our way to the funicular up through Parq Municipal. This was quite a fun ride up into low cloud. We could still see the ground but the large statue of the Virgin was hard to spot in the mist.

It was relatively tasteful for something like that - possibly because it is a religious artefact (we were told that a Pope travelled in the funicular on a visit to the city) rather than a commercial one (eg Big Anything in Australia).

Obvious everywhere were dogs. They all look in OK condition whether with owners (wheher owners were employed or homeless) or strays. No-one seemed to fuss about them.

We checked out the Virgin (and a couple of additions to the bird list) and the bano (aka dunnies - not free but you did get get handed a chunk of paper for your 150 pesos). Next we went for a walk shown on a small map we were given. This turned out to be a load of cobblers since it gave totally bogus view of the hills on the road. However the fog had lifted enough for good views over the huge city (6+m people) nestled in the foothills of the Andes.

Getting back down to the river level we went looking for the Archaeological Museum. This was made difficult by half the streets on the ground not being on the maps and, in the case of the tourist maps, the logos for the museums blotting out the street names. This led to my first Chilean oxymoron: a helpful map. We eventually found he place after about 40 minutes of searching. We discovered that we had walked straight past it in our early search - it looked like a courtyard for a restaurant.

It was joined with the Fine Arts Museum and while small the shows were quite good. It was a pleasure to find that people aged 60 were admitted free – and the staff didn't even check our passports - possibly a little rude for two well preserved seniors. Most of the Archaeological stuff was relatively recent, but rather well presented. The key works in the fine arts parts were drawings in pencil (lapiz) or ink (tinta)by Valentina Cruz. Interestingly it was open until 6pm rather than the 2pm stated in the Lonely Planet book.

We then went for lunch at an Italian joint which dealt out excellent pasta and vino tinto. It was a very busy place and justifiably so. We were only helped out once by a diner when our language didn't match that of the server. The place was opposite a bottiglia which subsequently served us a nice bottle of 2006 Merlot for about $6.50.

Next stop was the Belles Arts Museum, also open until 6pm so we went in for a squizz. Frances spotted a “no photos” sign which we observed until it became clear we were the only ones doing so. So the second Chilean oxymoron is an unused digital camera. There was a permanent display of Chilean art, which was OK, and a display of rather modern work by some guy who had moved to, an died in, Berlin. This was OK but not memorable. The oxymoron was evident in the behaviour of other punters.

The last sentence was a temporary condition when we met the special exhibition of works by Mario Irarrazzardi. He did things in bronze and copper. His two styles were basically works involving lots of figurines on a flat base or body parts on a large scale. They were very interesting and many photos were were taken.

After this Frances headed back to the hotel to crash while I went to find out why Avenida Bernardo O'Higgins was devoid of traffic. It turned out to be a political rally by (I think) the Gay Party: the signs on their truck were aboout 'diversity' but the flags were rainbow - see later references in Cusco - more flamboyant members of the crowd were certainly reminiscent of characters in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (and I am not referring to the bus). As well as the supporters of the party, and a good crop of rubberneckers, there were plenty of cops present but there was no grief – possibly because of oxymoron 2. Some of the activity by the crowd would certainly not have been permitted under some relatively recent regimes in Chile!

Sunday 27 September

2009-10-26T19:53:00.001+11:00

Day 3 in Santiago

My computer told me while typing this in the Vegas that a wireless network is in range. As further investigation gave the server as partisocialistchile I decided not to pursue the matter and to continue to use the free service available in the lobby.
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We had a rotten night's sleep for some reason. Frances recalls that we used to experience this for several nights when flying to New York. So tonight will be antihistamine revisited! When we did get to sleep it was for a reasonable time so we didn't wake until 8:45. Still in time for breakfast, where most of the other guests seem to be liable to be accused of being French.

The first part of the day was prowling the streets behind the Hotel as we kept seeing interesting things. The first of these was a distant church that looked quite impressive, but became less so as we got closer and the broken glass became evident. Inside it was relatively unadorned, and had a service happening so we didn't hang around.

The next thing spotted was an avenue of fountains with statuary at the end. This turned out to run through the offices of the public service agencies (including the Statistics Office). The avenue began at the site of the previous night's rally which made it in incongruous that the main merchandise on offer in the shops under the offices (at least at the end near the Treasury building) were armaments of nasty types. An example which has stuck in my mind was something that looked like an AK47 for Peso 190,000 which is about $US300! Long live the revolution?

We then wandered back to the Cathedral as there appeared to be a singalong mass on offer. There was a mass but no special singing seemed to happen so we took ourselves off to the Museum of PreColumbian Art which was very good. Far better than the Archaeological place we visited on the previous day. It basically covered every culture South of the Rio Grande and North of Antarctica from whenever to about 1491AD. They very kindly - and unusually -translated fair proportion of the signs into English. I doubt if this was much help to our fellow residents of the Vegas.

At some point during the day I noticed these dogs panhandling food from a passing cyclist. They appeared to be strays - they were there before the lady turned up - but as can be seen are in pretty good nick.

By the time we had finished there we were ready for a meal at the posh part of the market. This was very pleasant, after rejecting a hard sell by one lady we revisited a little guy (ie a typical Chilean) but who had told us yesterday that he had been to Australia three times. Frances had a seafood casserole, despite being told it was 'very heavy' which she interpreted as meaning too much for a woman. Indeed I had to assist, since I had finished my Gambeta or shrimps. Both very tasty, and washed down with half a bottle of Santa Rita Cabernet. We paid Ps1000 ($2.50) to the serenading musicians and when the bill was presented were advised clearly that it didn't include the waiter's tip. Fortunately for arithmetic Ps20k amounted to a tip very close to 10% and this seemed quite acceptable.

After a short walk along the river and back through a few streets we got to the Plaza del Armas (image left - note the banners on the front of the Cathedral) to watch the procession for Carmen of the Andes (who may or may not be a Saint, but is impossible to find out anything about on the net). It also involved references to Beata Laura Vicuna (see image below) and Santa Teresa de los Andes. (Who said this blog wasn't educational?) This turned out to be quite good fun watching a whole bunch of people and some brass bands get ready to march. I think they would have got off a lot sooner if the priest/archbishop(?) hadn't kept rabbiting on. After an hour there was still no sign of the icon of Carmen (see image at top) heading off, although the bands were doing little dance efforts and had shifted a few hundred metres by this time. As it was by now raining steadily we headed for the hotel.

Monday 28 September:

2009-10-26T19:49:00.000+11:00

As this is the first day of the formal trip I start off with a quote from the Itinerary: "Day 3 in Santiago and transfer to Lima. Accommodation in comfortable hotel immediately adjacent to airport."
On looking through the material we had acquired from Lonely Planet an interesting exhibit appeared to be the Parc des Escultures. This was about 3km from the Vegas and looked to be an interesting stroll along the banks of the Rio Mapoche. This was in fact delivered.

As it was now a Monday the traffic was somewhat busier than it had been over the weekend and the streets were full of punters heading off to their variousjobs. We strolled on enjoyed the sights: one of these was the official church of the Carabinieri (who seem to be the national, paramilitary, police as distinct from the traffic cops etc. A result of the reduced traffic presence over the weekend was that Frances was able to spot the snow covered Andes as we walked along: what a magnificent sight. We heard somewhere aong the way that there are ski-resorts within 40kkm of the centre of Santiago.

On arrival at the Sculptire Park we found it very good. Some images of representative sculptures are in the vicinity of this comment. There was also an 'arboretum-style' collection of trees from all over the world. I obtained some birding entertainment by the activities of a pair of Andean Plovers swooping a lady who was sweeping a path beside the river. Looking down into the river bed it was apparent that the cause of the birds concern was a nest with three eggs in it: since the nest was about 1m from the edge of the water I'd suggest the birds should be more worried about a rise in the level of the rushing torrent than a lady 5m up the bank!

It was pleasing that many Chileans appeared to be enjoying the Park. A number of them were school groups, but all of them were rather short, causing us to recollect how Ingrid, at 14, towered over the masses of Yucatan!

I added a further 2 species of birds to my life list during this stroll.

We decided that it would be nice to get a view of the snows from the top of the funicular, but on getting there it turned out to be closed and we didn't feel like ascending a 250m high hill by the alternate, foot powered route. So we headed off to the lower hill of Cerro Santa Lucia. It is still a hill. By the time we got to the top the increasing warmth of the day, and the volume of traffic had largely blotted out the mountains, but we had at least seen them.

At the foot of the hill we found a cafe offering lunch and enjoyed a pleasant lunch. I can't remember what it was, but the place was clearly aimed at office workers rather than the working class cafes we had eaten at on the first two days (or the expensive place from Sunday).

As we wandered back towards the Vegas we took in a display of photographs of grass roots soccer at the National Archives which was very interesting. Somewhat less exciting were exhibitions of Japanese calligraphy and "Dawin in Chile" at the National Library.

Our final stop was at the Colonial Culture Museum alongside the Church of St Francis. This is right near the Hotel Vegas and the Museum used to be a Franciscan Monastery which owned the entire Barrio Paris-Londres. (The word 'barrio' is interesting as I had heard gringos translate it as meaning 'latino ghetto', but in Santiago at least it is much closer to 'suburb'.)

The display was quite large and rather interesting, although quite heavily focussed on religious topics rather than political or social - of course in Chile the Church is pretty much woven into politics and society! The building was a splendid monastic edifice, with a great cloister full of shady trees. It used to have an orchard on the site where the Vegas (in Spanish "fertile plain') now stands. As a further aside I noticed than the doormat of the Vegas used to have 'Las' in front of 'Vegas' but that had been attempted to be scrubbed out!

Our cab to the airport appeared dead on time and whisked us away. We were surprised to find that it took about 1/3rd the time to get out there that it had to get in. There was a brief moment of panic when the cab pulled in to some dingy office building rather than the terminal, but it appeared to be something to do with picking up his instructions for the next job. Whatever. Within an hour of leaving the Vegas we were through all formalities and meeting with the rest of the group who were pleased to be approaching the end of their 8 hour holdover between flights.

The flight up to Lima was a little bumpy but the biggest problem was the arrogant nerk in front of me who slammed his seat right back as soon as the wheels left the ground. Presumably he was a macho dinosaur: there were no other examples of rudeness from anyone we encountered on the trip.

Arrival at Lima was without hassle for most of us. However our Australian leader, Ian, and his partner Lou found that QANTAS had lost their bags (and for some reason were going to take 3 days to get them on to the group: watch this blog for developments).

The itinerary was delivered as promised , although initial impressions of the hotel we were staying at - a Ramada - was not really good. It had the advantage of being very close to the airport (ie walk across a narrow service lane and you're there) but suffered from the noisiest lifts ever. The sound was rather like metal on metal every time the lift moved, which not only kept us awake but was also a matter of some concern about the maintenance of the elevators. After a visit from myself in dressing gown and a bad temper we were shifted at about 2am to a room where we couldn't hear the noise. I suspect we were unlucky - certainly their ticket price for rooms suggested that luxury should be the name of the game.

Tuesday 29 September:

2009-10-26T19:47:00.001+11:00

Itinerary: Morning flight Lima to Cuzco. Transfer from Cuzco to hotel out of town in dramatic and interesting nearby Sacred Valley, at over 2800 metres above sea level in the Andes. These wonderful mountains tower over us for the next few days. Option of short afternoon introductory walk for local birds, plants, culture and history. Hotel accommodation.

After a fairly leisurely start to the morning we walked back across the road to the airport for our flight to Cusco. This was very interesting as by chance we had Juan, our local guide who had kindly come to Lima to meet the group, sitting next to us. He was able to explain a few things to us (eg the long rows of buildings in the valleys on the Western side of the Andes were chook farms). The flight was OK – we did a few circuits to get in, but this seemed to be due to traffic not bad weather.

We were greeted by an Andean band in the termnal (much more appropriate than in Grand Central of New York or the Duomo in Florence), and a brass band in the car park where we boarded a bus. It took a little while to get to the main square, which was not surprising when one realised that greater Cusco is now some 600,000 people. The traffic was reasonably chaotic and it was stressed that pedestrians have no rights. (While that advice was very sound,in fact it was not unusual for drivers to stop for people to cross.) While pausing in the square to change money we saw some of Peru's very pretty national flower - the Cantua. Here is a legend about it from Wikipedia.

We had a great lunch at a restaurant owned by Juan's family, including our first taste of coca tea (purely to mitigate altitude sickness) then off towards the Sacred Valley.

We stopped en route at a cameloid farm where the owner had Llamas (pronounced yamas or jamas); alpacas, vicunas and guanocos. As evident from the photo (intended jut to be of Frances feedng an alpaca) they breed these animals. The place also sold local arts and crafts with the production facility visible on site.

Like most Peruvian houses this place had two ceramic bulls mounted on the roof to bring good luck. In some places the oners hedge their theistic luck by including a cross of some description. Had they not been likely to get broken over the trip we would certainly have acquired a pair of these.

This also provided an opportunity to get started on the Peruvian birds and I recorded 6 lifers at this stop.

We ended up driving through the dark on what seemed a narrow and twisty road. We finished going down a grotty track to a great hotel where we scored a very excellent room overlooking the river. A very tasty evening meal was presented and we were advised to be up at 6am for birding in the grounds.

Itinerary delivered - possibly overachieved - in every regard.

Wednesday 30 September:

2009-10-26T19:45:00.000+11:00

Itinerary: Sacred Valley. Visit to Inka ruins at Pisac, and tour of Inka town and ruins of Ollantaytambo. Both places will also afford rich natural history pickings, including the first of numerous hummingbirds! Pisac has excellent craft markets, where those who wish may indulge themselves. Accommodation as for last night.

30 Sept
I recorded having a terrible nights sleep, although I cannot now remember how bad it was. At 6am I certainly felt awful and considered staying in the hotel all day. When I found the rest of the group birding in the grounds of the hotel I said how bad I felt and that I was considering pulling out of the Inca Trail walk the next day. This was because both I felt bad and if I couldn't complete the walk it would be extremely inconvenient for the others to have to evacuate me. Juan asked if I was taking drugs for altitude and on my answering 'no' he provided some, which I immediately started to take.

As a result of my later start I missed 3 species of hummingbird (hereafter hummers) but got Torrent ducks in the river and a few others.

After breakfast I felt better (when in doubt, take drugs?) and hopped in the bus. I was still dubious about the Inca trail next day. Our first stop was where the river ran beside the road and we added several birds to the trip list. I was feeling better (when in doubt take drugs and add birds to one's life list?).

The area is rather prone to graffiti of a political nature. Nearly all houses had been tagged with political slogans - candidates for Alcade (ie Mayor) were particular prominent. In addition most towns/villages had some sign or slogan scorched onto the hillside above them.

On down the road - with down being a key point - looking at various bits of evidence of the Inca civilisation beside the road. There are still many terraces evident: Juan explained that the Incas were great experimenters and by building terraces at various levels up the (very steep) hillsides were able to create a great range of microclimates, which they used to develop some 2,000 varieties of potatoes. They were also skilled hydraulic engineers and their aqueducts which stretched for many kilometres from the snow melt areas to their fields were still in some cases operational. We got to the living Inca village of Ollantaytambo to look around: this included visiting a residents allotment (spotting a couple more lifers). His digging tool was most impressive - a design going back several centuries. Most of the group went inside his house - a highlight here was seeing his guinea pigs running about indoors. My health continued to gradually improve. (When in doubt take drugs, add birds to one's life list and get down to a lower altitude?) A little later we saw that some people had advanced a bit beyond the wooden spade approach, but not to the tractor level.

The main attraction in this town was the site of a battle between the Incas and the Spaniards. The Incas won, by the nifty trick of breaking a dam up in the mountains and the resulting torrent sweeping the Spaniards away. Juan had a graphic description of the masses gathered around the rim of cliffs making a noise as the signal for the dam to be broken. However they never finished the building they were creating, as evidenced by stones that were left out of final position.

If I remember it correctly - and I should have taken notes - there are three types of stone walls.

The 'crudest' is more or less like European dry stone walling: very robust but not particularly tightly finished. This is visible in the image at the left.

The finest type fit together with hardly a visible join. What makes this really remarkable is that the stones come from a quarry several kilometres from the building site. They were carved in sequence at the quarry and dragged over to the building including down one mountain and up another using ramps. They are up to 3 cubic metes in size (at about 2.7 tonnes per cubic metre) and fit together perfectly so it is not a matter of shoving it over a cliff and letting gravity do the work. When moving the rocks lumps were left on the outside to attach the ropes for dragging, and polished off when positioned Where the stones were not finally positioned they have a mortise and tenon arrangement precarved so resist earthquakes. I find to my astonishment I don't have a photograph of this from this locale: fortunately I can blame altitude sickness rather than simple daftness. Fortunately the image to the right - taken at Coricancha in Cusco a few days later - shows the fineness of the fit.

This work would be impressive with modern equipment. The Incas did it using water, leather and dust as their grinding agents. This led the group to make comments such as

"What did you do with your life?"
"Oh I finished grinding out the rock which my grandfather started working on!"

Our lunch was at cafe by organised by a 72 year old British lady who does good works with the local disadvantaged people. My burrito was very tasty. More coca tea, although by this stage I was feeling rather good: the Inca Trail was definitely back on the agenda!

After lunch we went back to Pisac market to buy stuff. Frances got jewelry and a small bag and bargained for both (so we only paid about twice what we should rather than the 4 times they started at!. With the bag I took a picture of the stall holder's kid so gave back a sole for "el nino". It was a tad worrying, from a social policy view, that this time of year is peak tourist season but obviously some of the stall holders had not sold a single thing all day.

I ended up with 11 lifers for the day, which was pretty good. Interestingly when we got back to the hotel - a bit higher than Ollantytambo - I started feeling a bit ratty again, which proved to me that altitude was probably the issue.

As usual Itinerary was well satisified!

Thursday 1 October:

2009-10-26T19:41:00.000+11:00

Itinerary: Sacred Valley to Aguas Calientes. Early departure by train to the fabled Machu Picchu with an option to get off the train early for an all-day 8km walk to Machu Picchu, starting from the valley floor and ascending to the beautiful site of Wiñay Wayna. Much of the walk is through cloud forest with an abundance of birds and orchids, culminating in a memorable first sight of the city of Machu Picchu from the Gate of the Sun, high above it. Those who choose not to do so will take a bus from Aguas Calientes up to Machu Picchu and meet the walkers at the Gate of the Sun. Accommodation in luxury hotel on the edge of Aguas Calientes, set in rainforest gardens alive with hummingbirds and orchids.
1 October
So this is what is meant by early departure! Up at 4:45 to have brekky and be packed up to take the bus at 5:45 to catch the train at Ollantytambo. Somehow it didn't seem that much of an issue - possibly this is due to the excitement about what is to follow?

There was no stopping for birds en route today: our driver was firmly pedal to the metal to make sure we caught the train. Some annoyance occurred when a few of the group had to get their bags weighed before getting on the train. This appeared to be a potential revenue raising effort by Orient Express who are now the concession holders for this line. (I will return later to the outcomes of privatisation of tourism services in Peru - do not expect a favourable comment!)

The train left exactly on time at 7:06. Who was it who made the Italian trains run on time?

The ride was for about an hour up a very spectacular gorge, with white water below the tracks for most of the time. We got off at the final stop to start our walk along a section of the Inca Trail, just doing a 1 day extract rather than the full 4 day epic. (Apart from the added length, the epic goes over a pass at 4200m which would add a major challenge.)

I think there were 9 of us, plus Juan and Ribellino ( a specialist in birds and the wildlife of Manu - later), doing the walk. The image to the left shows us at the Sungate , with the site of Macchu Pichu behind us. The others went with a further guide - Santiago - directly to Aguas Calientes and thence to Macchu Pichu. We had a small bit of difficulty getting going. This was not due to the checks by the managers of the track - the number of walkers is strictly controlled - since Ian and Juan had sorted that out well beforehand. Rather it was because there were birds in abundance at the start of the track. The first section of the walk climbed about 600m in some 4km (ie at an average slope of 1 in 7). It took about 3 hours, with many birds being seen, to get to the junction with the 4 day track from where, after a bano break, we went to an Inca site at Wiñay Wayna for lunch. The image to the left is looking down into the canyon including the hydro plant which provides power for at least Cusco Province.

Here Juan pointed out the difference between some of the terraces being concave (ie built into gullies) while others were convex (erected across spurs). Further experimentation into microclimate manipulation by the Incas. We were actually above the canopy for a fair bit of the forest around here so good looks at many birds. There lots of them, with a articular spectacle being the Collared Inca Hummingbird: the collar sparkled a brilliant gold when th light hit them at the right angle: no wonder some folk call them winged jewels!

Then we had the final 6km of undulating walking. We were slowed up somewhat by zillions of orchids of which 450 species have been identified in Macchu Pichu. After what we saw, I am inclined to say there are a bunch more yet to be described. Lots more birds. Also on the plant side were many begonias, and many bromeliads (which weren't so photogenic so haven't been included). As well as the example images included, here I have posted a page full in a separate post.

After about 5 km of undulations (why are undulations always upwards?) we got to a flight of very steep steps: the final defensive effort. At the top of these we:

Regained our breath; and
Nailed a few more birds.

As we were a tad late we didn't spend much time in the actual site of Macchu Pichu but caught the last bus down the rather exciting road (see image below). I was rather pleased to see a sticker referring to something about "high quality brakes" on the side of the bus. A very nice effort on this trip was the bus driver spotting a family taking the walking track down: he stopped to give a lift to la nina and her mum. When asked if the father could come as well this was agreed and there was no effort by the others in group to also jump on.

The hotel Inkaterra was excellent. This is more than could be said about the rest of the town, which was in Fiesta mode. This involved disgustingly loud, and very poor quality music being played until 5 am. It appears it was a celebration of the centenary (I think) of the founding of the town and thus unlikely to recur - especially if the Alcade receives the many complaints that should have been lodged!

As usual, the Itinerary was met in spades, doubled and redoubled!

Flowers of the Inca trail

2009-10-26T19:39:00.001+11:00

The aim of this post is to hold most of the images of orchids and other flowers seen on the Inca trail, rather than cluttering the text page. A link back to the text is at the bottom of this page. Those readers particularly interested in orchids may wish to check Peru Orchid Club

Back to text

Friday 2 October:

2009-10-26T19:37:00.000+11:00

Itinerary: Aguas Calientes to Cuzco. Return to Machu Picchu to explore further. Time to enjoy the offerings of our hotel, including birds and orchids. Late afternoon train trip back to Cuzco. Accommodation in comfortable friendly small hotel in old Cuzco.

2 October

The reader might recall that yesterday's entry concluded with a reference to the ruckus from the 'fiesta'. My field notes for this day start off with "After night from hell ..." . But enough already: I was up early to bird around the hotel. The view of the mist rising in the valley was very pleasant: so was realising we weren't going to have to walk up the mountain.

There were certainly lots of birds around the place. To begin with the site is densely planted with vegetation (of which more later) but not only had the hotel arranged many hummingbird feeders (poor picture attached) but they also placed bananas in some trees to attract the fruit eating birds such as tanagers (attached terrible image is a Blue-grey Tanager). I think it was at this point that we managed to spot a female Cock-of-the-Rock, calling in the middle of the accommodation area. Not as lurid as the males, but still a very nice bird. These activities kept myself and several others well busy until breakfast time. Even then the birds didn't stop: An Oropendola had built a nest across the river (and railway line) outside the breakfast area and was obliging enough to fly back and forth! To balance out these excitements I have included an image of the commonest bird (?) in South America - a Rufous-collared Sparrow

At this point the service from the hotel descended a little. First they gave me a bill for some wine we had consumed the previous night showing the cost of the wine, the propino (aka tip or in this case more like a service charge) and a USD10 donation. On reading more closely the donation was voluntary, but it was presented in a very misleading fashion, and the price of the wine actually came down to pretty much what was on the menu but it still seemed a rather poor way of going about things.

It then emerged that the person on the desk knew nothing about any arrangement for our baggage to be stored until we got back later in the day. I managed to find my assertive side (also known as the demon king from Hades) and gave her a fairly firm bit of advice. According to other members of the group this softened her up nicely for them. It was just as well I didn't demand to see the Hotel manager, as that was who I was talking to (rather than someone on work experience as I had believed)! Seeking to be fair, she had endured 2 nights of fiesta rather than 1, so was probably not in the best mental state! As usual Juan appeared and sorted everything out.

We then headed off in buses up the road to Macchu Pichu: it still seemed quite hairy. While some stayed in the lower points of the site, the keen walkers followed Juan up to a high point from which we looked down over the whole site for a very interesting talk about the history of the site and the use of many of the buildings that could be seen. The image is of of a doorway which is the only entrance into the place from the Inca Trail: the door-posts themselves show a much higher quality of workmanship since they had to withstand potential attacks.The most fascinating point for me is that Bingham was actually looking for a mythical lost city of the Incas when he was shown this site, which was totally overgrown. Thus one of the, if not 'the', most famous archaeological sites in the world was found by serendipity. After this presentation - which included a whole lotta questions from the audience, including your correspondent, we joined the writhing hordes at the site and did some up close inspecting.

We also spotted some animals: on the left a vicuna (one of many at the site) and to the right a Spiny-tailed Lizard, which saved me from constipation by jumping off the rocks and landing on my foot.

After about a couple of hours we farewelled the site and went to put on some calories at an excellent buffet lunch in the town. All food in Peru is excellent!

The next item was a tour of the orchids in the grounds of the hotel. While many/most of these have been planted they are all native to the area. Needless to say myself and a couple of others also kept a weather eye open for birds and were able to spot a Highland mot-mot. When asked how to tell the difference to the Blue-crowned motmot the hotel guide replied "DNA!". The orchid tour covered a good array of species, although I suspect the presentation was aimed at folk with far less knowledge of natural history than our group.

We managed a little more birding before wandering down to the station to catch our train back to Ollantytambo. It appears that since the line was privatised very few trains now go all the way back to Cusco. The train ride, and subsequent bus trip from Ollantytambo back to Cusco, were done after nightfall, but by the time we got to the bus the moon had risen so it became a very romantic ride back through the mountains.

We found our way to the hotel and despite its rather quaint arrangement of rooms (the place is on about 4 levels linked by steps and pathways) found our rooms and settled in for a good night's kip! The image to the right was taken the next morning - even in Cusco the moonlight light isn't that bright.

It is becoming almost unnecessary to say so, but itinerary was delivered as usual.

Saturday 3 October:

2009-10-26T19:35:00.000+11:00

Itinerary: Around Cuzco. A culturally focussed day; morning tour to the historic Cathedral of Cuzco and then to the Inka Sun Temple, Coricancha. Afternoon tour to Sacsayhuaman Inka site followed by a walk down to the city; this will certainly produce more birds and flowers. Accommodation as for last night.

3 October

We had a very good nights sleep. We woke at 7:15, possibly because of the conversations of the citizens of Cusco going about their business in the street behind the hotel. The image to the left is of the interesting view from our window. We were having a relaxed day, with the morning free to do as we needed. So we had a relaxed breakfast and sorted out our luggage - especially since this was an opportunity to get some laundry done, rather than hand washing stuff in basins and showers.

Relaxed breakfast and sorted out room. We also handed in some laundry to the hotel management. (I normally avoid such services like the plague, as the typical 'developed' world hotel charge like slightly wounded, but very annoyed, bulls. However in this case it was charged by weight rather than by the item and was extremely good value: were it not for the postage they'd be getting my business from Australia.)

We wandered to Cathedral (in the Plaza Meior at the bottom of our street) looking to see - in particular - the image of a black Christ at a Last Supper with barbecued guinea-pig as the main course. We then found it was 25 Soles (about $A8) to enter for tourism. It was free to go to Mass, but the last Mass had finished before we got there. Pass. Apparently the Church has outsourced their tourism activities to an offshore company - seen as rather an ordinary act by the average Peruvian. I have to agree - when the Catholic Church is running short of money then there really is a Global Financial Crisis.

Crossing a road we come to another good looking Church. Cast a rock at the corvids: they also are charging! However they have a Mass (free - well OK, one expects the collection plate to appear) at noon, which fits in with our schedule, so we decide to come back then to hear the Word and to check out the music.

We then wandered off up one of the main streets towards some interesting looking buildings. Many of the buildings were very interesting - they seem to have preserved a lot of the older places and the more modern ones seem to have been done in a sympathetic style rather than a concrete and glass high-rise. I hope that this continnues. A highlight was the number of enclosed balconies: before leaving we heard the Ambassador of Peru give a presentation about Peruvian culture and he made much of these balconies. There were also people walking the streets in national costume: while some of these were holding puppies (or kid goats or baby llamas) for the tourists to photograph others semed to be just Andeans going about their business This tourist took a snap of the latter (but felt bad - OK not really bad) about such imperialist actions.

After a few hundred metres we ended up at the Central Market. This was really great. It was a real market, where the citizens come to do their buying and selling rather than - as at Pisak - a tourist oriented affair. There were a few souvenir places - Frances reckoned the prices were 1/3rd of Pisak for similar article (a set of wooden pipes being the case in point) - but 95% of the stalls were aimed at the locals.

Thus the stall where Frances got gloves, socks and a beanie was also serving local people buying material and their own clothing. A pleasure doing business there.

We then strolled back to Church #2. As we entered a nun spoke sternly to us about "No turismo." to which we replied "Mass" and took our seats . The church was very ornate - in fact all the Churches we visited tended towards the baroque style. {The thought has just occurred to me that, given most public buildings have signs about security during earthquakes - and the history of the site we visit in the aftenoon - building Gothic style edifices would not be sensible. It would however seem to offer chances to rebuild them every few years! Perhaps that is why they need to charge tourists?} Once the service got underway it was quite interesting in comparison to what little your pagan author knows about the Mass rites (largely derived form the works of people such as Verdi and Faure). Actually those gentlemen were some of the few composers whose work didn't feature. The first offering by the choir was set to the "Ode to Joy" from Beethoven's 9th Symphony: this is lovely music and was well perfomed but I have not heard it in a Mass before. Neither have I previously heard the next musical item - to the tune of Johns Brown's Body - in this context! Perhaps they had it confused with the battle-hymn of the Republic? Of course,

as the service was in Spanish the words to the tunes may have been completely different to those I associate with the tunes; and
the folk are welcome to sing whatever they want!

We had to leave before proceedings were complete to meet up with the rest of the group for lunch. This was at a classy restaurant in the square and was as usual excellent. My main course was roast alpaca, which was pleasant but not so far as my memory or my notes record noticeably different to any other red meat. I do have a memory of chocolate cake being a featured item in the dessert direction.

In many of the places we have visited we have acquired wooden crucifixes as souvenirs. They are generally locally made and can reflect traditions. So, while the rest of the group headed off to scope out the market for 30 minutes or so we went off to find a shop run by nuns at which we could acquire a cross. Finding the shop was a bit of a challenge.

Getting to the position Juan had marked on a map all we could fnd was a museum and a cafe. I then noticed a library where I thought I'd find helpful people who could speak English and they'd be able to point out the shop. This theory scored 2 out of 3: it was the speaking English bit that was the deficiency. I was able to explain that I wanted to buy something made of wood but my rendition of various words for 'cross' got nowhere. So it is improvisation time: I held out my arms, rolled my head to on side and groaned - Bingo! It turned out the shop was in the courtyard outside the Museum.

So we went there to find a sign saying they opened at 3pm: a helpful young lad came along and was - with a little help frm his English-speaking friend - able to understand what we wanted. It was explained that the Order was closed and that we should wait a while. The young lad then hammered on the door and eventually a vertically challenged but temporally over-endowed person in nun's clothes (and apparently a bad temper) appeared scowled and said something to the lad. The door was then closed and it was indicated we should wait. As the time at which we should rejoin the rest of the group neared the lad reappeared and hammered on the door again. This time the short, in stature and temper, person was very brief. It seems she said "No." and meant it. Reflecting on this episode, if anyone is thinking of making a movie of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series (see especially the entry for Granny Weatherwax under 'Witches') I could solve one casting problem right off the (old) bat.

After a little time in the street outside Coricancha watching people (llama photo opportunistas, taxi drivers, cops, tourists) the rest of the group turned up. I suspect that a few stalls in the market had to send out for additional supplies! Again Juan gave a very good explanation of what the temple was, how it was laid out and the masonry involved. As noted in the wiki the Dominican church on the site did not survive a sismo (earthquake) but most of the remaining Incan material did - apart from one area which took a direct hit from a rapidly descending, and quantitatively significant, proportion of the Dominican edifice. It was intriguing that one couldn't photograph the Catholic stuff but could the Incan remains.

Our final bit of business for the day was to take the bus up the hill to Alto Cusco where there was a further Inca site. This was primariy a parade ground (although it looked like a Mayan ball-game court) with a fortress to one side. Yet again the quality of the mason's wrk was astonishing as were the logistics of shlepping these huge rocks - several cubic metres at 2.7 tonnes per cube - some 20kms from the quarry. I think it was here that Juan commented that one of the techniques the Incas used was to water the ramps they built so that ice formed. With the work involved anything that made the rocks move more easily must have been welcomed. {A parenthesis is about the concept of labour tax. The upper classes of Incas provided a whole lot of support services for the lower orders. The lower ones repaid this in whatever way they could - often this would be by providing their labour as a form of tax payment. This was all recorded by a system of knotted strings: unfortunately no-one now knows how to interpret the strings.}

As well as wonder about the logistics of the site and the complexities of the society a noticeable feature was that it was damn cold. I didn't expect to be cold only 12 degrees South of the equator, but I guess 3400 metres of altitude plus a lazy wind (cant be bothered going round you so goes straight through) will induce some chilliness. We did get a great view of a snowy mountain overlooking the Sacred Valley and ended by seeing the moonrise!

After this we headed back into town for yet another excellent meal. I was a bit worried when it appeared we were heading for the convent, but we passed right on by and her-in-cloisters stayed right there!

The itinerary got adjusted a bit today, but the changes were all very positive!

Sunday 4 October:

2009-10-26T19:33:00.000+11:00

Itinerary: Cuzco to Manu Cloud Zone. The beginning of our Manu adventure. Manu is a vast rainforest area east of the Andes, including the mountain slopes and Amazon lowlands. Early start to visit the teeming wetland of Huacarpay lagoon before driving into the eastern Cordillera of the Andes. A spectacular drive into the high puna grasslands, to cross the Andes 4000 metres above sea level. At the summit we enter the Manu Biosphere Reserve and descend into the rich cloud forest to explore this beautiful habitat 3000 metres above sea level. Accommodation in rainforest lodge.

We were up early ( I think this meant 5am) for breakfast and a start to a long day of travel. After munching my eggs I was standing in the street watching Cusco go by when a strange bus appeared reversing down the street. (The reversing bit always happened: it seemed to be because the street is narrow outside the Hotel so the bus can't stop there and it is one way so they can't come down forwards.) The bus looked different: this is because it was different - we were taking on a new driver who knew the roads we were about to embark on, and a more powerful bus was to be used.

Another couple of new faces also appeared. As well as an extra guide - Janice - who was required by the Government with a group our size in the Manu Biosphere we scored a co-driver and a little lad wearing a Policia National cap. I assumed he was a cop who wanted a lift somewhere and thus, as in Tanzania he was given a lift. From this starting point I was not surprised when he hopped off the bus a few kilometres down the road. We were told this was a town specialising in baking bread, but I was surprised when the cop reappeared with a big bag of loaves and hopped back on the bus. On asking a couple of questions - possibly a useful way of getting answers - it emerged he was our cook! Appallingly, I never learnt his name. So I shall call him Mandrake after the magician in a cartoon strip: this guy could consistently produce amazing meals for 20 people out of a small esky.

After loading up on bread our first birding stop is a large wetland opposite an archaeological site. We immediately spot a range of ducks and some small reed-dwelling birds. The latter behave just like small reed-dwelling birds in Australia and the US (ie dive into the reeds and lurk there making small noises and rustling the reeds). Eventually they lost the plot and emerged, providing several ticks for the group list and some megaticks for my life list.

We then rejoined the bus and made it about 300m down the road before one of the guides - probably the beady eyed Rivellino - spotted a Bearded Mountaineer in some bushes. This is not someone who looks like me, but a rare(ish) species of hummingbird most likely to be seen in this area. After some time searching for the bird - with some success (see image to the right) - and noting a few extra herons and shorebirds in the wetland we pressed on to a viewing tower. This gave a good view over a broad expanse of water but was apparently a bit fragile!

Our final stop on the wetland was at a bano at a cafe! in addition to this stop which was greatly welcomed by many of the party a number of interesting birds were spotted feeding on theground alongside the wetland. Some traditional canoes were being used for fishing: Apparently these last for about a year, after which the operator simply cuts some more reeds and makes another one! It was not stated how long the recreational swan/Disney boats last for. As we moved off it was apparent that the weekend family fun groups were beginning to move in: not so good for birders but rather promising for the boat and cafe concessions.

At this point Rivellino commented that we should enjoy the good road because it is about to end. From here on it will be gravel and bumpy. We crossed a small river and stared on the dirt road. The words steep, narrow and switchbacks also spring to mind when contemplating this track. For this leg I was sitting on the side of the bus away from the drop - which was a tad challenging since the road and the bus were of similar dimensions. Juan commented that "This is why you have a driver who is an expert on these roads." A very sound comment. Whenever a vehicle was encountered coming the other way one had to stop and reverse until a passing place was found. I commented at the time that this road made the route out of Ngorongoro Crater seem like a freeway! The image to the right comes from a bit later in the day but illustrates these points - readers with good eyesight (or excellent screen resolution) will notice the road on the far side of the valley! The overall direction of the road was upwards - we were climbing from about 3400m to our high point of 4200m.

There were a few settlements up here (albeit with next to no trees). At the biggest of these a large market was in position leading the driver to sort out a traffic jam and then drive round the back of the village. This gave us a look at a largeish herd of llamas (at this altitude pronounced 'jamas' rather than 'yamas' - only a newbie would say 'lamas' unless referring to Tibetan priests). I established that there is reticulated electricity to all these places, which must involve astonishing logistics in setting up the lines. Also surprisingly most of the power came from the hydroelectric station where we started our walk on the Inca trail. I indulged myself in a little more cultural imperialism to snap the folk in a truck waiting to go home from the market.

We took lunch close to the high point on the road - in a pine forest for goodness sake - and noticed a few other vehicles on the road. As we set off we got great views of a Caracara, but felt that was about all we would see.

After several more kilometres we got down to a small town beside a river. Yet again a market was happening here. So was a bano, although on a scale of 1 to 10 it was generally rated as for emergency use only! As we got into the bus we found our driver being invited to assist the Policia National with their enquiries. After this discussion had gone on for a while Juan went off to see what the issue was and it turned out there had been a robbery in the area recently so the cops were checking things out a little more than they used to. No biggie.

The Peruvian truck way out of town was to go back up and across an alleged ford. The gringo bus way out of town was across a bridge that seemed to have been blocked off for repairs. My view was that the dodgy bridge was the better option, but I did enjoy Ron's question as to "Why isn't Juan getting back on the bus?" after opening up the barricade! As we started to go up another range in the cordillera Juan pointed out that the River we were on went NE to Colombia and then joined the main Amazon. On the other side of the ridge the rivers all flowed SE to Bolivia before joining the Amazon. {I was interested that the source of the Amazon was near Arequipa, some hundreds of kms south of Lima.}

After grinding our way up the ridge we got to some more pine forest where the big excitement was Andean Flickers. Although woodpeckers we got our best views of them perched on dry sandy ridges above the forest.

A tad later we found ourselves at some intriguing pre-Incan tombs. They looked like old fashioned beehives - and I was absorbed with the whole scene so didn't really register too much about them. Shime, shime.

An interesting aspect of the agriculture up here was the use of square cross-section furrows. When I asked Juan about this he explained it was more micro-climate adjustment. By keeping the furrows damp it slightly raises the humidity and temperature both of which promote plant growth. The crop is planted on top of the furrows rather than in the trench - presumably it is too soggy down there. I didn't note, and now can't remember, if this is the result of an Inca experiment or something that has been developed more recently.

Again we head upwards towards the entrance to the Biosphere. This appeared to be very cloudy - possibly this is why the area is biologically known as cloud forest? It was also 'elfin forest' since the trees were relatively low compared to the giants of the rain forest we are to meet later. several new birds and some nice orchids were met in the gloom of the cloud and the late afternoon as we were at the entrance. The weirdness was the behaviour of some visitors with a 4WD and some dogs which rioted around the place (and the appearance of a couple of guys on mountain bikes - and body armour - who just disappeared into the cloud). {WRT the latter from some folk we spoke to on the flight back home there seems to be quite an industry in going mountain biking in the Andes: t-shirts about 'the most dangerous road in the world' were evident.} The image below could well be titled "Welcome to Manu".

On arrival at the lodge (Acca Lodge) everyone - especially our leaders - got a shock in that the accommodation was shared mini-dorms rather than separate rooms. It seemed that this was what was provided at the place which was a research centre at which we were very privileged to be able to stay. Whatever: by this time we all knew one another well enough to survive the experience. Any discomfort was mitigated by a most excellent meal by Mandrake!

And we had a good nights sleep despite - in my case - being in an upper bunk. So overall the Itinerary was well satisfied.

Monday 5 October: Happy Birthday to ME

2009-10-26T19:31:00.001+11:00

Itinerary: San Pedro area. Early start to see the Cock-of-the-Rock from a viewing platform above the mating display area (lek), one of the most glorious exhibitions in the whole world of nature. Day spent in the cloud forest viewing wildlife; Woolly Monkeys are a good chance here. Accommodation in a rainforest lodge further down the mountain – 1500masl.

The itinerary got a tad discombobulated here as the Cock-of-the-Rock viewing platform was scheduled for the following day, but as will be revealed it didn't matter at all. At the start of the day I did not 'fess up to the birthdayness of the date even though another member had done so the previous day. I just didn't want a fuss made (not that it was likely).
After a good nights sleep, despite my elevated position - we did have an earlyish start to walk down the road from Acca Lodge to see what was around. My notes record many good birds with Scarlet-bellied Mountain-tanager the pick for most lurid (possibly of the trip, at least in the single-bird category). {As a parenthesis it is noted that Peruvian birds are the sort of thing that keeps the hyphen and capitalisation police on their toes. It took me about 4 goes to get avibase to deliver that page.} Unusually, there is only one image in that avibase page but it hints at supporting my claim of luridicity. I have included a really bad photo - taken by me - of a Golden-collared Tanager which was a luridness contender.

On getting back to the accommodation we had our first experience with Mandrake's approach to breakfast. A very good spread with the chocolate porridge being an addition to most people's dietary experience, but a very well worthwhile one I might say. The group also introduced an innovation to an innovation in the shape of chocolate porridge sandwich: no names, no pack-drill but the perpetrator of this cholestrerol enhancing device survived the experience.

After checking out the view - a great set of interlocking spurs showing no glaciation in this valley - We then rumbled off to explore one of the tracks hacked into the forest by the researchers. To say they had done a lot of work on this is a massive understatement. While the elfin forest is not high is is thick and the hillside the track traversed was not a gentle slope. A key feature of the forest was the absolute profusion of epiphytes, mainly orchids and bromeliads growing on the trees. The first few kilometres were not that good for birds- I'm not sure they could fit their wings through the vegetation - but the diversity and spectacle of the plants made up for this. I have again put my plant photographs on separate page.

Towards the end of the walk I did quietly comment to Ian that the trail seems to have a distinct bias in terms of down. He assured me that we were walking down to rejoin the bus before riding back up to the lodge. At about this point the birding picked up quite a lot with several elfin forest specials entering the list. This had the usual effect of our speed dropping quite a bit and we were greeted with some applause when we finally rejoined the non-birder members of the team. Sorry, guys.

After a large lunch we were back on the road again. This time I was on the side which got a good - but not too close - look at the rivers. I noted that the road got rather thin on my side. I definitely did not think about the great movie The_Wages_of_Fear during this part of the trip. This was particularly the case when the driver negotiated the site of the occasional landslide, giving a clear view of several elements of the switchbacks. There were also a few tunnels t be negotiated where one of the tributary streams and a rock outcrop coincided. This was not a problem for our bus but we did wonder at times how some of the trucks made it through them. Juan commented that the drivers were all very experienced and knew what they could get through. The image is of a bit of road just after going through a tunnel - our bus is the more distant one (I had permission from the leaders to go back to take this shot!) .

Certainly our driver was another magician in terms of knowing the territory and what he could do safely. The classic exposition of this was when he met a wider than usual truck in a narrower than usual bit of road. He hopped out and walked to the back of the pull off area on to whih he'd have to reverse. On getting to the edge he jumped up and down a few times and decided where it was save to go. He then built a small cairn which he could see through his mirror and backed up to it. The truck driver wanted him to go back further but got no reaction, so he had to go closer to the uphill cliff. Tough. As I have said our driver was brilliant.

As well as stopping for oncoming traffic we also stopped for good birds. One of these was a Highland Mot-mot (see left, and I am not at all sure of the correct hyphenation there) and the final one was for a lek of Cock-of-the-Rock (hyphenation all present and correct, but I have no idea of the plural for this species. Options include:

Cocks-of-the-Rock;
Cock-of-the-Rocks; and
Cocks-of-the-Rocks.

Does it matter? Probably not. I saw a Cock-of-the-Rock lek on my birthday as promised by the Itineraray and as far as I am concerned that is the extremely happy end of the story.

We ended up at the Cock-of-the-Rock lodge just as evening fell. In addition to the vino tinto which Juan had thoughtfully brought along this place had enough electricity from its solar system to sell cerveza fria (ie cold beer). Magic.

A slight annoyance was the behaviour of one member of another group staying at the lodge. He seemed to be a gear-freak who left his (probably expensive) kit strewn all over the communal area. This became an issue when he couldn't locate his flashlight. Instead of assuming he had misplaced it he immediately seemed to start pointing comments at our group that we had something to do with the disappearance of his "$150 flashlight". My first thought was that he defined 'ugly American' and my second was that anyone who spent $150 on a flashlight was a dickhead anyway.

Whatever. Another great meal and and a good evening.

Orchids and other plants of Acca Lodge

2009-10-26T19:30:00.000+11:00

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Tuesday 6 October:

2009-10-26T19:29:00.000+11:00

Itinerary: San Pedro to Atalaya. Continue descending through forest and farmland to the river port of Atalaya, where we board our large, covered, motorised canoes and head down the Alto Madre de Dios River to our riverside lodge. The canoes give excellent opportunities for watching wildlife, including numerous birds and monkeys; Red Howlers, Dusky Titis, Capuchins and Squirrel Monkeys are all present here. (Whenever we are on the river there will be two canoes, travelling close together, with a guide in each.) Accommodation in Amaru Mayu rainforest lodge.

The discombobulation of yesterday was resolved today as we got up before dawn to go to a platform overloking the lek site. We were cautioned to be very quiet as we approached the platform to avoid scaring off the birds. The reason the Lodge doesn't have a generator is because the Government fears that the noise of such a device will scare off the birds.

To say the least it was a brilliant time looking down n these bizarre birds displaying and competing with each other. The flashlight kid was there,but had by now stopped whinging about his torch - probably means he found it in his cabin. Interestingly the imagery of the birds focuses very much on the orange head, prominent eye and weird headpiece. What struck me, and I believe several others of the team, was the black and grey patterning on the wings. This gave a really strange effect, especially when the birds were in flight. Here is a link to wikipedia.

After this we walked on up the road to see what birds were around. After about 500m we came across an exposed cliff face with a fair amount of surrounding vegetation. My notes suggest that I added 14 life-birds to my list at this spot, and I am fairly sure I didn't get some of the birds. There were tanagers of many species and various other genera. An astonishing spot - Janice commented that she had never seen it working that well, so I am just pleased it was that day. After an hour or so we left and wandered back down for breakfast.

After breakfast I was excited to find some Tropical Kingbirds perched in a tree in the grounds. It was explained politely that these would be common on the rivers. This is an understatement!! There was also occasional excitement as hummingbirds of various species attended the many feeders hung outside the lounge/dining area.

We began our journey this day on foot, walking about 300m down the road to the next lodge who allowed us on the grounds to look at their hummingbird feeders, which duly delivered several species. At some point in this we wandered over a picturesque bridge (unpopulated by trolls as far as I could tell). We were told the story from the previous year of a member of a large tour group (about 20 folk) who came down there one evening trying to catch butterflies. {On reflection, one wonders what the nerk was doing catching wildlife in this area - OK it isn't a National Park but as part of a biosphere reserve ... He was probably a relative of the flashlight kid.} It seems that the powers that be also objected to his activities, because his group noticed he wasn't around at breakfast the next morning. His body was found in the river, about 10m below the road.

Back on the bus for a further2 hours. This was interupted by spotting 'a raptor' above the trees. This turned out to be a kettle of Swallow-tailed Kites soaring above, and perching on, the canopy. I have spent quite a lot of time in the Southern US and Mexico looking for these birds so to see them like this was really nice.

An interesting aspect of this part of the drive was the way the driver angled across the many watercourse going across the road on bends: the reason for this was clear when thedrain was a bit deeper than usual - the tail of the bus would hit the ground with a very loud graunch. Afetr such events the driver would hop out to inspect the back of the bus and at one point returned with a chunk of fibreglass in his hand.{It wasn't clear if that was to facilitate later repairs or just some form of evidence.} The road was being worked on at this point, including both redoing the surface with modern machinery and hacking back the jungle with both machetes and more advanced equipment. Juan said that the workers stay in these camps for 3 weeks and then go back to town (probably Cusco) for a couple of weeks. Another entry on the list of jobs that others are welcome to have.

Soon after this we came out of the forest into farmland. The first village we came to was said to specialise in butterfly trapping for the souvenir trade. My memory is that it used to be a forestry settlement but all the desirable trees have been taken.

We didn't stop there, but did so at a coca plantation on the outskirts of the settlement. This was part of the 20,000 Ha of legal coca rather than the 80,000 Ha of illegal (perhaps extra-legal is a better term?) plantation. We had considerable information from Rivellino - whose background is in this area - about how the crop is harvested and how cocaine is made. It seems that there are few, if any, crops which can compete with the returns from the drug trade, and that some of those in the agencies which should be controlling the crop were in cahoots with the dealers (eg flights shipping out drugs were permitted to land at a military airstrip for a fee of USD12k - presumably not charged to an American Express Card). It was suggested that any large new cars or big motorbikes were an indicator that the driver of the vehicle was in some way part of the drug trade.

Butterflies were everywhere at this stop (as they continued to be throughout the rest of the trip). At some point a really big one landed on my arm to suck up sweat and I was astonished to actually be able to feel its proboscis tapping my skin. Juan commented that the insects seem to be attracted to animal excretory products, and on the river a mass of butterflies faraway from a human settlement might mean that a Jaguar had piddled there.

We moved right along to a riverside town (Kosnipata) for lunch. The meal was taken at tables in a small cafe and the drinks (Inka Cola - looks as though it has already been drunk, but tastes quite nice - and similar beverages) were purchased from the cafe but the food came out of Mandrake's magic box. We didn't realise the town was riverside until a Large-billed Tern was seen flying down the main street. The town looked pretty much like frontier towns anywhere, although the park in the middle of the main square added a few more species to the trip including our first macaw as a pair of Chestnut-fronted Macaws perched in a tree. As well as the birds we saw a bit of life - and death, as a funeral procession came by - in the town which was interesting as always. There was a fair movement of kids to and from school as lunchtime is when the morning shift ends and the afternoon lot take up their duties.

We crossed over the river on a large bridge and rumbled off on the last stretch of the road. The first truck we encountered was very much 'local traffic': not only were its tyres down to the canvas but it was being driven very slowly, possibly to keep pace with the owner's dog running alongside! It managed to overtake us as we stopped to peer at a bird in the foliage. For the first time we encountered a truck being driven by a prat: a convoy of three gravel trucks appeared at high speed and got the brakes thoroughly locked up. They stopped in time, fortunately, and the crossing was made. A few km later they appeared behind us with much horn blowing requesting that they overtake. It seems that being psychotic is a worldwide prerequisite for employment in this occupation.

After a pause at a lookout out over the lowlands and the 'port' we got down to the river and onto our boat with its nice blue roof. Rather than us travel in two boats all the people went into one boat and the luggage (plus Mandrake's magical eskies) went into the other. This first leg was only 10 minutes, but the river was fairly ripping along so I - as a very poor swimmer - was pleased to see that life jackets were provided.

The lodge for this night was Amazonas Lodge and was about a 10 minute walk from the river. Whelbarrows were available for the staff to schlep the luggage up to the lodge. The amount of hummingbird activity was astonishing with much of it associated with the flowering bushes as well as the many feeders. Electricity was available but the banos were communal!

After settling in some of us went for a stroll to a nearby lagoon where we added about 5 species to the list. A highlight was the first Hoatzin of the trip. I was really excited, since I thought they were so exotic looking they much be rare: in fact they are bog-common. But still interesting and good to look at. Evening meal was then taken before a walk back to the lagoon to try to spot caiman. This was achieved, with a very small specimen found right against the bank: mum's eyeshine was also seen on the far side. We also saw a few frogs as shown to the left.

An excellent day.

Butterflies and other animals

2009-10-26T19:28:00.001+11:00

This page records the butterflies (and any other animals) seen on the trip and not included elsewhere.

This is a moth. We were told that, biologically butterflies are a more or less arbitrary subset of moths

I did say 'other animals"!

Back to text

Wednesday 7 October:

2009-10-26T19:27:00.000+11:00

Itinerary: Amaru Mayu to Yanayacu Lodge. Optional early morning boat trip to a clay lick (collpa), where many species of parrots, including macaws, visit for mineral and salt supplements to their diet. Later we shall leave to travel further into the forest to another lodge. Here we will have a chance to see nocturnal animals including the huge Amazonian Tapir and the Douroucouli, the world’s only nocturnal monkey. Accommodation in Yanayacu rainforest lodge.

Although the early boat trip was classed as optional I think everyone fronted up for it. A slight navigational error leaving the lodge - before dawn - meant that we got to the boat, and thus the clay lick, a little later than ideal despite the boatman wringing every possible bit of speed out of the boat. We still managed to see a few parrots come in to supplement their diet. .

We headed back to the lodge for breakfast and another fix of hummingbirds. However the most exciting bit of birding was a great aggregation of various raptors on a hillside out of the lodge. I think the group added about 6 species of raptors to the trip list out of this flock. The sight certainly removed any comments about not seeing many birds of prey.

I then put in a couple of hours writing up notes and bird list while Frances went on a walk to see the Hoatzins and Caiman in the lagoon. I added a new bird to the list when an Epaulet Oriole flew into one of the trees near the Lodge. I have included here a couple of images of the flowers growing around the lodge - no wonder the hummers were attracted!

Then back to the boat for 5 hours travel downstream to another lodge.

For some reason or another - possible concern about not getting wet while travelling in the boat? - I had not organised myself very well so didn't have my camera ready at the start. I still didn't have it when we came across our first monkeys - howlers. Like the parrots of the morning they were eating clay to get the minerals needed into their diet. We actually saw a couple of troops and the second lot were particularly entertaining as they clambered back up into the trees. We also saw quite a lot of birds along the river as we passed by,with fairly frequent stops to check out the less common ones.

Just as I praised the bus driver for his skill in handling the twisty road in the mountains so great praise is due to the boatman as he manoeuvred the craft down the river. Although the river (Alto Madre de Dios) looks wide, the frequent rippling betrays the fact that it is not that deep. The boats are made of two types of wood (a visit to the boatyard at Boca Manu comes in about 3 days time) and the bottom tray is made of a particularly hard wood to withstand the fairly frequent bangs on the bottom when there is limited clearance over sandbars etc. An assistant boatman is also posted on the prow (like a live figurehead) to spot particularly evil hazards and. where necessary use a long pole to punt the boat across. He was off duty at the time I took the image to the left but it does show the spare motor mounted up front.

This provides a lead to talking about boat motors. Our canoe - and I think all tourist boats - had a 60HP outboard on the back. The locals boats has a 'long-tail' drive shaft device. Apparently their motors were typically adaptations of 9HP motors from China originally intended to drive rice mills. They seem to putter along OK, but against the current n particular would take a long time to get anywhere!

Janice commented that in a straight line it is only 40km from our start to our finishing point. However the river has so many meanders that we will do 90km today. This average of about 20kph seemed very fast to me until I watched a piece of driftwood go down the river with no mtor assistance: 20 kph suddenly seems very attainable. My GPS reveals that we lost 120m in those 90km which must partly explain the speed of the current.

We arrive at the Lodge which has rather quaint thatched cabins. After greeting us the owner started whistling loudly. Was this some signal to the massed hordes to attack the foreigners?

Possibly, if one tapir can can be considered a horde. It is a wild animal but the people and the Lodge and their guests have fed it so it is quite habituated to humans. As I fed it I did think about about a comment by Ian's colleague Chris, that the only thing in Peru that had bitten him was a playful young tapir. I suspect it was this one whose name was Panchito: he seemed to have two delights in life, food and having his stomach rubbed. {reminds me of a certain small dog} For those with limted eyesight I am the one wearing a light brown hat at the bottom step.

A highlight of the place is that they have some beer available. It isn't cold beer but it is clearly beer and as thirsty as we were it was rated as highly potable. I managed to fit down two bottles before dinner.

Just before dinner I went and took a photograph of an impending storm Our meal was enlivened by the frequent flashes of lightning from this, and when Ian returned tohis cabin at one stage he reported that the wind with the storm had blown a fair bit of the thatch over the floor and the bedding in his cabin. As it had our cabin.

That was the beginning. In the middle of the night the storm returned and this tme it rained. Indeed this was not restricted to outside the cabin, but by shifting around on my bed I was able to avoid the drips. This did not last when I needed to visit the en-suite - drat that second bottle of beer. Oh well I guess it justs adds efficiency to combine a shower with a pit stop! Apparently one of our guides gave the owners a fair serve the next morning, telling them that if they wish to keep getting guests they must fix up the thatch.

Itinerary was delivered as usual.

Thursday 8 October:

2009-10-26T19:25:00.000+11:00

Itinerary: Yanayacu to Matchigenga Lodge. Another optional early morning visit to a collpa, where many species of parrots and macaws can be seen. After breakfast, we will travel even further downstream, to enter the near-mythical Manu National Park, where few tourists go. We will have lunch in the boat and later in the afternoon arrive at our lodge and meet the local Matsiguenka people. Accommodation in Matchigenga Lodge.

After the somewhat soggy night I decided that it was still raining at 5:00 and thus passed on the visit to the clay lick. When I heard the boat fire up I realised it was just wind in the trees, rather than rain, but what the heck. As we gathered for breakfast everyone had a few tales to tell: they are part of what make such trips memorable.

The big miss which resulted was a sighting of a White-banded Mockingbird. This is apparently the second ever sighting of the species in Peru and is thus a very major event. Well done Ian, Steve, Lou, Juan and Ribellino. I hope that the powers that be accept the record. Bugger - a large part of my 15 minutes of fame just passed by!

Breakfast was duly done, and then off in the boats again. Just after we started we got a good sighting of Capybaras, which are the biggest rodents - about the size of a small pig. This got everyone quite excited, and the boat did several circles to make sure we all got a good look.

At some point in the days travels we got to the end of the road. The image doesn't actually show the end, but it was quite close and shows the trucks driven on to the shingle to pick up bananas brought down the river on a local canoe. Yes folks, there is a boat somewhere under that greenery.

The image to the right shows that when the canoes are progressing there is not a whole lot of freeboard. I would expect that estimating how to distribute the load is a skilled task, with some fairly serious consequences (think caiman - don't worry about piranha - no-one seemed too concerned about them) for a major miscalculation!

After a couple of hours we turned left into, and thus up the Manu River. The drop in speed of the boat going upstream rather than down was very noticeable. Another noticeable change was in the nature of the hazards in the river. While there were still some sandbars the biggest risk factor in the Manu river was tree trunks embedded in the bed of the river. This reflects an important part of the local economy: when the wet season comes a number of the trees in the forest of the National Park (which we haven't yet entered) fall and get washed downstream. The local people are allowed to collect these once they have washed out of the Park and use the trunks for making boats or sawing into lumber.

After a short distance we reach the Park entry station where we all have to get out of the boat and sign in to the Park register. As well as showing the sign for the entry station (and in the background, the jungle vegetation) this demonstrates that, as usual, I had forgotten to take my life-jacket off.

Apart from complying with 'the rules' this also gave an opportunity for the sale of t-shirts by the Park staff. I can't quite remember the full story but it was along the lines of it being difficult for their pay to get through at times so this gives them access to extra cash. It doesn't matter - I really like my shirt. I omitted to buy the small carved bug carrying a sign saying "These articles are for sale" but will fix that up on the way out.

At some point a little later in the trip we pulled ashore for a comfort stop. The image to right illustrates the disembarkation process: walking the plank was the go for the clients, while the workers just jumped into the water/mud.

The birds along the way were very good. The most prevalent were Sand-coloured Nighthawks which appeared in great numbers either squatting in the sand or roosting on bits of tree sticking out of the river. Samples of both are below.

Other good birds seen along the way included Sunbittern (which unusually for anything with 'bittern' in its name actually appeared in a visible position - albeit not when I had the camera available), Orinoco Goose and Horned Screamer. A close observation of the head will reveal the 'horn' poking out.

We eventually arrived at our lodge for the next two nights Casa Matsiguenka or the "house of the Matsiguenka" they being the local indigenees. This is the only lodge along the river which is 'open'. All the others have been given as tightly run concessions to tour companies and they can only use it for their clients. This one was given as a commercial operation to recompense the Matsiguenka for the conversion of 'their' lands into a National Park. {This is the mid-range level of protection. Since we crossed into the Biosphere Reserve we were in the 'cultural zone' where locals were permitted to live a more or less unfettered life. We were now in a zone where access was restricted and activities heavily controlled. There is a third, central zone where only accredited researchers - and the 'wild' indigenees can go.}

Our cabin was the central one of a group of three so was relatively dark and small. However we survived, mainly because the only times we were in the room we were sleeping. Lighting was by candles or our headlights. More often it was by headlight since matches provided didn't function that well in the levels of humidity prevalent in the jungle. They did have a solar electricity set-up but I suspect the batteries were a little underdone: a light in kitchen worked well and one in the dining area was OK. However if a second light was turned on ni the dining area one needed a headlight to find any of them. Obviously it was essential that the culinary arts proceeded without impediment so we all clustered under the one globe!

Friday 9 October

2009-10-26T19:23:00.000+11:00

Itinerary: Manu National Park. We will spend two full memorable days exploring the park in the vicinity of the lodge. Much of it will be in the boats watching birds and looking for the rare and spectacular Giant Otters, nearly two metres long. However we will also walk in the forest for plants, reptiles, yet more birds, and searching for White-bellied Spider Monkeys and the noisy Whitelipped Peccary. Accommodation as for previous night.

A revision had been made to the itinerary such that we only spent the day of the 9th in this lodge. That was not a problem.

The reference to 'the noisy White-lipped Peccary" in the itinerary calls to mind two other noises that were common here, but which I didn't manage to record.

The first was what I call the defining sound of the Amazon: the sound of howler monkeys. The linked clip makes the call considerably shorter than we heard which went on like a jet taking off. Ribellino advised that the sound can be heard for 5km and is made by a single alpha male, using a very pumped up chest cavity as an amplifier.
The second call came during the night and before awakening. At the time I thought it was the creaking groan of a very large tree falling, but it wasn't followed by the expected crash and thud. Consulting the experts, it turns out to have been a frog. On this occasion I haven't been able to find a YouTube sample.

We'll get to Peccaries later (an English guest at Amazonas Lodge did report seeing some there, but we didn't so I have only just found a hook to include that observation).

The visit to the Giant Otter lake (an oxbow lake - cocha - off the river) started very early as the otters are most active just after sunrise. Groups are allowed 2 hours on the boat in the lake, but if you have the first spot you can start early. It seemed that the system is self regulating: if one group isn't back in time the second will complain to the Park rangers which places the offending guide's license at risk. In the event we were all up very early for a 10 minute boat trip down the river and then a 15 minute (or thereabouts) walk into the Lake. It was just about daylight when we arrived there , despite a brief stop en route in the jungle

The stop was when Ribellino found a Poison Dart frog jumping around on the forest floor and held it up for us to see, The photo isn't very good as I didn't want to get too close with the flash. He explained that he was now immune to the poison as he had been handling the beasts for 25 years. A bit later he did comment that his fingers were tingling, as they usually do after he has handled one. (I'm glad I didn't emulate him when I found one in a similar boggy place on the way back.)

Anyhow, once we get to the lake we find that the boat there is a catamaran made out of two dugout canoes with a platform (and some seats) on top of it. The boatmen have come along and paddle us around. A small problem is that the dugouts leak somewhat: thus from time to time one of the guides would have to start bailing: also the clients had to be arranged carefully so that the leak was not too far underwater. {The next day when we went back through the ranger station they were given a serve by Janice about the state of the boat.}

Well you ask: did we get to see the Giant Otters. You'd better believe we saw the otters. Up to 5 of them - at least one more would be guarding the cubs from caiman {see link above}. They were absolutely huge, especially compared with the Southern River Otters we had seen in the Madre de Dios the previous day. I can quite believe that they would tip the tape at 2m, although all we could usually see was their head. This feature was generally engaged in one of two activities: munching on a fish; or begging, trying to get to munch on a fish caught by another member of the clan.

There were also a heap of birds. Several Hoatzin (I still like looking at them even though they are bog common), another Sunbittern, Green Ibis , several Wattled Jacana, an Agami Heron and a Limpkin. As with the Swallow-tailed Kites the last named is a bird I have looked for in quite a few locales with no previous success. Overall I recorded 11 lifers before breakfast which I regard as way good. Also 4 species of monkey which is pretty special: we never managed to see one of the alpha-male howlers doing its thing but either they were all round this cocha or someone has built a secret airbase in the vicinity. We got back just on 9am as required: however we didn't find the second tour group who were expected- perhaps their guide had decided not to bother coming after the otters would have ceased activity.

We then had some free time to do what was needed around the lodge. This included some washing since:

there were lots of lines available for drying; and
the undies were beginning to run low.

I then put in some time birding around the site. I was using the streetlight approach, as explained in the following parenthesis. {Joe was walking home at midnight when he found his -insert name of vilifiable ethnic group here - friend peering at the ground under a streetlight. "What are doing my friend?" he asked. "I'm looking for my wallet" came the answer. "Did you lose it here?" enquired Joe. "No," said the friend "by that tree, but its too dark to see it over there."} Thus I looked in the exposed tops of trees and in the fringes of the jungle because I could the birds that were there. Which was none, but I couldn't spot the little - or even big - sods that were everywhere in the thick vegetation. I did see looks of butterflies and colourful lizards which was nice.

After lunch we hopped back in the main boat to go a little way downstream for a walk along a track in the jungle. Around about this point one of the others pointed out a small hole in our boat just on the waterline where a nail had fallen out. Since mud was generally available I decided to experiment by plugging said hole with mud. When we left the boat 3 days later the mud was still in place and there had been no leak since!

The walk was quite pleasant through the forest with the group split into 2. It was unfortunate that no-one had brought along a field guide since we had to work out later what birds we had seen. There were 4 species able to be identified by our group (and a different set of 4 - plus one of ours - seen by the other group. The pale-winged Trumpeters were very good, as they were very large birds and a fair few of them, but my favourite occurred as I rushed (with leader's approval) ahead of the group to get a better look at the trumpeters. I flushed a bird which went and sat on a branch. On hooking the bins on to it it was clearly a screech owl, and when Juan consulted his photo he was able to identify it as a Tropical Screech Owl.

On getting back to the Lodge we fond that another grop had arrived. Their luggage boat was full of metal boxes which made me think they were a film crew. They were also of the Norte Americano persuasion and seemed to me to be a tad up themselves (possibly Californians). However others of our group spoke to them and found them OK, so I think Mr Slightly-Grumpy must have just been summoned by me because other people had the temerity to invade "our" lodge.

One unusual thing was that the community had some artefacts for sale. We had been quietly asked not to buy anything featuring feathers or bones since to do otherwise would encourage the people to keep killing wildlife. It went without saying that, despite their attraction as a rabbit control mechanism, no-one would try to get the sets of arrows through Australian Customs (without worrying about what AQIS would have to say about the feathers on the wooden arrows). About all this left was a few knitted bags of somewhat variable quality. In the event we passed but other members of the group got bags.

Boat Building

2009-10-26T19:22:00.000+11:00

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Saturday 10 October:

2009-10-26T19:21:00.001+11:00

Original Itinerary: Matchigenga Lodge to Blanquillo Lodge. An early departure to cruise down the Alto Madre de Dios River past Boca Manu town, a wonderful seven hour voyage to the private Blanquillo Reserve. At sunset we shall take a short walk to the Blanquillo oxbow lake to look for caimans. Accommodation in Blanquillo Lodge.

The itinerary received a bit of change to adjust for the changes yesterday. After we had the traditional early start (to maximise the chances of seeing a jaguar - which we didn't) we headed off in the boat for a walk to another cocha where we might see more otters. On the way in we stopped for a traditional group shot against the trunk - or more accurately buttress roots - of a large tree. As we were a tad too late we didn't see any otters, but we did see the lake stirred up where they had been. There was a rather tall tower which gave a look over the lake, but it was suggested that people went up a few at a time as a safety measure. I passed, mainly because there were rumours of birds a little further down the track (with my cowardice being a secondary, but significant, factor).

A few birds were bold enough to appear which was good. However the greatest excitement for me was the appearance of a large troop of monkeys which wandered through the trees all around us. Definitely one of my memorable monkey moments. To the left is my only worthwhile (?? you be the judge) photograph of a monkey - in this case a Brown Capuchin - from this trip.

After the monkeys left it started to rain, which was a bit of an issue since no-one had their raincoats with them. One of the good things about forests is that the trees cover over 90% of the sky so not much rain leaked through. As we got back to the boats, wondering about several hours in a boat thrashing into the rain, the precipitation stopped! Hooray!!

Heading off again we soon stopped for great views of a large (4m?) Black Cayman on a more or less submerged sandbar. It was noted that it was suffering from a munched back leg. As it was in the main Manu River rather than a cocha it would seem that it lost the appendage in a battle with another caiman rather than being monstered by some Giant Otters.

On getting back to the ranger station Ribellino and Janice got off to complete the formalities while I did so to acquire one of the carved bugs. Unfortunately they weren't for sale - the message about "these goods are for sale" referred to the t-shirts on which they usually sat and not the bugs themselves. Bug..ger.

Back in to the boat and downstream to the junction with the Madre de Dios, where we turned left for a short distance before swinging in to the town of Boca Manu (ie the Mouth of the Manu) where we were due to have lunch and to go and inspect a boat building yard. Lunch was taken at a cafe -which I think provided the soft drinks (but also made a fair bit of cash from selling t-shirts with nice wildlife designs). The banner sign was quite common throughout Madre de Dios Province (where we now were) and refers to a political party rather than a full fledged separatist movement as first suspected.

The town looked a bit run down in many ways but also seemed to have some life as shown by a nice sign for a bar across a bare paddock. it was commented that quite a bit of money comes in to the town but not much of it is invested here.

One of the ways money comes in is through the boat building industry, based upon the hardwood which floats down the Manu River when it it in spate. I've put a set of images of boat-building in a separate page. The first image is of some sub-contractors towing a dug out base to the creek near the boat-builders house. The rest show the gradual erection (?) of the craft. Apparently it takes about a month to build a boat which then sells, painted to your choice of colours for USD2,000. As the wood is free - they pay about USD50 a year to the co-op which runs the deal - this is a nice little earner. The boats last about 4 years and, on being asked, it appeared ours was brand new.

Things appeared in shops here which are not really common in Canberra. A chook might be a possibility perhaps, at least in the outer suburbs, but a baby deer?

As well as boat building there seems to be a lumber industry here and we passed several of the small local craft shepherding rafts of squared-off timber down the river. They were heading to the small town of Colorado, which we would reach in a couple of days. However, rather than having a day in a lodge these guys would chug all the time (but hopefully stopping at night). This led to some debate about how long the travel from our next Lodge to Puerto Maldonado would take. One opinion - supported by one guidebook -was that it would take 8 hours for us to get to Colorado, giving us a full 12 hours of travelling. I suspect this timetable was based on the local boats Ribellino said it would be about 2 hours to Colorado and then about 5 hours in buses and cars. {Not to spoil the rest of the blog, but he was about right.}

We were going to go past Ribellino's father's lodge and there was a hope that we'd be able to call in to visit. This was duly done with aims of seeing the father and checking out some additional hummingbirds that are found there. This also afforded a look into the way land is allocated. It seems that a form of homesteading is the rule: take some unoccupied land and do something with it (in this case plant a garden) and you will be given title to it. Thus the father had title to a block with 500m of river frontage and Ribellino had the next 500m. In theory the land went back another 500m but in practise, and the absence of fences and neighbours, it was a very indefinite boundary.

At the Lodge we were amused by the antics of two domesticated Blue and Yellow Macaws which had been acquired from somewhere. They seemed able to fly quite well but just hung around: parrots are not stupid and know where food is readily available. A small fruit was passed around and we were invited to guess what it was. I don't think anyone got it right, even - at least in my case - after a taste. It was cocoa/chocolate.

We then trekked off to the garden, which turned out to be a bit more of an expedition than had been expected. this gave us good views of a few birds including 1 hummer. No feeders here but lots of nectar rich red flowers. A fully wild Blue and Yellow Macaw perched in a tree which was a nice sight (he said, with unusual understatement).

The trek resumed going back through some plantation area towards the river. At this point a number of pineapples were picked but they were never identified in Mandrakes offerings. Perhaps they were to feed the boatmen on their way home?

We were only a few minutes from the next lodge and headed off smartly, with the trip interrupted by spotting a Jabiru - the official version, not the Australian bird, which is accurately known as a Black-necked Stork - wading in the water. As we did a turn to get a better look we discovered that there was a small flock of them behind a sandbar.

Onwards to Blanquillo Lodge which we arrived at just before dark. The place looked very pleasant - way up market compared to the previous two places. An unusual feature was the lack of anything (eg glass or netting) in the windows. Since there were mosquito nets on the beds, wide eaves to keep the rain out, and cold is not a problem in this area that is quite a sensible approach.

The Itinerary as adjusted was fully satisfied.

Sunday 11 October

2009-10-26T19:19:00.000+11:00

I had originally planned to join the 10th and 11th of October into a single report but found that the first day was long enough already (too long, you cry!) so have added this page in as well. It also solves the problem of how to include several parrot photographs.

We were up very early to get out to the Blanquillo clay lick to watch the parrots come in to feed. This is done on a shift basis with species taking their turns after gathering in the nearby trees to check out the safety of the site, and it might go on for several hours. Thus breakfast accompanied us to the hide.

Getting to the hide was a bit tricky as the riverbank was rather muddy and slippery. However thanks to the plank, and the assistance of the boatmen no-one face planted. {When we got back about 4 hours later the mud had been consolidated, a good bunch of steps had been cut and some branches laid as corduroy. These guys are all magicians!} The hide was a bit larger than the normal bird blind (the image below shows about half of it!). The clay cliffs are just visible through the bottom of the structure.

After we had been there a while Blue-headed Parrots appeared. They were joined by Yellow-crowned Parrots, Mealy Parrots and Orange-cheeked Parrots as shown in the following images. Tui Parakeets also appeared towards the end of this stage, but I don't think appeared in any of my images.

Macaws appeared a little later. We recorded one ~~Chocolate-headed~~ {Que? Where did I pull that one from?}Chestnut-fronted Macaw but the main business was the Red and Green Macaws, of which at one point I counted 80 on the cliff face and in the vegetation above. This was a truly magical moment (actually more like a magical hour, following the magical hour with the smaller parrots earlier and the extremely good time between flocks looking at the other birds in the area).

Amongst the other birds seen was the only King Vulture of the trip, soaring in the distance over the forest. The shape and colouration was unmistakeable, once Stephen commented on it, but unfortunately most of the group was in another part of the hide at the time and shouting out was not an option. (On a more mundane note, I think this was where I came up with the theory that all pigeons in Peru were of the Pale-vented persuasion.)

We then walked back to the boats and motored back to the Lodge for a free middle of the day. I did a bit more 'streetlight-model' birding with about the same level of success as before. An interesting sight was the large Caiman resting up in some driftwood: it was discovered by one of the boatmen taking a swim! I suspect he would have set some sort of record for emergence from a river.

We heard a hummingbird in the vicinity of some Heliconia flowers and I put in about an hour trying to spot it without success. Of course as soon as I left it appeared and posed long enough for Stephen to ID it!

After lunch the main business was a walk for about 1km through the jungle (along a cleared path) to another cocha to look for other Black Caiman: the word 'spotlight' was mentioned so most of us took our headlights, reckoning that natural illumination might be a tad deficient when we returned. We would also try to nail some forest birds as we went.

We did add a few forest birds to our lists, especially when waiting for a herd of Peccaries to clear the area. A few days earlier the Itinerary mentioned them, using the word 'noisy'. This was certainly the case, which was hardly surprising as they travel in herds of up to 200. They are hunted by the locals using a clever technique, of killing the alpha male first. This disorients the whole herd so they stay in the same place until a new leader emerges in 2 or 3 days time: since the hunters are taking out a lot of pigs each day the leader inherits a much smaller herd than his predecessor. {I had wondered what model formed the basis of Australian politics, and now I know. Hint: the politicians aren't the hunters.) The business of birds was very difficult: with about 8 of us - including 3 local guides - really trying to locate and identify them we ended up with some 4 names (I only got a tickable look at one of them - even I couldn't bring myself to mark some of the dark brown blurs.)

On getting to the cocha we found another catamaran. This one was based on rather more modern technology, albeit lacking such things as bench seats. So those of us feeling game hopped on, the paddlers assumed their position and we cruised around the lake for about 2 hours. We added quite a lot of additional birds, including a Razor-billed Curasow which made an appearance just on dark. As the light diminished it

was notable that the paddlers removed their feet from the water. Using the large flashlight to pick up the eyeshine of the large Black Caiman justified this. After a while further we headed back down the pitch black trail,, the headlights earning their keep.

An absolutely excellent day!

Monday 12 October:

2009-10-26T19:17:00.000+11:00

Itinerary: Blanquillo Lodge to Puerto Maldonado. The end of our Manu experience, but not before another early morning visit by camouflaged catamaran to the largest macaw lick in the area. Later we will continue down river for four hours towards Colorado village, from where we will be driven to Puerto Maldonado, a frontier town of 25,000 people on the confluence of the Tambopata and Madre de Dios rivers. Lodge accommodation.

The day was scheduled for a fairly late start, but as the party of Swiss folk also in the lodge left at 5am - presumably heading for the clay lick - everyone was up and ready to roll, after breakfast, by 7am. I had even managed to get a tickable view of the local hummingbird in the interim.

The trip down river was pretty much of a blat, with a significant bird halt for a pair of nesting Scarlet Macaws. There are shown, blurrily, to the left. Note the patch of yellow on the top of the wings - this and the different tone of red are what distinguish this species from the Red and Green Macaws seen the previous day.

The trip took 2.25 hours, pretty much as predicted by Ribellino. We passed a few settlements of one sort or another and came across a number of fishing camps. These were mainly 1 household items, but must still have posed a number of problems for enumeration in the Census. Note the local type canoe moored on the bank: it would be the only way in or out.

As we drew closer to Colorado various gold mining activities, ranging from 1-man panning operations to sophisticated dredge activities, became evident in the river. That is the main industry here, and the place looked like a frontier gold mining town. I didn't bother wandering off to try and get a bargain! There was a huge kettle of Black Vultures over the town {probably checking the remains of the last tourist who tried to drive a hard bargain}.

The main action at the wharf where we pulled in was unloading some of the rafts of logs. I think I have referred elsewhere in this blog to jobs I am not keen on occupying. Add one more to the list. 3m long logs of hardwood are always going to be heavy but after they have been in a river for a couple of days must have been excruciatingly so.

The guy up to his chest in the river possibly had it a bit easier, but I suspect he had firmly walled off the section of his brain which included the word 'caiman'.

It was then time to farewell our boat crews who were about to head off back upstream to the town from which we started this leg. It would take them two days of plugging against the current and they would use a full 200l tank of fuel in so doing. They would probably go a good bit faster with the boats not being so low in the water sans gringos, but would obviously try to get some paying passengers as a backload. Ian made a nice speech in Spanish thanking them for their hard work and their skill, which the rest of us fully endorsed.

The clients and guides then piled into 4 taxis and pointed ourselves in the direction of the next river. A brief Bano stop was taken in the centre of town. The image to the left gives an idea of the town and the taxis. To our surprise Mandrake the cook came with us on this leg: he was unceremoniously put in the luggage area of our taxi, which wasn't too bad (apart from a few Occupational Health and Safety issues for those who obsess about such things) until most of the kit off the roof joined him, due to a rain shower! He probably continued to rate it as better than walking!

Two of the 4 cabs, including ours, made it to the end of this leg without punctures. The main interest along the way was the techniques used by the driver on the many bridges we crossed. For the first 90% of the trip the basic bridge design was with the body of the bridge perpendicular to the direction of travel with a further couple of wheel tracks on top, pointing the way we were travelling. In most cases the driver straddled the tracks: as he has been along the road a few hundred more times than us we accepted he knew his business - since we didn't have much in the way of common language there was no choice! In the last 10% (5 or 6 minutes) the alignment changed with the bridges comprising tree trunks, roughly smoothed off, and set parallel to our direction of travel, and with not too many gaps between the logs.

This leg ended up on a stony riverbed, about 300 from the shore, with lots of canoes pulled up to cart us across the water. The astute viewer will notice the dark clouds above the river. These soon assisted in gaining a further understanding of the term 'rain forest" although the boat drivers produced tarps which went over the tourists and their luggage. As a result we had no idea where the boat went, but it seemed to stop in about the correct place and we all piled out to eat our lunch in a local cafe.
After consuming our lunch and farewelling Mandrake - who got into another vehicle, in a significantly more comfortable position, for a 10 hour drive back to Cusco. That car would drive through the night - rated as safer because lights can be seen coming towards you.

Some 3 hours later (including a loo stop) we got to beautiful downtown Puero Maldonando. Notice the little taxis in the image above: the common way of local public transport in the Andean area. Here we got ice cream. While eating the ice cream a funeral cortege went past: unusually with a brass band following in a second truck - had we moved to New Orleans?

After moving into a very comfortable hotel I had a swim in the pool and a couple of Cusqueno beers. that was actually an error on my behalf since we left the town before anything was open the next morning so my chance of exploring the place and buying some souvenirs was gone. What a goose.

The day was pretty much a transport day, but had social history with our look at Colorado and to some extent the new road being built to Puerto Maldonado. I guess until matter transmission is invented (go to transporter but don't hold your breath) that will always be the case.

Tuesday 13 October:

2009-10-26T19:15:00.000+11:00

Itinerary: Puerto Maldonado to Lima. After breakfast we will transfer to the airport for our flight to Lima, where our hotel is in Miraflores, a beachside suburb. In the evening we will share a farewell dinner. Hotel accommodation in Miraflores, Lima.

We awoke to the sound of the falling rain. In fact it bucketed down and there was really no sensible chance of even getting out for a walk around Puerto Maldonado. A couple of things I noticed:

due to the pouring rain all the motorcyclists (including those driving the little 3 wheeled cabs), were wearing wellingtons. This says something about the nature and frequency of the rain, and the relative affluence of the folk being able to afford special footwear for the rain - in Tanzania they'd just take their shoes off to preserve them!
A primary school was opposite the hotel. This led an entrepreneur to set up a stall selling candy and lurid toys for the kids. Talk about hostage marketing!

Out to the airport and through formalities in reasonable order. The plane - an Airbus 319 - took off on time, although a few weird looking waders (ie shorebirds, not long wellingtons) were flushed during taxi. Neither Ian, Frances nor I got a good enough look at them identify them. Drat.

Cusco happened briefly and then we flew down to Lima. Despite close peering as we approached the coast there was no evidence of the Nasca lines. As we got even closer to Lima the only thing visible was the usual fog generated from the offshore Humboldt Current.

After landing it was suggested we might care to check-in that day to save aggravation the following morning. This seemed pretty good advice, although I noticed that the first members of the group seemed to take quite a time. As did people who weren't members of our group. In contrast we went quite quickly until - just after we moved from the counter - I checked the boarding passes we'd been given. All was OK down to Santiago but from there to Auckland and Sydney Frances and I were seated 3 rows apart!! I was smartly back to the charming young lady (CYL) to ask her to fix this and she said she couldn't as "My system can't access that: it is in Santiago". Upon her manager being called he made about three keystrokes and gave me back new boarding passes for adjoining seats. If the CYL is not a close personal friend of the CEO of LAN I expect/hope she is now in a more suitable position- probably one involving collecting 1 sole from people and handing out tissue paper.

The bus driver obligingly took us towards the coast. Just as Juan

commented about the crazy drivers of Lima we had to avoid a prang; and
followed up about the tough new traffic laws, our driver scored a ticket for driving in the wrong lane!

It emerged that not all Peruvian pigeon are Pale-vented. In Lima most of them are West Peruvian Doves. As we went along the coast we carefully checked all the cormorants perched on light poles but there was nothing unusual there. The first Peruvian Pelican was seen gliding offshore.

The Hotel was excellent, although we didn't stay there for long before heading out shopping. We started out walking down to the cliff-top promenade I remembered from my previous visit and thence along to a shopping centre/entertainment area looking for a bookshop to acquire a book on orchids. We failed on that and the craft shop I remembered seemed to have downsized - they had very few carpets, no that we had the luggage capacity to handle one!

So we just headed off down the main street towards the Indian Markets, in the hope that there would be some carved bugs there. We came across various book stores on the way, but none of them had anything worthwhile on orchids, so we passed. Frances was able to acquire some handkerchiefs. We arrived at a large church alongside a major park and wandered in for a snuffle. As usual very well decorated.

The Indian Markets were an interesting bunch of shops. In fact they were a bunch of arcades, each of which contained several shops. There were a few punters around (and the stall holders were not pushy- at least not by Mwenge wood carvers standards). However it was a pity that many of the shops had the same stuff, and in such quantities that one felt it was being produced by machines in the back blocks of China rather than hand-crafted in Amazonia. They didn't have anything with the charm of the bugs from Manu, nor anything else we needed. So they didn't get our money.

Evening meal was at a restaurant on the Pier at the foot of the cliffs. To say this was a brilliant finish to the trip would be an understatement. Food was excellent, wines good and service very good. Tired but content we went back to the Hotel.

Wednesday 14 October:

2009-10-26T19:13:00.000+11:00

ItineraryLima to home. Mid-morning transfer to the airport for flights homeward, to continue dreaming and start skiting.

The previous afternoon Juan had suggested to the more obsessive birders that they might like an early start to the day and go down to an area he knew where we might get some additional birds. Stephen and I were iquick to accept

This was a magic outing. We went to a swampy area on the Southern Outskirts of Lima and wandered around for about an hour and a half getting a wide range of water birds including some in the marsh, some on the dunes including whimbrels

and a couple -including this flock of Peruvian Pelicans - out to sea.

The final stop was at the jetty on which we had enjoyed our sumptuous repast the previous evening. It was rumoured that Inca Terns roosted under it. Unfortunately - to start with - the jetty was being cleaned so we couldn't go onto it. However it didn't matter at all as several Inca Terns flew out and perched on one of the souvenir stalls on the Jetty.

I think in total we added 17 species to the trip list which I think ended - for the group as a total - at 307 species.

Back to the pub, have breakfast and into the bus for the airport. here we experienced queueing. Despite having boarding passes we had to queue for:

Baggage drop;
Airport Tax (why won't LAN collect this as is done at every other airport?)
Security; and
Emigration.

No grief just aggravation. This is the sort of bureaucracy that should be chopped rather than useful services such a schools, libraries and hospitals. Eventually we got off for the flight to Santiago. The last 40 minutes of this were through the mountains, and unfortunately we were on the coast side of the plane: we still got a reasonable view but the seats a, B etc wuld have been better.

This, and my memories of the nice time we had had in Santiago at the start of the trip had me in a very favourable frame of mind. This lasted for about 5 minutes as it appeared that LAN had delayed out departure from 11pm to 3am, meaning the holdover was 9 hours rather than 5. All they would do was give us a 5300 pesos for a meal, which would cover much more than a sandwich and a juice. Grrrr!

The one good thing about this was watching Chile play Ecuador in a World Cup qualification match. Chile won 1-0 to the delight of those watching! The worst thing about it was that most of the airport was blessed with TVs that played crap gangsta-rap videos. However if one is my height it was quite possible to literally pull the plug on these. After a couple of demos I noticed ones I had not personally visited had got the treatment!

Whe the flight eventually took off I dozed for the first 6 (of 13) hours so was not in too bad a shape when we got to Auckland and thence to Sydney. The drive back to Canberra was OK and thesmall dog very pleased to see us.

The end to a most excellent adventure. Rather than take up the invitation to skite I will stick to the truth about a tremendous holiday.

A Birdy Appendix

2009-10-20T17:39:00.002+11:00

This appendix is going to hold some statistical stuff about the birds seen on the trip, both for the group as whole and for my personal stuff.

I will begin with Ian's tally of species seen for the group as a whole.

Before we begin ....

2009-09-13T13:19:00.000+10:00

I have put up some images of my previous (working) visit to Lima at my home blog.

This is being composed a little under two weeks before we leave on a purely recreational trip led by Ian Fraser of Environment Tours in Canberra. As a teaser here is the itinerary for the formal part of the trip as we understand it:

Monday 28 September: arrive in Lima. Accommodation in comfortable hotel immediately adjacent to airport.
Tuesday 29 September: morning flight Lima to Cuzco. Transfer from Cuzco to hotel out of town in dramatic and interesting nearby Sacred Valley, at over 2800 metres above sea level in the Andes. These wonderful mountains tower over us for the next few days. Option of short afternoon introductory walk for local birds, plants, culture and history. Hotel accommodation.
Wednesday 30 September: Sacred Valley. Visit to Inka ruins at Pisac, and tour of Inka town and ruins of Ollantaytambo. Both places will also afford rich natural history pickings, including the first of numerous hummingbirds! Pisac has excellent craft markets, where those who wish may indulge themselves. Accommodation as for last night.
Thursday 1 October: Sacred Valley to Aguas Calientes. Early departure by train to the fabled Machu Picchu with an option to get off the train early for an all-day 8km walk to Machu Picchu, starting from the valley floor and ascending to the beautiful site of Wiñay Wayna. Much of the walk is through cloud forest with an abundance of birds and orchids, culminating in a memorable first sight of the city of Machu Picchu from the Gate of the Sun, high above it. Those who choose not to do so will take a bus from Aguas Calientes up to Machu Picchu and meet the walkers at the Gate of the Sun. Accommodation in luxury hotel on the edge of Aguas Calientes, set in rainforest gardens alive with hummingbirds and orchids.
Friday 2 October: Aguas Calientes to Cuzco. Return to Machu Picchu to explore further. Time to enjoy the offerings of our hotel, including birds and orchids. Late afternoon train trip back to Cuzco. Accommodation in comfortable friendly small hotel in old Cuzco.
Saturday 3 October: around Cuzco. A culturally focussed day; morning tour to the historic Cathedral of Cuzco and then to the Inka Sun Temple, Coricancha. Afternoon tour to Sacsayhuaman Inka site followed by a walk down to the city; this will certainly produce more birds and flowers. Accommodation as for last night.
Sunday 4 October: Cuzco to Manu Cloud Zone. The beginning of our Manu adventure. Manu is a vast rainforest area east of the Andes, including the mountain slopes and Amazon lowlands. Early start to visit the teeming wetland of Huacarpay lagoon before driving into the eastern Cordillera of the Andes. A spectacular drive into the high puna grasslands, to cross the Andes 4000 metres above sea level. At the summit we enter the Manu Biosphere Reserve and descend into the rich cloud forest to explore this beautiful habitat 3000 metres above sea level. Accommodation in rainforest lodge.
Monday 5 October: San Pedro area. Early start to see the Cock-of-the-Rock from a viewing platform above the mating display area (lek), one of the most glorious exhibitions in the whole world of nature. Day spent in the cloud forest viewing wildlife; Woolly Monkeys are a good chance here. Accommodation in a rainforest lodge further down the mountain – 1500masl.
Tuesday 6 October: San Pedro to Atalaya. Continue descending through forest and farmland to the river port of Atalaya, where we board our large, covered, motorised canoes and head down the Alto Madre de Dios River to our riverside lodge. The canoes give excellent opportunities for watching wildlife, including numerous birds and monkeys; Red Howlers, Dusky Titis, Capuchins and Squirrel Monkeys are all present here. (Whenever we are on the river there will be two canoes, travelling close together, with a guide in each.) Accommodation in Amaru Mayu rainforest lodge.
Wednesday 7 October: Amaru Mayu to Yanayacu Lodge. Optional early morning boat trip to a clay lick (collpa), where many species of parrots, including macaws, visit for mineral and salt supplements to their diet. Later we shall leave to travel further into the forest to another lodge. Here we will have a chance to see nocturnal animals including the huge Amazonian Tapir and the Douroucouli, the world’s only nocturnal monkey. Accommodation in Yanayacu rainforest lodge.
Thursday 8 October: Yanayacu to Matchigenga Lodge. Another optional early morning visit to a collpa, where many species of parrots and macaws can be seen. After breakfast, we will travel even further downstream, to enter the near-mythical Manu National Park, where few tourists go. We will have lunch in the boat and later in the afternoon arrive at our lodge and meet the local Matsiguenka people. Accommodation in Matchigenga Lodge.
Friday 9 and Saturday 10 October: Manu National Park. We will spend two full memorable days exploring the park in the vicinity of the lodge. Much of it will be in the boats watching birds and looking for the rare and spectacular Giant Otters, nearly two metres long. However we will also walk in the forest for plants, reptiles, yet more birds, and searching for White-bellied Spider Monkeys and the noisy Whitelipped Peccary. Accommodation as for previous night.
Sunday 11 October: Matchigenga Lodge to Blanquillo Lodge. An early departure to cruise down the Alto Madre de Dios River past Boca Manu town, a wonderful seven hour voyage to the private Blanquillo Reserve. At sunset we shall take a short walk to the Blanquillo oxbow lake to look for caimans. Accommodation in Blanquillo Lodge.
Monday 12 October: Blanquillo Lodge to Puerto Maldonado. The end of our Manu experience, but not before another early morning visit by camouflaged catamaran to the largest macaw lick in the area. Later we will continue down river for four hours towards Colorado village, from where we will be driven to Puerto Maldonado, a frontier town of 25,000 people on the confluence of the Tambopata and Madre de Dios rivers. Lodge accommodation.
Tuesday 13 October: Puerto Maldonado to Lima. After breakfast we will transfer to the airport for our flight to Lima, where our hotel is in Miraflores, a beachside suburb. In the evening we will share a farewell dinner. Hotel accommodation in Miraflores, Lima.
Wednesday 14 October: Lima to home. Mid-morning transfer to the airport for flights homeward, to continue dreaming and start skiting.

The 'informal part of the trip is that Frances and I are spending 3 days in Santiago, Chile before leaving for Lima. We'll meet the others in the departure lounge at Santiago International airport - where the others will have spent most of the day!

I have created draft pages for each day of the trip so that it will be possible to start reading on Day 1 (24 September) and continue on down to the end (if you have a few hours to spare)! I will populate them with the usual drivel plus photographs as time permits when we return.