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This is the view from the front porch of Cortes Maltes Amazonia - a lodge perched on the banks of the Amazon river in Peru.
Getting here was the first challenge. That was yesterday.
Everything started off very well - the Trafalgar person (Deborah) met us in the lobby with one other couple (Sue and Larry from CA).
First challenge - our luggage. The instructions for our luggage was very confusing - it started with: "You cannot bring more than 22 lbs. in a separate bag. You must leave your big luggage behind in Lima where it will be stored for you". Ok, fine, we each had a bag just for the jungle trip. I didn't know what to do about my walking stick - normally I put it in the big suitcase. But this smaller bag was awkward at best. Could I carry it onto the plane? We assumed we would be checking our smaller bags because they had liquids (bathroom stuff).
Deborah reacted with surprise - "Of course you can bring your bags on the plane! It's not problem! But the walking stick? You'll probably have to check that". Oy, what a pain.
We walked across the street to the airport. The two of us, with Deborah, got in the very long line to check my items - I figured if I was going to check the stick, I might as well check the bag, too. Deborah asked one airport official about the stick - yes, it has to be checked.
The line moved amazingly fast - as we zipped along, another airport guy said I *didn't* have have to check the stick. But he suggested I talk to the Official Security people. Deborah and Andy held the place in line while I did this - nope, the stick has to be checked. Ok. But Andy is going to carry his bag onto the plane, because why not?
Get to the counter - my stick is checked in separately from the bag. A little nerve wracking, but all agree it's the better way to go.
Ok, so that done, we walk towards the security screening. Deborah carefully explains that there's three parts to this flight - 1 hr 40 minutes to Cuzco, a 40 minute layover (on the plane - we don't get off the plane) and then a short hop to Puerto Maldonado.
We get in the security line when Andy suddenly remembers the "Why not?" - of course he has liquids in his bag! All toiletries, his saline for his contact lenses, etc. OH NO - what do we do? How do we get off this line and back to luggage check?
We try to leave, but the gate is locked. After a couple of tries, we get to a person who speaks English. She asks - why do you need to check this bag? We say, because it has liquids in it. She says, Is your flight a domestic flight? And we say, yes, it is. She says:
"Oh that's no problem! International flights cannot have liquids, but domestic flights, of course!"
So that explains why Deborah said it was no problem to bring the bags on board. A good piece of info, since we have a few more domestic flights coming up in the next two weeks.
Back through security we go and to the gate to board.
Despite my requests for an aisle seat for myself, I get stuck in the middle seat. But it's a short flight, right? No problem. I should be able to hold off a bathroom break until the layover.
Except the flight departs 45 minutes late. And by the time the drinks and snacks are distributed leaving the aisle clear, we are descending in Cuzco! Once again, the captain magically made up the time.
We're on the Tarmac for a lot longer than 40 minutes. It's at least 40 minutes before the next batch of people board the plane. And then we sit some more. From what I can vaguely catch from overheard conversations, it sounded like they were verifying the luggage down below and making sure it matches the people sitting on the plane.
Finally we are in the air - less than 45 minutes later we are on the ground again at the tiny Puerto Maldonado airport. Yey! This airport has a total of 3 women's bathroom stalls. I think every woman on that plane was in the line with me.
My stick and bag are waiting for me. Yey!
We meet up with Sue and Larry. Does anybody see a Trafalgar person? Or anybody holding up a sign with our names on it? No? Me neither.
Larry bravely tries to use his travel phone to call Trafalgar. No luck. He asks an airport guy to for help - the guy even tries calling the number for Larry, but there seems to be something wrong with the number. No luck.
We are now the last 4 passengers at the airport. Totally at a loss as to what to do.
Finally a tour person from some other company who sees us stranded calls the Corto Maltes Amazonia office. They have no idea we are coming! But they send a cab.
Seriously, we should have taken a photo of the taxi. It was not much bigger than a Smart car. Some how all 4 of us squish in and finally we arrive at Corto Maltes Amazonia.
Well,no, just at the office. We show them our travel vouchers. They had no idea we were coming. But no problem, we are assigned bungalows.
They ask for our return flight information in 9/20. We have no idea. We assumed that the tour person who was supposed to pick us up would have this info since this is what has happened up until now.
So here we are - off to transport to the lodge, and we have no clue as to our flight info, no way to contact Trafalgar. Though the office person promises she will find out.
When we finally get to the lodge, it is after 3:00 p.m. But they have lunch waiting for us, and we meet Julio, our guide for the next 4 days.
This is when all the confusing/conflicting info about the facilities are clarified, because we ask if they can turn on the ceiling fans. Well, no, because there's no electricity. Ah hah.
There's electricity from 6:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m then again from 5:30 p.m to 10:30 p.m. Contrary to what our travel instructions told us (that explicitly stated - There Is No Electricity In The Bungalows - that triggered a frantic Amazon Prime purchase just a few days before of a phone back up battery pack, which is now totally unnecessary). There is sort of hot water. There are mosquito nets.
After lunch we quickly stash our stuff in our bungalows and meet back for a walk through the jungle. He points out trees and plants and bugs. An an Agouti (that disappeared into the brush too quickly to get a photo).
The trail ends at an observation tower, that I do not climb - I'm sure Andy has some great photos of the sunset. The issue I'm having is not the walking per se, but the endless standing in one spot. Julio likes to pontificate, especially about a local hallucengic drug. Which sounds highly unpleasant.
When we finally get back to the lodge before dinner, we are drenched in sweat.
Before dinner, we have time for a quick change into shorts and sandals for our boat ride on the river to look for caiman and any other wildlife can can see.
The boat ride was awesome - besides the fantastic breeze, we saw tons of caiman:
These critters get up to 100 lbs - the size of a large dog! And still they manage to pull of the "indignant Guinea pig" face.
Back at the lodge, once again we're standing endlessly outside the dining room while he talks about Sunday's itinerary. He says: You all have the itinerary that says we leave at 5:30, right? Um, no, actually, we have nothing. We were not provided with an itinerary at all. Another issue with Trafalgar.
Well guess what, we're all going to get up at 5:00 a.m., get a cup of coffee (yeah, no) and take the boat up the river for 10 minutes to the first stop. Much walking later, we will be provided a breakfast "snack". Another 10 minutes up the river to another reserve - that has only one bathroom at the entrance (bring your own toilet paper), then it's 3 kilometers out and 3 kilometers back.
Then another boat ride to Monkey Island (which of all of this seemed like the most feasible).
Julio, who noticed that obviously I'm not as spry as the rest of the group, gently tried to convince me to not go on this excursion. Though maybe I could catch the 10:00 a.m.boat from the lodge to meet them an Mondy Island.
The 6k is not actually the problem - the problem is that I go slowly, which might cause us to miss the subsequent boats (aren't they waiting for us? Never mind). My concern is 6k in 90 degree heat.
Anyway, at dinner, we are all grumbling about the lack of information about this lodge and the activities we signed up for. Only one of us (out of 7) had a detailed description of any of this. One couple had brought no long pants or shirts (at least I knew about that).
Oh and one last tidbit - Julio tells the group they need to wear "camouflage colors", I.e. dark blue or black. Nobody knew about this requirement, either. Not everybody has dark clothing.
After dinner we go back to the bungalow - nice to have the juice to charge up our phones! And good news: the temperature has definitely dropped to tolerable levels.
And the mosquito netting was not difficult to figure out.
So the plan: Andy will go off on the excursion, and I will stay behind - work on my blog, read my book.
Though Iwe didn't think the concept of catching up with them on Monkey Island was likely - and sure enough, as I type this in the last minutes before the power is cut off, there has been no 10:00 boat.
I sure hope the next couple of days isn't a lot of me sitting here writing my blog.
Stay tuned.
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