Saturday 10 May
We arrived in Lima at 0425 after a long travel day that routed us through Dallas and Miami. It was dark and misty when we arrived - difficult to see much of anything on the approach. The Jorge Chavez airport was modern and customs was quite efficient - the luggage claim a little less so, but it *was* 0500. Our bags were nearly the last to roll out. We were met outside immigration (and no, we did not have to pay duty on our binoculars, despite the dire warnings that anything worth more than $300 would be confiscated if not declared...whew) by our driver, who had us at our hotel, the Miraflores Colón, in about 40 minutes. We had arranged for early check-in, which was good, we needed the rest!
The hotel had a very nice breakfast buffet (good coffee and dulce de leche). I got the Dell wireless working, and got off a couple of "we're here" messages, but as there was a business center for free, planned to use that while here. The plan for the day was pretty open, as the group all arrives today.
We snoozed on and off during the day, punctuated by a nice walk a few blocks away to the Larcomar seaside mall overlooking the playa las piedritas (pebble beach). Things were slow before noon but as shops opened we browsed the alpaca goods and crafts, getting a sense for what was what...baby alpaca (ok) vs 100% alpaca, vicunya, etc. We (wisely, as it turned out) did not try to eat lunch at noon, but instead went back to the hotel for a few hours, venturing out again after 1500. Dinner being a late affair, it appeared many people were out eating at about 1600. We opted for a café with a foggy ocean view, enjoying a drink (beer for Robert, pisco sour for me) and large snacks of ceviche and rich chicken tacos.
The pisco sour was especially good, tasted a bit like a daiquiri. As wikipedia informed us back at the hotel, pisco is actually a grape-based brandy, and Chile and Peru dispute who makes the real thing. It is illegal to import anything into Peru labeled pisco, even.
The ceviche was a pretty standard peruvian type with a lot of lime and red onions, quite good.
What little we have seen of Lima has been nice. Granted the Miraflores district is the tourist/rich area, and there are plenty of policia turistica about, but not oppressively so. The streets were clean, there was much maintenance (painting etc.) going on, many shops and restaurants. Generally felt very european with a latin flair.
After dinner we browsed more shops and found a couple of sweaters that were more what we were looking for, each about $100. Better than the $180 I'd tried on earlier in the day!
Sunday 11 May
Feliz Día de Madre! A festive day for Peruvians, not just us norte-americanos. We were up early for a 0500 breakfast (more or less) then thru dark streets to the airport. We had a 0745 flight to Cusco. The approach was exciting, flying along the ridge one side of the long high valley where Cusco is situated, then making a sharp banking u-turn to descend to the runway. We were at some disagreement as to the altitude, we thought 11500, others say 10500; something to google later!
Leaving the airport we headed out of town to the Huacatanay (sp?) Lakes, really a marshy wetland area. Our local guide Silverio was joined by Brit guide and long-term Peru resident Barry Walker. The birding day was punctuated with a picnic lunch - complete w/ tablecloths, camp chairs, chilean wine and Inca Cola (kind of a lemon-meringue cream soda), and sandwich makings.
Returning to Cusco after 1500, it was nice to see the old city center looking pretty nice; the bulk of the city jammed into the valley was otherwise unremitting adobe, rebar in hopes of a second story, and red roof tiles. The Plaza de Armas a couple of blocks from the hotel was especially beautiful in the fading light of the day. The 16th-century Spanish-built churches on the plaza were especially fine and through the doorway of one was glimpsed an impressive gold altar. We walked and window-shopped for sweaters etc. but nothing really caught our eye, although I did eye a beautiful pair of leather gloves made from peccary hide.
We had dinner at A Tunupa, a wonderful Peruvian restaurant near La Plaza de Armas. Buffet-style with a marvelous selection (including complementary pisco sours), music, dancing...of course the one song we we sure to recognize was El Condor Pasa, I'm sure it is for the tourists, but such a haunting melody.
Monday 12 May - Machu Picchu
We were up at 0415 for a 0445 breakfast and off to the train station to catch our 0745 to Machu Picchu in Ollantaytambo. From there it was a 90 min scenic ride in a vista-dome car to the end of the line (as opposed to 4 hrs from Cusco), then 25 minutes by bus to Machu Picchu itself...in the rain and fog...darn! We entered the preserve and where should have been an awesome view was a blank wall of gray mist. We went on the long tour anyway, with local guide Wilma, and hoped the fog and rain would clear. In time it did, close to the end of the morning - enough to get the panoramic views of the terraces and walls, with the iconic Wayna Picchu in the near background.
We had lunch at the terrace restaurant at Machu Picchu then after birding the busy area there for andean wren, bussed a little and walked the remaining 3km or so back to the hotel zone...in a steady rain.
Our hotel, the Hatuchay Towers, is quite nice. The entire tourist zone is really - the tourism dollars have been good for folks here. Nice roads, a few rather nice hotels, many restaurants, a market with vendors (ok so a lot of junk but good if you want a bargain e.g. S/50 "alpaca" sweaters, probably made in China despite the peruvian tags). We did buy an inexpensive cotton throw for about US$8. Made it back in the rain for dinner, a very nice buffet at the hotel.
Tuesday 13 May
We both slept well despite the room being a bit cold (windows did not quite close). And we heard both the rain and the Urubamba river raging all night. After a 0545 breakfast the group went out to bird the road towards Machu Picchu. We were out in intermittent showers dodging the buses into the reserve for about 7 hours. We caught a glimpse of the luxury Hiram Bingham train, which looked nice, but frankly the regular train was very nice. Many good birds, tanagers and tyrannulets...although we missed the golden-headed quetzal while attempting to photograph a pair of torrent ducks!
A marvelous lunch "in town" following at 1400, then after a bit of walking through the vendors, went to the train station for our 1620 back to Ollantaytambo. The train ride was relaxing and included both a fashion show and a dance performance...in the aisle!
From Ollantaytambo we had the bus ride back to Cusco. We had about decided to eat our only little train sandwiches for dinner and forego looking for cuy al horno, but heard Barry ordering dinner on his cell phone. So at 2000 we were once again going to eat, at a marvelous restaurant a few blocks away, enjoying asparagus with prosciutto, beef tenderloin with sweet potato gnocchi, and peruvian red wine - too much food but too good to pass up. I did at least opt out of the dessert - caramelized strawberries - while Robert enjoyed his.
Back at the hotel around 2200 after another futile sweater hunt. We had a 0430 wakeup call to not look forward to!
Wednesday 14 May
Most of the group seemed afflicted with some variation of turista. We were ok, more or less - either because we were more careful or because our anti-malarial antibiotics have helped. Still - have to wonder about the parsley sprinkled on the potatoes...
Book recommendation from a fellow birder, who also stayed at the Canopy Tower: The Path Between the Seas by David McCullough, about the building of the Panama Canal.
Driving out of Cusco in the early morning, on our way down to the cloud forest, one had excellent panoramic views of the terraced and cultivated slopes. On those slopes were all the earth-tone colors found in the nicer alpaca sweaters, nice way to remember.
Another thing I liked in particular were the little crosses and statues on the rooftops of houses. Often it was a cross with yoked oxen, but other animals were also seen.
The drive up and over the Andes was a true e-ticket ride. Once we turned off the pavement (that road continuing to Lake Titicaca) onto the graded dirt road, we were headed up rather quickly. The road made sweeping switchbacks with some precipitous dropoffs on the turns, making us think of the fact that bus accident stories nearly always include the word "plunge". Up and up we went eventually topping out at around 13000 ft, seemingly above treeline in a very barren environment. As we descended gradually the forest reappeared and became lusher. After a cold picnic lunch around 10k feet, we were soon in the cloud forest proper. From above it was like looking out an airplane window; within it was misty and drippy. We made several stops en route and did see some great birds including masked trogon, golden-headed quetzal, tanagers and jays.
We arrived at our lodge after dark - kudos to our driver Americo for the fine low-visibility driving, including a few waterfall near misses. The whole experience was very Indiana Jones!
Our lodge, the Cock-of-the-Rock at 5000 ft in the cloud-forest (humid pre-montaine) consisted of a number of bungalows arrayed in the rainforest. No electricity, just candles, and presumably hot water from a gas heater. Mosquito nets over the beds in the candlelight added to the ambiance. :-) A real look around would have to wait until morning.
Thursday 15 May
I slept quite well under my mosquito net, and the alarm at 0430 came too early. Robert slept less well...but for both of us it was worth getting up, as we were off to the Cock-of-the-Rock lek a few minutes up the road. We brought up the rear with Silverio as we missed the main group by just a few minutes, doesn't pay to be late...any way within just a few minutes of settling in on the covered, benched platform, the first wild calls of the bird were heard, and then the first popped into view. Totally bizarre bird...very orange-y red, black wings, white on the tail, huge feathery crest that earns him my nickname "the elephant man of birds". He had a great display dance too, bowing down and stretching upwards.
We returned to the lodge for breakfast, birded from the "dining room" balcony with its many hummingbird feeders strategically placed. Agouti and brown-faced cappuchins were active too - the monkeys in particular looking to steal fruit from the feeders. We had a long walk before lunch, and plans for another mid-afternoon into evening...and we were dead tired already. The thought of pisco sours would have to be our motivation. :-)
After lunch (beans and rice, quite good), and an hour snooze, we had a second wind of sorts and went out on the afternoon excursion. This time we drove a ways down the road, then walked for a while birding the road. Back on the bus up to a viewing area where the lyre-tailed nightjar was known to be, and on cue at dusk they appeared - a spectacular bird! We also looked for rufescent screech-owl but did not find him.
One thing to note about this and the other lodges - no electricity, save for a generator that could be used to recharge batteries. I got my camera battery charged and hoped I could get the Dell charged at the next location, the Amazonia lodge.
Friday, 16 May
A relatively easy morning of birding at 0600 from the porch and then the road was followed by breakfast at 0730. By 0830 we were in the buses and headed downslope towards the Amazonia Lodge. We made several stops en route to bird, and had another fine picnic lunch. At 1500 we were in the village of Atalaya to get our boats - big dugouts essentially - that took us to the Amazonia Lodge, some 10 minutes or so, in a driving rain, on the upper Madre de Dios river. Once "docked" we still had a seemingly endless (but probably a half mile) in a downpour to the lodge itself.
The reward of the lodge was well worth it. Originally a citrus plantation, it became a eco-lodge due to the astounding bird diversity. And we were greeted by an incredible array of birds, as we sat on the broad porch and sipped lemonade. Blue-headed parrot, gould's jewel-throat, undulated tinamou, gray-breasted sabrewing, a plum-throated, cotinga and more!
A beer (Cusqueña) never tasted so good, and the low-flow shower was good as well. Even if I couldn't really wash my hair.
Also a bonus - electricity 24 hrs a day! Well, at least in the main building. :-)
Saturday 17 May
Ah...never underestimate the value of a cold beer and a hot shower after a long day. We had a long travel day, 7 hours (with two stops) by boat on the Madre de Dios river, taking us to the Manú Wildlife Center and lodge. The lodge itself was gorgeous, as was our private cabana, el horniguero (anteater).
The day on the boat was mostly sunny and bright, and although we didn't stop for birds per se, we saw many good birds nevertheless, including horned screamer, red and green macaws, capped heron, more fasciated herons than you could shake a stick at, amazon and ringed kingfishers, yellow-billed and large-billed terns,black skimmer, swallows...just a great day. The river navigation itself was interesting, there were many shallow areas to be skirted. The boat "driver" and his spotter did a great job of steering through the rough bits - they obviously knew the river well and could read the currents, cutting the motor and allowing the current to carry us when the water picked up the speed through the channels.
We ate lunch on the boat (chicken, which someone joked "tastes like cuy"), stopped mid-afternoon at Boca Manú Town (Boca Manú being where the Manú River joins the Madre de Dios) to fuel and use el baño, and reached our destination at 1645. A huge cold beer, Cusqueña of course, was the first order of business, and showering once we reached our room.
More mosquito nets and candlelight here...the former we would certainly need. Electricity was available in the main building if we needed it. The lodge also provided rubber boots, so it was a good thing we didn't bother carting ours with us!
Our elevation at Manú was 300 meters or 1000 ft. It was amazing to think that from here the river would drain all the way to the Amazon and ultimately to the Atlantic.
After the bird list and dinner I went back to the cabana while Robert went on the short owl walk. We heard a familiar sound from an adjoining cabana - "hey there's a giant cockroach on the bed!" - bringing back not-so-fond memories of Tiputini. We surveyed our room and came up clean, which means nothing...as Robert said, welcome to birding in the tropics. :-(
Sunday May 18
Up at 0430, at the meeting point at 0500...and then it started raining. I borrowed Robert's rain poncho to go back to the cabana to get mine. When the rain let up we all walked down to the boats. The early morning boat ride was pleasant as it had stopped raining and the dawn light was beautiful.
About 30 minutes of boating and we arrived at the "dock" - ok, steps cut into the mud bank - where the macaw clay lick was located, about a mile (it seened) along a path that went through what looked like an overgrown banana plantation. A large blind awaited us with seats arrayed along the long side overlooking a narrow, shallow water channel with a nice bank above it. The trees above the bank were filled with blue-headed parrots (Pionus) with the occasional orange-eared, yellow-crowned, and mealy (Amazona) parrots. We waited for the macaws to come in while having breakfast. A sentinel pair of scarlet macaws sat in a tree while the blue-headeds periodically spooked and flew around en masse squawking. Three red howler monkeys were spotted in a tree being fairly immobile and quiet - I had actually dismissed them as wasp nests earlier!
We had a quiet period when all the blue-headeds and allies left. Eventually the macaws came in - all scarlet and red-and-green - but to the bank upstream from us a bit, guess we were a little too loud or moved too much for their liking. But we got good looks anyway, if not any good photo opportunities. Walking back to the boats we had some barred antshrike and great views of black-tailed trogon. I would have liked to photograph one that was particularly close but as a group we were a bit loud and it flew off. :-(
Lunch back at the lodge was copious, as usual...we are eating loads. Today's meal was certainly elegant - a very nice beet salad in half an avocado (which even Robert ate!), sweet-and-sour chicken, and a very moist quinoa cake. I had to give away most of my chicken and ate a few bites of Robert's cake.
We had some siesta time this afternoon, much appreciated. I even managed to wash out a shirt which has a decent chance of drying in the sunlight.
The afternoon walk was closer to home, first in the gardens around the cabanas, then over to a canopy tower. The tower was a metal circular staircase going up to a wooden platform 136 ft or so up in a ceiba tree. The views were spectacular even if the walk up was a bit nerve-wracking (too much staircase jitter). Coming down from the tower we meandered a bit more before returning to the lodge for a very welcome hot shower pisco sour, and dinner.
Monday 19 May
An early morning boat ride, a float in a pretend catamaran, a climb up a (sturdier) canopy tower, an emperor tamarind launching at my head...quite the morning! We were out early again to get to an oxbow lake about 30 minutes downstream. The walk to the lake was productive, although some of the ant birds were typically very difficult to see. The lake itself had well-developed vegetation - from the canopy tower later we could see the original river channel filled in with greenery. On the lake itself we had the three specialties: black-billed seed finch, purus jacamar, and pale-eyed blackbird.
It was pretty hot on the lake - direct sun, little breeze - so it was nice to get back into the forest to walk to the canopy tower. This one had a sturdier staircase, all 176 steps, leading up to a platform in a kapoc tree that itself had huge buttressed roots. It was pretty quiet there save for the ornate hawk-eagle. The little flies eventually made me want to go down. Back to the boat, snoozed until I heard someone shout "king vulture!", then we were back.
At our cabana, I made it inside, then saw Robert at the door saying we had a visitor. It was the little emperor tamarin monkey Frida, cute thing, but we didn't really want her in the room. Well, she got in anyway through a gap in the screen, and before I knew it she had launched at my head (flying leap first onto the mosquito netting, then me) and was biting my ears. Guess my earrings looked inviting. :-) Anyway after the initial shriek (both me and monkey) and thoughts of the movie Outbreak, it then became an exercise of getting her out, me trying to get her on my arm, her jumping from me to the mosquito nets and back...a little Tarzan in our own rom...eventually we both just went outside and she followed us. Whew!
The afternoon would be our last big walk at Manú with a trip to another oxbow lake, while we dreamed of hot showers and cold beer.
Tuesday 20 May
This was a long travel day - 8 hours by boat to Puerto Maldonado, or actually, to Labarinta, and then 2 hours on a very dusty road to Puerto Maldonado itself. The last few miles at least were paved but the rest was very much a fine dust experience. The boat ride was terrific, even with the intermittent pouring rain...but it was warm and kind of fun.
Puerto Maldonado seemed very...third world. Lots of motorcycles, dirt roads, tropical feel...as one group member (Angelo) said, "I fell asleep on the boat and woke up in Vietnam!". We arrived pretty late in the afternoon and after a shower and a welcome Coke Zero, went for a walk led by Silverio, who lives here. List and dinner followed. I found the "business center" and despite the slow connection managed to send a "we've emerged from the rainforest" email.
Wednesday 21 May
This day was the "throw-away" birding day, but on the brief visit to the outskirts of Puerto Maldonado, we saw:
Soon we were at the airport - a steamy tropical affair, reminded me of flying out of Puerto Escondido, Mexico. It was good we didn't try too hard to clean up after the morning birding since we pretty much soaked our clothes standing in line. We did do a bit of shopping at the airport, picking up one of the beautiful hand-made embroidered panels depicting the environment (and at $60, half the price I found it later in the day in Lima...) and a beautiful red cotton scarf with embroidery on it.
The flight to Cusco was only 30 minutes. There we said a last goodbye to Renzo, who got off there (Silverio stayed in Puerto Maldonado, where he lives), while the rest of the group stayed on the plane and went on to Lima. There was a lot of group debate about whether it was worth it to go to the hotel due to transit time, when we had to be back, etc., but in the end all but one couple went. I was on a shopping mission anyway!
So we met our driver and collectively went to the Miraflores Colón hotel. We had a nice ocean-front drive on the way in where we saw pelicans, boobies plunge diving, and gulls. At the hotel...gorgeous room for just a few hours' stay...but the (very hot!) shower (real shampoo!) made it worthwhile. We were soon strolling at Larcomar and shopping. For all the shops we visited, we wound up buying everything at the same place we'd bought sweaters when we first arrived. (A sweater for my friend Terri, a poncho for me; Robert bought a poncho for his Aunt Alla, too. Also a cookbook on basic peruvian cooking that had some of the soup recipes in it.) And despite our telling the group not to wait for dinner for us, we wound up meeting them all at the Vista al Mar restaurant by chance anyway. One last Pisco Sour for me, Inca Cola Light for Robert, some excellent cebiche and a langostino risotto...yum.
The return to the airport took about an hour, not much longer despite a little traffic. Check-in was fine - no repeat of Quito! - and we even managed to spend out our remaining soles on coffee beans and (finally) some Cusqueña dark beer. Late-night flight to Miami, then to Dallas and Tucson, and we would be home the next day.
So - how to sum up this trip? The birding was of course marvelous - I think the group species count was nearly 440, yet to see what ours were. Machu Picchu was of course something special. The drive through the Andes was spectacular especially if you didn't think too hard about the plunge potential. :-) Friendly people, very good food (sadly no cuy or chicha morada), good weather (even when steamy), far fewer bugs in the lowlands than we expected. Really whets our appetite for more travel here e.g. Bolivia. We met some great people on the trip, too, hopefully we can keep in touch.
The only icky note - Miami International Airport - what a lousy airport! Walk for miles, no working bathrooms anywhere near customs or security, escalators and moving walkways out of commission, virtually no concessions near the gates...ouch. The CBP guy at immigration was very friendly for the early hour (0600) but that was about the only positive. We flew through here because we had free tickets - tax only, ~$72 each - so you take the itinerary you can get...but boo!
Despite that ending - great trip!