Jungle Trip - Erika Lodge: Manu Park Day 1

Manu national park is located in southern Peru. It is in the Amazon basin ie the rivers eventually feed into the Amazon river. UNESCO recognised it as being a biosphere and listed it as a world heritage site
Manú National Park
This huge 1.5 million-ha park has successive tiers of vegetation rising from 150 to 4,200 m above sea-level. The tropical forest in the lower tiers is home to an unrivalled variety of animal and plant species. Some 850 species of birds have been identified and rare species such as the giant otter and the giant armadillo also find refuge there. Jaguars are often sighted in the park. (quote from UNESCO) Manu Adventures produced this map illustrating the park and we are travelling:
see https://www.manuadventures.com/
4:00am is the time that I got picked up for my lift to Manu Park.  12am was the time I got to bed after that futile effort with the tourist police. 4:00am, and I thought 5:30am was early for my bike rides back home. 4:00am means waking at  1:30, 2:00, 3:00, 3:30am consecutively in anticipation - why bother sleep at all ?  I was told it was a long drive to get there. We travel in one of those tiny vehicles they call taxis crammed with a guide, taxi driver and provisions of water and food.  I am sure I’ll catch up on my sleep.
My guide spoke good English, he is an expert on the animal life in the park. The taxi driver simply smiled at me and drove very well dealing with precarious situations seemingly inconsequential. Imagine driving on a narrow dirt road, landslips and deep ravines and a dirty great truck  stares you in the face. No choice but to reverse up hill until you find a small cut-away. I looked down and thought about religion: is it too late for me at this juncture ?
I saw trucks laden with people. I was wondering if all those people on top of the heavily laden trucks weren't going to fly off at any moment. I just hope the driver doesn't need to brake suddenly.

On the way I get a few snippets of the history of the various towns and what Manu has to offer. I must say most of it rolled over my doped, travel weary mind. However I do remember we did stop in Paucartambo for breakfast.  Paucartambo was a frontier town, it is famous for the huge 'Virgen del Carmen' festival held in July and a 17th century bridge built by the Spaniards to memorial its invasion. Not much to rave about the town as a tourist at any other time, but it was good to have breakfast and a rest here.
map Cusco to Paucartambo
I tried a drink called maca andina, prepared by a Quechuan lady. On reading and hearing about it later I find it is a miracle drink: it is supposed to * increase fertility * improve sleep * improve brain function * energise and increase vitality and so on. I liked the drink, it's quite tasty. A chocolate-milk taste of syrupy consistency, quite filling. (Too late for the fertility and the vitality might just be returning.)
After the Paucartambo stop we register and enter the park boundary. Dues are paid and its a long drive of 3-4 hours with 'Volvos' and generally hairy roads to get to where we want. At times I thought 4wd would be a more prudent choice, but somehow our driver did his job and got us to Pilcopata, the start of the jungle journey. (or was that start in Cusco ?) I can't say I was bored nor overly scared as I wasn't, the valleys are very scenic, waterfalls abound, birds were singing, butterflies everywhere and there were a couple of tunnel cuttings to go through. There are also some lodges hidden away in choice locations, though some have been demolished through landslip - so common in Peru.  I am happy my guide and driver got me here in one piece. 
map to Pillcopata
After a seemingly interminable time we arrive at Manu National Park ! The long drive would take just over eight hours. Eight hours seems like a long time - gee I can almost fly from Chile to New Zealand in that time - Long drive seemingly elapsed quickly. I needed sleep and I got it in punctuated form. The going was slow, mostly about 30kph – we covered 150 km -  because of many towns, big hills and the single lane dirt roads in Manu Park.
The towns often have full road speed bumps to slow all vehicles near schools and pedestrian precincts. After hours on the road a sign confirms our entry to the Manu national park.
Upon our arrival at Pilcopata I met the other travellers joining be on this trip. I think there is about 16 of us in total. We are split into three groups to go rafting, two of which go first and my group allotted to the bus – groan – more terra-firma  transport. Looking at the flowing water nearby, I can't but help feel a tinge of jealously.
I missed seeing the ‘cock of the rock’ national bird of Peru, but was assured by the others that though I missed seeing the bird, the taxi ride was the better option than the bus they took. I consoled myself with the memory that I did spy one on the trek to Machu Picchu, so I wasn’t too unhappy.
The rafts were a bit old and tatty, but from what I saw and heard, the river was grade one at best ie.flowing, but not in any way challenging. It was sunny, so a dip in the river every now and again will be fun.
The bus trip fortunately was short to the port and on the way the cook collected some leaves, which she explains will be used in the preparation of one of our meals.
I was excited with anticipation as, on this trip I might get to sample some real Peruvian fare (, and that wish was fulfilled). We meet the two rafting groups at the port and swap over after a lunch. 
I suffered the presence of those awful endemic white bread rolls again,  just when I thought they were never again.  Luckily a delicious rice and meat curry was on offer and so I could at least avoid consuming them. We have a great cook, she said was just catering for the non educated palates  that might be amongst us with the bread buns. With a good mix of European and Canadians with an equally discerning and enquiring palate in our group, none were consumed.
We had fun jumping out wherever possible on the gently flowing water. Our first night of stay was finally here at a place called Erika Lodge. 4pm – 12 hours from the start. We join the others who arrived in a motorised long boat - which will be our mode of transport over the next few days. 
No rest. It was on already, mission: keep the tourists occupied. Time for a night jungle walk before dinner. We saw plenty of spiders, all in a community, not much else.
I knew I should have stayed put and slumbered on the suspended rocking chairs!  Oh well, yawn: buenos noches.
We had travelled around 16km (around and  hour) on the boats down the Rio alto Madre de Dios to get to Erika Lodge, not including the preliminary setup and fussing around. Using OpenStreetMap https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/2963878015#map=12/-12.9147/-71.3562&layers=C  or Google Maps   you can get a good idea of where we travelled along the river and the mountainous vegetated environment.

Blog Indexes:

Location: Rio Alto Madre de Dios s/n, 17700, Peru

Comments

Post a Comment