Colds are called colds because folk wisdom dictates that one
acquires them by being exposed to cold weather.
In fact, a cold is an upper respiratory infection caused by a number of
different viruses. I had disproved folk
wisdom by acquiring a cold in tropical Peru, and on this day this particular Peruvian
virus has tightened its grip on my body, twirled me several times around its little
virus head, and slammed me into a brick wall.
I’ve somehow managed to get myself to breakfast, but when
Michel starts talking enthusiastically about a morning hike I decide that the
time has arrived in the progression of my disease to opt out of the hike, to rest,
and to see if I can muster the strength to fight back against the virus.
So when everybody else leaves on the hike, I set up my “sick
room” in the hammock on the veranda in front of our room. The set-up is simple: Me in the hammock, a book, Mr. Mustache Man
the cat for company, and a nearby chair holding Kleenex, Tylenol, and a glass
of water. First I take a great nap, then when I wake up I continue to lie in the
hammock and read my book. The book is “Talking About Manu – Exploration of a Virgin
Rainforest” a book I have mentioned
in a previous post. The book is authored
by Marianne van Vlaardingen, the founder and owner of Pantiacolla Tours and is a great guide on the flora and fauna of the
Manu Reserve. It also contains a brief
discussion of the human inhabitants.
It
is amazing to consider that in the present day where it is possible to connect with
practically anyone almost anywhere, and where “the shrinking world” is a catch
phrase, that entire cultures exist that have had little or no contact with
the outside world. There are at least
two such groups in the Manu reserve. One
is called the Kogapacori the other is called the Mashco Piro. These are names that outsiders have given
these groups. Nobody knows what they
call themselves. There have been
sporadic sightings of these groups over the years – usually from a helicopter
or boat, but very few close encounters.
One close encounter Marianne discusses in the book took place in the
early 1990’s. Three women speaking a
language nobody understood showed up at an outpost on the Manu River. Because some of their words resembled words
from the Mashco and other words seemed to be from the Piro, both indigenous groups in that area, people
started referring to them as the Machco-Piro women. Then that name was transferred onto the
entire group that they came from. The
three women lived on the banks of the river for a number of years and subsisted
on roots, fruit, and the eggs of birds and turtles. They showed a great deal of hostility to
anybody who would happen along the river and would often run after the boats
yelling and throwing things. Finally
they incorporated themselves into a group of Machiguenga Indians and left the
area.
An
epilogue to the information about the Machco-Piro people in the book is the recent
information that has been appearing in news reports. Starting just last year the Machco-Piro
people have made sporadic and increasingly frequent contacts with the outside
world, and those contacts have not all been peaceful. They often appear singly or in groups,
seemingly out of nowhere, and demand food or gifts. Some people who have not been compliant have
been killed with arrows. The village of Diamante
has been an epicenter for contacts, and because of the potential danger posed
by the Machco-Piro the local eco-tourism lodge has been closed, which has
created economic hardship for the village.
The Peruvian government is doing its best to keep control of the
situation – trying both to protect the local villagers from the Machco-Piro
natives and to protect the natives from diseases carried by the locals to which
they have had no exposure and thus have no immunity.
I
lie in the hammock, read the book, nap, join the others for lunch, and then go
back to my hammock, book, and lap cat while the others take an afternoon
hike. Mid-afternoon, I’m awakened from a
nap by an unearthly noise that would be difficult to describe, but may be close
to the sound that would be produced by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir if they were
all high on LSD and being attacked by a truckload of rabid swine. I find out later that I’m hearing a group of
howler monkeys. But as I’m listening to
it, there’s nobody around to ask. So I’m
just awake and wondering if I’m safe or if the marauding drug crazed songsters
and disease addled hogs will stampede from the forest and kill me . And since I am awake anyway, I take stock of
my personal health and decide that a day spent with hammock, book, and cat have
served me well. I’m not cured, but I’m
improving and able to rejoin the land of the living. The cold continues the rest of my time in
Peru, but I do feel a little better every day.
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| Howler Monkeys Thinking About Hogs and Songsters |
Our
remaining time at Pantiacolla Lodge consists of day-trips and hikes punctuated
by Hubert’s excellent meals. In no
particular order here are some of the highlights:
Ants: I mentioned bullet ants in a previous
post. They pretty much keep to
themselves in the trees where they live, but we often encounter amazingly long
columns of army ants and leaf cutter ants.
We carefully step over them and allow them to continue on with their
business while we do likewise. All of
the buildings at the lodge are on stilts and each stilt has a ring of poison to
block ants from entering the building.
Somehow, though, ants find their way into our bathroom – perhaps they come up the
pipes. Fortunately, they only come at
night. I am more than a little surprised
the first time I make a nocturnal bathroom visit and see that the toilet is
swarming with millions of ants. Happily,
they do confine themselves to the bathroom and mostly to the toilet, and
happily, as a male I can use the toilet even though it is swarming with
ants. But there's no way that I ever
could or would sit down on that toilet!
The clay lick: Macaws and parrots in the western Amazon region, and only those birds in that region, eat
clay. Some biologists believe that they
eat clay to make up for a dietary vitamin deficiency while others feel
that they eat clay to neutralize toxic or caustic chemicals present in some of
the foods that make up their diet.
Regardless of the reason, macaws and parrots show up in the hundreds at
specific “clay licks” on cliffs and river banks every day to devour clay. Very early one morning we travel by canoe up
the river to a clay lick. As soon as we
arrive we notice a lot of macaws and parrots circling high in the air and occasionally flying closer to check out the situation on the ground.
They seem nervous and never actually land at the lick. Michel notices a bat falcon sitting for a
period of time on a dead branch. Bat falcons are small and pose a danger only
to parakeets, but its presence is apparently making all of the birds
nervous. The birds also seem to be having issues with several nearby vultures –
part of a group of vultures that are keeping track of a dead capybara near the
shore on the other side of the river.
None of the macaws or parrots ever land so we are never able to see any
of them close – so the expedition is a bit of a bust. On the other hand, we are standing on the
shore of a river in the Amazon rainforest watching flocks of parrots and tons
of macaws. Perhaps they’re a bit far
away, but not as far away as they would be had we stayed in the US.
Flora and fauna: One day we see a jaguar print in the mud.
This is as close as we get to any jaguar - as far as we know. Other than a
capybara that swims right in front of me in the river one day we don't see a
lot of large mammals. They exist, but
there's a lot of foliage to hide in. On
our hikes and expeditions into the rain forest we mostly we take note of the
plants and flowers, insects, and small animals.
In the rainforest, where there are so many species of living things
and where there is so much competition for survival, it seems like everything
either has thorns or is poisonous. An
example – One day we go to a hot spring to swim and relax. When we get out of the water, Kathy puts her
shirt on over her swimsuit and I notice that there is a caterpillar on the
shirt. In my attempt to brush it off, I
push her shirt and the caterpillar right next to her skin. She immediately
screams in pain and within seconds a large red welt has formed. The defense mechanism of this caterpillar is
to concentrate the toxins of the plants it eats into the hairs that cover its
body. We immediately tell Michel about
the caterpillar exposure. He shrugs
sympathetically and tells us that Kathy will not die.
Above left: Thorns on a walking palm - Above right: Cane toad - this large terrestrial Amazonian toad has poison glands. Its tadpoles are also extremely toxic
Above left: These caterpillars move en masse as a protective strategy. The caterpillars on top go over the leading edge and the trailing edge caterpillars climb on top and move over the mass. Above right: A poison dart frog. The lipophilic alkaloid toxins in its skin are used to poison the darts used for hunting by various Amazon cultures. Scientists have extracted a variety of medically useful compounds from these toxins including epibatidine, a pain killer 200 times more potent than morphine.
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| Moths on a Fern |
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| Butterfly |
I
can’t leave the topic of rainforest hikes without mentioning that the heat and
humidity range from uncomfortable to unbearable, depending upon the day, the
situation, and one’s frame of mind. Bear
in mind that we are outfitted in long sleeves and pants to prevent mosquito
bites and we are wearing large rubber boots so we can navigate the rain forest
muck. It is possible to swim in the
river to cool down, but the river itself is bathtub warm. During the hottest part of the day, the best
approach is to just hang out – move around as little as possible and siesta in
the nearest available hammock!
The Fantastic Food: I have already mentioned the great culinary
skills of Hubert, our cook. He continues
to produce delicious meals every day, three times a day for the entire excursion. Our traveling companions come up with a plan
to bring him back to Belfast and open a Peruvian pub where he will be the
cook. For one lunch he serves his version
of a Peruvian layered potato dish called causa rellena. We all unabashedly consume huge amounts
because it is so good. Then we discover that this is only the appetizer when he follows up with an equally wonderful
stew of rice and meat. We can’t do the
second course justice! For dinner one
evening he serves lomo
saltado, an interesting fusion dish created by the Chinese who settled
around Lima. It is a stir-fried stew of
beef, onions, peppers, peas, and tomatoes flavored with soy sauce, and is served
with rice and fried potatoes. We always
look forward to mealtimes, and we never leave the table hungry or disappointed.
Huito Fruit Tattoos: The huito is a small tree that grows in the
Amazon region. The juice of its immature
fruit is clear, but produces a chemical reaction with skin that results in a permanent
dark blue color that only fades after several weeks have passed and that layer
of skin is sloughed off. The natives of
the rainforest use the juice of the huito fruit to paint elaborate patterns on
their bodies.
While
I am in the rainforest I’m adopted into a native Amazonian group. In the adoption ceremony they use sticks
dipped in mashed huito fruit to make a pattern on my arm. The rest of the
ritual involves days of fasting, hallucinations, virgins, jaguars, condors,
serpents....all the usual stuff.
Of
course the preceding paragraph is entirely a bald-faced lie that I make up when
I get back to the US to explain to my friends why there is a huito fruit tat
covering my arm. The truth is slightly
more mundane but no less entertaining. One
afternoon, Michel presents a huito fruit that he has picked up in the forest
and asks our Irish friends if they will grate the fruit into a bowl for a
project that he will explain in detail later.
The guys each take a turn grating and then present the grated fruit and
the leftover portion of the fruit it to Michel.
He shakes his head and says that he really needs the whole fruit
grated. So they get back to work, and
after Michel gives his approval of the completely grated fruit, we all go off
to take our afternoon siesta. I wake up
from my nap to the sound of great exclamations of consternation coming through
the wall from the room of the Irish gentlemen.
Their hands, of course, have all turned a very dark shade of blue. Michel is very amused at his joke. That evening, Michel offers to paint tattoos
onto anybody who is interested and we all volunteer. It is, in fact, several weeks before my tat
completely disappears. What a great
souvenir to bring home!
Evenings at the
lodge are fun. We play cards a lot. There’s also a game table in the lodge that
has holes on the top and a drawer underneath.
In addition to the holes on top there’s a brass frog with an open
mouth. The game is to attempt to toss
brass coins into the frog’s mouth. This
is apparently a popular bar game in Peru.
It is very challenging but also lots of fun!
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| My Cool Huito Fruit Tat |
Up the river:
The day arrives when we have to get back in the canoe and head up
river. Our route back is exactly the way
we went in since there is only one route.
Going against the current takes longer than when we were going downstream,
but we eventually arrive at Atalaya where we climb aboard the Pantiacolla van
and continue back into the cloud forest.
We spend the night at Posada San Pedro, where we had stayed on the way
down. The next day we stop in
Paucartambo and have lunch at the same little restaurant where we had stopped
before for breakfast. They serve a
lovely beet, bean, and pea salad with a rice and vegetable pilaf. It is market day in Paucartambo and it’s much
livelier than it had been on the trip down – we enjoy observing the commerce along
every street and appreciate the opportunity just to people watch.
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| Market Day in Puacartambo: A Cartload of Dressed Out Alpacas |
We arrive in
Cusco late in the afternoon. I am
embarrassed to admit that the first thing we all do is link to wi-fi after the
hardship of having been disconnected for nearly a week. We also assemble a large mountain of dirty clothes
to be laundered. Kathy is under the
weather – perhaps an altitude issue after having spent time at almost sea level
in the rain forest. So she rests while
Madeline and I peruse Cusco for dinner options.
The really pleasant reality is that we have nothing booked for tomorrow,
thus we can spend an entire day in Cusco doing whatever we want to!
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