On the edge of the Amazon Rainforest 

My roommate and a couple of other friends escaped the high mountains to go to a couple of villages on the east side of the Andes Mountains a couple weekends ago. Starting at 5am, we took a bus out of Cusco while it was still dark. I tried to sleep during the first hour, but the bus kept stopping and starting to pick up people along the way. At some point I managed to get some quality sleep, but soon realized that the bus had broken down 90 minutes into the trip.  Not a good start, but better it broke down at this point, than later in the trip. We had to wait for another bus from Cusco to pick us up and continue on the journey.

This photo does not do justice to the steepness of the road. The road was paved, though was no more than the width of one and a half lanes and along a long windy mountain. Aside from a two-foot high guardrail, there was nothing stopping anything from cascading to the bottom of the mountain. For a solid two hours of moving time, we curved along and ascended up the mountainside.  This turns out to be what to expect for the whole duration of the trip... an estimated nine hours of moving time. 

The whole voyage can be divided into three segments: the road, the rocky unpaved road, and the jungle mud road. The first segment was a dream, though slightly claustrophobic and acrophobic.  The second segment was very bumpy with hairpin turns that were always tilting the bus to give the appearance of falling. The third segment also had hairpin turns, but with the added fun of muddy rocks and a road surface that was slowly degrading due to vehicular tracks creating ruts making the bus appear to tilt at an even sketchier angle.  But the final stage was OK, because we were thoroughly entertained by the jungle plants and mini-waterfalls. 

We had to switch buses after arriving in Pilcopata and get to the final destination of Salvacion. The first bus took 12 hours, including the wait for the second bus. It took us another two hours to get to Salvacion, going through more jungle mud roads in the night. There was one more obstacle before getting to Salvacion. We had to go through a river to get there. There is a river that overflows into a separate river, but it is shallow enough that no one builds a bridge and everyone just drives right through it. The driver has to get out to figure out which path to take to make sure the bus doesn´t sink.  Here are photos  of the water-crossing from our return to Pilcopata the following day:

There really wasn´t much to do in Salvacion, except to go to local river. Though the day started with a major rainfall, it did not stop us from checking it out, though we decided against taking a ride along the rafts.

It was a nice walk through the forest, but rather uneventful. We also had a taxi driver waiting for us, so we weren´t able to go too deep into forest here.

Pilcopata

We retreated back to the first town of Pilcopata to finish off the rest of the weekend. It was a nice bus ride because we were able to see what we missed the night before, which was a buncha trees, plants and water.

Once at Pilcopata, we went to a great lodge that was recommended by my roommate´s coworker. This place is more like a mini-plantation than anything.  The owner was growing coca plants, bananas, cinnamon trees, papayas, etc, had a tilapia farm in a small pond, and various birds were hanging out.

 this is a sour tomato plant... I was told that it is used for medicinal purposes

not sure what kind of bird this is, but the owner says that it is hanging out on the grounds, waiting for a mate

tucan!

The owner seems to be making his own moonshine, too.  Chuchuhuasu (pronounced choo-choo-wau-suh)  is a drink made from fermented corn and lavored with honey. It is stronger than wine, but less than 40% booze. It had a sour and sweet taste, but wasn´t bad. We drank two bottles in two nights between four of us.

The tucan is hiding in a tree with these red pods- inside the pods are little sacs of red dye that can applied to the skin for war paint.

 This plant is called a Lip plant... and the owner shows why

bananas grow upside down

We took a walk down to an indegenious village, Wanamey, though it was poorly planned.  What we did not realize was that the whole town took off to see the football tournement in Pilcopata. But all was not lost. During the trek... maybe it was a couple hours each way... we managed to see lotsa insects, butterflies and plants and even saw some kids with a haul of two wild boars.

pineapple field

 little boy that stuck around the village on football day

this woman makes a moonshine made out of yucca (inside the plastic bucket)- it tastes a little like Senegalese palm wine: very sour and just barely enough alcohol to know that there is some. This is the only booze in the village

 the local swimming hole, behind the village

an orchid?

later on in the week, there will be a foot race that goes for a whole week for anywhere from 20 to 40 kilometers a day.  The runners will go on roads, through towns, villages and even the jungle - the above area was marked off for part of the route... I suspect many twisted ankles and mud-covered runners for this day.

after the fact, I learned that the kid to the left of the barrel killed the boars with a slingshot... I think I will call him David. Had I known that he was the slayer, I would have taken more triumphant hunting-style photos with David.

This is the shamen from the village holding an ayahuasca branch.

The trek took longer than expected, and we were ill-equiped for our picnic lunch by the river:  just two cans of tuna and seven small pita-like breads for six of us.  We arrived back in town at 3:30, starving. We walked into the first place we saw, conveniently at the end of the first block into town. This was one of the best restaurants that I've been to in Peru, if for the sole reason of the grandma cooking the food.  First of all, she didn't take our order for 15 minutes because she was cooking for for 6 other tourists and didn't want to burn the food.  After a heartfelt apology, she took our order and cooked four masterpieces of Peruvian food:

 great food and great artwork

 lomo saltado- the beef and french fry stir-fry. This time, served with a plantain

 pollo milanese- fried chicken breast with fries and salad, rice

 fried river fish (trout)

 interestingly, the seeds were black, but it wasn't a sign of going bad.

The biggest surprise was the chili pepper that she gave us-  it turned out to be the hottest thing that I have eaten since arriving into this country. Not on the level of a habanero, but it made me break out in a heavy sweat and bring out the endorphins after eating half the pepper. 

We went back the next day to try more of her menu-  she saved the rest of the pepper and served it up, but it had lost its punch after drying up overnight.  An interesting note about this dinner- the power in the town went out just after the grandma started making our food. She insisted on still cooking and was holding a flashlight that barely had any energy left in the batteries. I came to the rescue and shined my light on her whole operation in the kitchen, meanwhile watching her skills.  Like any great cook, she was sauteing things in stages and sampling for quality along the way. It was another great meal, despite the power outage!

Our final activity on Pilcopata was to go fishing along the river for a few hours- an act of futility. Whatever fish that were swimming were too small for the hooks that we were using (which was really just a hook on a spool of fishing line with a simple weight). They would just take nibbles of the worms we used within seconds of dropping the line.  

Our guide managed to jerk one out of the water, but the fish flew off the hook and back into the water. The fish was only four inches long.  The biggest winners were the sand flies in the area that attacked us for the two hours we were there. Plus I got some great shots of butterflies hanging out with us (see below).

Insects, bugs and lotsa butterflies

 he's not dead, just lying on his back

 the poos guy somehow had his head partially severed. We all decided it was best to perform euthenasia on him- our guide used his machete to chop him up and put him out of his misery.

 look closely in the center of the center leaf

above and below: look closely and notice an army of ants carrying the leaves in a line.

 it took a while to get a solid photo of thisblue butterfly that is the size of a hand

standoff: the winged insect managed to escape

 this is not a leaf attached to a doorway, it's a camouflaged bug!

Animals

 a pile of puppies in the back of a restaurant

 this pig and these piglets were forced to live on the edge of town because they really did smell bad

 

There will be more photos of animals, but the photo files are huge and are taking a long time for me to upload.  Currently I am in Ollantaytambo, doing some biking and getting ready for a downhill bike competition (www.incaavalanche.com).  And I will fit in a day at Machu Picchu and Aguas Calientes..  More on that later...