Back to Lima after monkeying around
Back to Lima after monkeying around
Up at 6:15, breakfast at 7:30, then an open boat ride of about 25 minutes to Monkey Island. After we climbed some really steep steps up the bank from the landing spot, we had a 20 minute walk through the jungle to a “ranch” that rescues infant and injured monkeys with the goal of releasing them back into the wild. There were a lot of different kinds of monkeys but most were way too playful for us to be really comfortable. One particular monkey with really mangy looking fur was downright aggressive. I put on my long sleeved overblouse as a defensive measure to cover my backpack and my arms. The nasty monkey grabbed my folded walking stick but I got aggressive and shook him off. A small howler monkey scampered up the walking stick and arm of one of the men, curled around his neck, and stayed there throughout the visit. It finally had to be removed by one of the natives.
We were all happy to leave the monkey ranch and hike back to the boat, down the steep steps and onto the boat.
We saw a mahogany tree that had fallen and been cut to show the wood. The ground was covered with mahogany colored sawdust. The wood is very dense and valuable. The fallen tree will be there for many years without rotting. Mahogany trees are endangered and nearing extinction from over harvesting and poaching. We also saw rubber trees with scars from sap collection. There is almost no market here for rubber anymore.
After we got back to home base we took a 10 minute hike through more jungle to the giant Ceiba Tree for which the lodge is named. The Ceiba tree is huge and becoming rare. The species is being overharvested and is disappearing. We returned to the lodge for another shower and lunch.
We completed our repacking and began our 2 hour boat ride on the Amazon Queen back to Iquitos at about 1:30. During the week I think the most impressive thing we saw was how high the water gets during rainy season. Many of the places we visited by taking boat rides with dry landings would have been made in native canoes with potentially wet landings. The people who live along the river know and use the rising of the water to plan crop placement and construction of houses. Our guide pointed out where the river would be in the rainy season and it was as much as 30 feet in many places. Now imagine a wide, wide river that rises by 30 feet. That is a lot of water. I am very glad we were there during the dry season.
We arrived in Lima rather late and were met by our next guide, Maria. After the bus ride to hotel, we made a short visit to our room in the same hotel we had stayed in last weekend. We had a nice dinner at a restaurant in a below street level mall (Locomar) facing the Pacific Ocean. We got to bed about midnight fully appreciating that we were back in a modern city.
Helen’s Journal
Friday, Oct 13, 2006