« Cameras Geared for Combat | Main | Back in the United States »
November 14, 2007
Return From The Amazon Rain Forest
Just returned to Cusco, Peru from 4 days in the Manu Nature Reserve on the Rio Alto Madre de los Dios in the Amazon Rain Forest. In the Amazon basin, we saw blue headed parrots, Macaws, Toucans, frogs, tarantulas, army ants, fire ants, gun ants, capybaras, flycatchers, herons, caiman(s), brown capuchin monkeys, squirrel monkeys, Dusky titi monkey, too many animals to believe. And, to top it all off, I saw a photographed a Puma in the Manu Nature Reserver yesterday afternoon. No one could beleive it because a) Pumas are extremely rare and 2) Pumas live in the mountains, not in the jungle flatlands. About 7 or 8 People that have lived in Manu all of their lives were crowded, barefoot around my PC, barefoot, beneath a thatched roof, gawking by candlelight around my PC, high-fiving the gringo loco because they've lived here 30, 40, or 50 years, and never seen one. It was awesome.
Somehow, we avoided a harrowing head-on collision with a yellow truck today at about 14,000 feet above sea level in a blind hairpin near the Western entrance to Manu National Park. Very close to death. No more riding in the Andes for me. It's just too dangerous. Indescribably dangerous. So dangerous that even I will never do it again.
Tomorrow, I fly from Cusco to Lima. Crazy.
I'm sitting here in Trottomundo's (Globetrotter's) on the Plaza de Armas in Cusco, and the tourists are walking by my Suzuki 4x4 SUV, gawking in horror. We just returned from 4 days in the Amazon jungle, and the car looks like it. It's covered in mud, top to bottom, and all these tourists are walking around this fancy little plaza looking at my silver jungle mobile gawking and going "wtf?"
Hilarious. Oh my god I am glad to be alive after our near accident today.
Technorati tags:
Delicious tags:
Folksonomy:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share web pages.
Posted by Rob Kiser on November 14, 2007 at 06:27 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:>
http://www.peeniewallie.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1469
Comments
Welcome back!
Posted by: sl on November 15, 2007 at 05:48 AM
Crap, I should read your blog more often. Get busy for a few weeks and I'm out of the loop. A friend of mine is in Lima teaching elementary school kids Linux as a part of a missionary program, and I would have sent some stuff along with you. I'm sure you need more stuff to carry.
Posted by: Alice H on November 15, 2007 at 10:24 AM
I want a kitty like that!!:) Bring one for me!!
Posted by: SS on November 15, 2007 at 09:09 PM