Back to the Jungle

Well now that my trip with mom and dad is over, it’s time for me to attempt to recap it all and fill you in on the trip of a lifetime. For those of you who don’t want to read the details, I’ll just say that the trip was 1,000 times better than any of us could have imagined. At the end of it all we tried to think what we would have cut out, but we all agreed on nothing because everything was so incredible and special. We have no complaints – just wonderful memories and funny stories to walk away with – oh and about 3,000 pictures – we are the Cummings after all! (Hopefully we’ll be able to delete at least a third of them!)

I will split up the entries according to different legs of our trip as we all know I tend to get carried away and write novels about everything. I figure this way, you can read about the trip as you have time (or desire). I’m going to write the entries in the order we visited each place and post them as I get them done (with pictures too!). I hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed living it!

Now, back to the jungle. It already seems so long ago that we were there. It’s pretty amazing how quickly time flies by. My friends are all making fun of me for taking a month off of Peace Corps, which is essentially what I’ve done since I’ve borrowed vacation days through next year! One of my friends was joking with me that some volunteers are getting together to auction off vacation days because they’ve heard I could use some! Hahaha – I wish they could, but unfortunately that’s not allowed – I certainly have no complaints though! Oh and speaking of time flying, on Saturday, June 23rd my friends of Peru 7 and I celebrated ONE YEAR in Peru! Can you believe it? On a daily basis it sure doesn’t feel like time is flying back, but looking back on it, you wonder where all the time went. My parents treated me to a night at Costa del Sol (the nicest hotel in Cajamarca) to celebrate – I had a Jacuzzi bath before bed and a hot shower in the morning – now that might not seem that exciting to you, but ask my parents, bathing in hot water is pretty much heaven on earth! Thanks, mom and dad! You guys are the BEST!! I miss them so much already….

Well now that I’ve rambled on for three paragraphs, I will get back on task to writing about our trip. As I said in the last entry I wrote about the jungle, we had a BLAST there. It was absolutely beautiful and more fun than I ever imagined. Some parts of the jungle were very much how I expected it to be, swampy, wet, and muddy – on some trails we walked through mud up to our calves! (and therefore wore these knee high rubber boots every time we went on a hike). However, there were other parts that were much drier and not as muddy, it looked just like a forest you’d see anywhere (well, sort of). Over the week that we were there, we walked on a lot of different trails that took us all over the forest surrounding the lodge. Some trails were about 60 meters higher (in altitude) than others and we were surprised to see what a difference just 60 meters made in the vegetation we saw. Another thing that surprised me was how shady it seemed in the forest because of the canopy. Most of the time, I just thought it was a cool and cloudy day, but then we would emerge into a part without canopy covering and it was so HOT because the sun was beating down on us without protection.

Like I said earlier, Gerson really knew a lot about the animals and vegetation in the jungle and was always teaching us new things. There is this one type of tree in the jungle called a walking palm tree because its roots are exposed and supposedly they “walk” 10-15 cm a year to find the best sunlight! Gerson told us this story about a farmer who placed a machete in the middle of the roots to see if this was really true and over five years it had moved half a meter (1.5 feet)! We saw lots of different types of trees while we were there, but I’d say this is the most unique. I think Gerson told us most of the trees there are really young compared to the trees we see in North America (I could be making that up though). There are some trees that have tons of tiny little thorns on them so Gerson warned us that we shouldn’t touch or grab on to anything without looking at it first. One day we were walking and Gerson said, “don’t touch this tree.” Next thing we hear is mom saying “OWWWW” – hahahaha – apparently she didn’t hear him! Mom was always making us laugh. The first day we were there Gerson pointed out some cicada nests to us (those bugs that make TONS of noise). The nests stay in the ground for one year then emerge as these tall and skinny pink nests that the cicadas come out of – in North America, however, they stay in the ground for 17 years which is why we had an invasion of cicadas in DC a few years ago. Anyway, before Gerson told us what they were, mom kicked one over and then asked what it was – he told her she’s not supposed to kick them over – oopsie! She felt so bad that she kept asking him if she could go back and pick it up, but he told her it was okay. Hahaha, oh mom.

We also saw tons of different ants, who knew that there were so many. The most interesting ones were the leaf-carrying ants that travel up to 2 km away from their holes to get little pieces of leaves that they carry back to use as food. Before they can eat it though, they pee and spit on it to form the leaves into a fungus and then they eat the fungus – ewww. We kept joking that I could help them in their process since every time we went on a hike I had to pop a squat on the side of the trail (almost got poked by a lot of sticks!). These particular ants have a queen ant, like bees, that designates which tree they are going to climb to get their leaves – it’s really fascinating to watch. Gerson kept telling us not to step on them and mom thought that was hilarious because it was so hard to avoid them.

Another time we saw some termites climbing on this one tree and Gerson told us we had to eat them! He said farmers use the termites to feed their chickens and everyone has to try them so of course we listened to them and did. Later we found out that we were the only ones who ate them – apparently we’ll do anything the guide tells us! They were really small though and just tasted like dirt. It’s still pretty disgusting. After that we became more skeptical of what he told us! Another type of ant we saw was an army ant that travels in a long line (like soldiers marching) and has pinchers that local people use to heal their wounds. Gerson picked one up so we could see the pinchers and of course mom wanted a picture – it took her so long to take it though that the ant dug its pinchers into Gerson’s finger and he started bleeding! The last type of ant we saw were fire ants that live in this one type of tree. They have a symbiotic relationship with the tree and larvae that live inside the tree (and create tunnels for the ants). The ants protect the tree so that nothing grows around its base or up its trunk. If you knock on the tree, all of the ants come out because it means there is danger – crazy, huh?

When Gerson wasn’t explaining something to us, he and I usually spoke in Spanish and mom always tried to guess what we were talking about. The day we saw the fire ant tree (and before he explained anything to us), Gerson told me to touch the tree to “probar como pican” (see how the ants bite). Well mom heard his say “pican” and asked, “Oh is this a pecan tree?” Hahahahaha – we were laughing so hard since “pican” in Spanish means bite not pecan. You can always count on mom to keep things entertaining. It was equally entertaining when she tried to impersonate the calls Gerson made for monkeys or birds because of course she sounded nothing like him – not that I could do much better, but that’s why I didn’t try!

Some of the most exciting things we saw on our hikes were the monkeys. We saw five different types of monkeys while we were there – Spider, Saddleback Tamarin, Dusky Titi, Squirrel, and Howler! My favorite type was the spider monkey because they are so active and acrobatic. They swing through the trees like its nothing so they’re really fun to watch. The first time we saw them, Dad wasn’t with us because we had had a really strenuous walk in the morning and he wanted to rest in the afternoon. Gerson spotted them so far away, as usual, so we ran off the trail to get closer to them. [Sidenote: you wouldn’t believe how far away he can spot these animals – especially since I can’t even see them when we’re practically on top of them – or how he can identify the birds by the call they make! They all sound the same to me, especially when they’re flying!] We watched them for about 15 minutes and looked at them through his binoculars to get a better look. Mom couldn’t use the binoculars for too long though because her glasses kept fogging up because she was so hot! (Even though it wasn’t that hot in the jungle, we had to wear long sleeves and pants everywhere we went and most of what we had on was long-john material so it made us really hot.) After watching the monkeys for a while, we decided to keep going, but Gerson was lost since we were off the trail – luckily mom and I have a good sense of direction and we knew which way to go! Haha. The next day we saw spider monkeys again with dad so I was happy because I didn’t want him to miss out on seeing them. Sometimes it’s startling how far they can jump and you want to gasp, but you have to try to hold it in because it’s important to stay quiet while watching them. Dad got so excited though that he yelled, “WHOA – that one just fell 20 feet!” It was so funny because we were all whispering and then dad yells this out. Gerson thinks it just jumped, not fell, so after that we kept teasing dad that we saw monkeys fall about 100 feet!

The Saddleback Tamarin (the smallest monkey in the jungle) and the Dusky Titi monkeys were cute, but not as active as the spider monkeys, so we didn’t watch them for as long, but it’s still so cool to see them in their natural habitat. The first day at TRC we saw about five Howler monkeys in one tree. They are one of the biggest types of monkey in the jungle (along with the Spider money – fatter, but shorter) and are a reddish-brown color. They aren’t very active either, but what makes them interesting is the loud noise they make – it sounds like howling wind (hence their name) and is so LOUD – you can hear it up to 2 km away! They do it as a defense mechanism. It was fun to see them that first day because we had heard them earlier that morning at the clay lick, but dad didn’t get a good look at them so we kept hoping we’d get a better look at them. One day Gerson saw them after lunch, really close to the lodge, but didn’t come get us because he thought we were resting so we kept teasing him that we were really mad about it. Luckily we got a really good look at them after the clay lick on of our last mornings so he was off the hook!

Although we loved everything about the jungle – the clay lick, the hikes, the people we met – our favorite activity was probably kayaking. That’s right, kayaking. I’ve only been kayaking about four times – and I was the most experienced out of all of us so we were a little nervous, to say the least. Not to mention the fact that Gerson kept telling us what to do if we capsized so we were paranoid, but we all managed to do really well and LOVED it! We took the boat about 30 minutes up river to the border of the National Reserve and the National Park (where you need to have a permit to enter). Gerson wanted to take us further up river, but there was a big group of rafters arriving that day and if they saw us, they would have told on us so we couldn’t go further. It was absolutely beautiful where we got off because to the south you could see the snow-capped mountains of Puno off in the distance! Although we were nervous at the beginning – especially because of the strong current – we all did really well (mom called herself a “windmill” because of her good paddling skills). It was so fun and a lot easier than I expected it to be. It was so peaceful and relaxing. I wish we could have stayed out there all day. We paddled about 2 hours down river and then onto this small creek because Gerson had seen a whole family of river otters there the day before. We didn’t see the otters, but we did see a huge cayman on shore that we were able to get really close to and at least 50 squirrel monkeys playing and swinging through the trees right off shore. It was awesome. It all felt so surreal! I kept telling myself, I’m in the jungle in Peru! How cool is this?!?

Oh yeah, when the boat dropped us off to start kayaking, mom asked that they drop us off on a sandy strip instead of the rocky part of the beach because she and dad don’t have “Peruvian feet” (they think I’m Peruvian since I’ve lived here for a year now). Well they honored her wish, but little did she know what a terrible idea that would turn out to be. They called it the “playa” where we got dropped off, but it was really just six inches or so of silt on top of rocks so when you walked on it; you just sank right down to the rocks underneath. Mom and dad waited there in the sand while Gerson got the kayaks ready for us (I was on the river bank trying to pee of course before we left). Next thing mom knows, she looks down and her legs are COVERED in little green bugs. She said something and dad realized he was covered too. We didn’t really think anything of it, but later that day, we saw that they had been eaten alive! Of course mom made us count her bug bites – between her knee and her ankle she had approximately 85 bug bites on one leg and 80 on the other! Whereas mom had more bites (about 165 compared to dad’s 130ish), her bites didn’t bother her, but dad’s legs swelled up and were incredibly itchy! I felt so bad for him because on top of the bites, his legs were also sunburned so he was really uncomfortable. Luckily the next day was low activity. We went to the clay lick in the morning (the BEST morning we had with at least 5 types of parrots eating clay – felt like we were in a Natoinal Geographic show) and then just took the boat upriver to Refugio Amazonas to spend one last night before leaving for the airport the next day. Gerson offered to take us on an afternoon hike, but we opted out of it because we were all tired and dad’s legs and feet were really bothering him. He realized the next morning that one reason his feet hurt so badly was because he had been wearing MOM’S hiking boots! They both have a size 9, but mom’s are a women’s size 9 – oopsie! You can’t blame him though since we had been getting up at 4:30 everyday. It was still really funny though – Gerson laughed so hard that I think he started crying!

After kayaking all morning, Gerson gave us the afternoon off to rest and instead, we went on a night hike to see the jungle at night. It was sort of hard to “rest” though because a group of 11 rafters arrived that day after spending about a week on the river, rafting up to TRC from Puno! After their long trip they all wanted to celebrate so they started drinking around 2 pm. They made so much NOISE. We felt like they came in and invaded the place and acted like they were the only ones there. Mom was SO annoyed with them and called them the “loud mouths”. She even wants to write a letter to their leader to say how inconsiderate she thought they were of the other guests. I understand they wanted to celebrate, but they were really obnoxious. Here we were in this tree-house type lodge in the middle of the jungle and they’re smoking, drinking, and yelling. It completely changed the atmosphere of the place, but luckily we only had one night there with them so it could have been much worse. We thought the party would be going on until 5 am – Peruvian style – but by the time we got back from our walk around 10 pm, it had pretty much died down. I guess that’s what happens when you start drinking at 2 pm. Two people got so drunk they biffed it and passed out! Oh boy.

Since we couldn’t do much resting, we decided to use the time to do some more laundry and take showers – both of which we had perfected over the past few days. Laundry was done by hand of course since there is no electricity out there. We were told not to bring any cotton into the jungle because it would mold, so we only had a few articles of clothing each for the whole week (mom only had one pair of pants because she forgot her rain pants – in Walnut Creek we think. She reminded us at least eight times a day that she was wearing the only pair of pants she had – haha). Because of a lack of clothes, we did laundry just about every afternoon. Dad and I were quite the team at washing, but the problem was drying. Even though the clotheslines were in direct sunlight, it was so humid there that it took FOREVER for anything to dry. Even the pages of our books and notebooks wrinkled from the weather. We learned really fast that “quick-drying” does not apply to the climate in the jungle! We often had to put on wet clothes if we wanted to wear something clean.

Putting on wet clothes was always fun after a COLD shower. Even though I boil water at my site (because it’s so cold outside), I’ve taken cold showers on the coast so I knew what to expect, but mom and dad were a different story. I laughed so hard every time they showered because you could hear them gasping for air! It was always a big effort to take a shower and we would only do it immediately after we got back from a hike and were still hot, otherwise, you can forget about getting in that cold water. Believe it or not, it actually felt refreshing afterwards, even if you were covered in goose bumps! I got to the point where I didn’t mind it so much and even took a shower the last day without having gone for a hike first, but Dad couldn’t bring himself to do it knowing he would have a hot shower the next night! Haha.

Oh yeah, our night hike was awesome! Even though I kept joking that I wanted to camp out in the jungle, I thought it might be a little scary, but I wasn’t scared at all. I’m sure that was because Gerson was so calm and made us feel really relaxed. If I were alone, I probably would have peed my pants. We walked around for two hours looking for snakes, frogs, spiders, and whatever else we could find. Gerson really wanted us to see a spider, but dad is scared of snakes, so lucky for him we didn’t see any. We only had our headlamps and flashlights to see so I was amazed Gerson spoted anything at all – especially because so many of the insects are camouflaged. He asked me to help him spot a snake – yeah right that’s funny – I can’t even see anything in broad daylight! Even though we didn’t see a snake, we saw a lot of cool insects, spiders, and frogs. We also saw a pink-backed tarantula! It was really pretty, believe it or not. It was just sitting on this bamboo shoot and stayed there while we took pictures, but then crawled back inside. Gerson tried to provoke it to come out with a stick, but I guess it was done modeling for us because it didn’t return. I was really amazed how quiet the jungle is at night. During the day, as mom says, “there sure is a lot of raucous in the rainforest,” but at night it is remarkably quiet – besides for some owls and these big rats that make a lot of noise (thank god we didn’t see one of those)!

I think I mentioned in the last entry that our rooms were open to the jungle on one side. Well the first morning we woke up at TRC I saw something strange on one of our shelves in our room where I had a Ziploc bag of snacks and a plastic bag with two granadillas (a fruit with a hard shell that you peel off and eat the juice and seeds inside). As I approached I realized some rodent must have come in our room in the middle of the night because the bag had a hole in it and the shell of one of the granadillas was punctured. Apparently the rodent didn’t like the fruit too much though because it didn’t even finish the fruit and only ate the juice part – the seeds were spit all over the shelf and the other bag of snacks! Needless to say, I threw that stuff away. Luckily that was our only encounter with rodents entering our room (as far as we know), but I’m pretty sure there was a BAT flying around our room the last night when we were at Refugio. I was thrilled about that as you can imagine….of course my parents slept right through it!

Just to give you an idea of all of the flora and fauna in the jungle, here are a few facts Gerson told us:
-20 types of bananas in the area
-645 species of birds in the Tambopata region – approximately the same amount we have in ALL of North America!
-170+ species of mammals and over 60 of those are just bats!

By the way, in case I didn’t mention earlier, the food was AMAZING. It was so nice not to have to worry about food – every meal was provided and they certainly didn’t allow you to go hungry. It was all Peruvian food, but geared towards tourists so there was always meat and a salad. They also were really good about making me a vegetarian option whenever they served red meat. The guides sat with us at all of our meals and we sat with other people who were there on vacation too so we always had really interesting conversations. One of the macaw researchers usually sat with us too. There are two paid researchers who are more permanents and three volunteers who spend four months there. One of them from Mexico City told me I have a Peruvian accent when I speak Spanish so I was really flattered – better than a gringo accent! Their work is really fascinating and they are all around my age so I really enjoyed talking with them. Gerson asked me why I don’t apply to be a researcher, but I reminded him that I’m afraid of birds and would probably have a heart attack before the four months were over!

As you can see by this EXTREMELY long entry I’ve written, we had a WONDERFUL time in the jungle and we were all really sad to leave. One of our last nights, the three of us had a really nice talk with Gerson about how much we enjoyed having him as a guide and how special he made our trip for us. We’re sure it wouldn’t have been nearly as great with another guide. He expressed that he really enjoyed being our guide as well because we were open to anything – mom and dad were such TROOPERS – and we all had a great time. We clicked immediately with him and all just got along so well. We were so grateful to have been placed with him!

Speaking of mom and dad being troopers, we met this brother and sister from Lima whose mom didn’t go with them because she thought she couldn’t do it. Their mom is even a dancer and in pretty good shape and she still didn’t go! The kids asked to take a picture with mom and dad to show their mom that if my parents could do it, so could she!

I loved the jungle so much that I kept joking that I was going to become a guide there. I tried to practice spotting things for my job there and one time I spotted this bird called a Trumpeter. Gerson said they are the most sought after bird for bird watchers and very rare to see – obviously I’m a natural at this! We only saw one (it was walking), but he said they usually travel in groups. Since I thought I was so good at this, one afternoon when just mom and me went out walking, I told them I’d be on the lookout for wildlife while they were checking something out with mom’s camera or something. I told them I saw a Chestnut-bellied parrot, but apparently that doesn’t exist! There is a Chestnut-fronted parrot and a Red-bellied parrot, but no such thing as the hybrid that I invented, the Chestnut-bellied! Haha. We continued to joke about this the entire time though because we like to burry jokes into the ground. Another joke we liked was the white macaw because one morning at the clay lick we saw an egret fly by and Gerson told mom it was a white macaw. She got so excited and tried to take a picture, while Gerson almost fell over laughing because mom is so gullible (not that I’m much better) – white macaws don’t exist either. At least we were entertaining for Gerson, if nothing else. We might not have been the most in shape group of tourists he’s had, but we were always laughing together and having a great time! After all, that’s what counts the most, right?

One last thing, the stars in the jungle were incredible! Since we were 80 km away from civilization (about 10 hours downriver) it was really clear and it felt like you could reach out a touch the stars. We spotted the cruz del sur (the southern cross) the last night so every night after that we made it a point to look for it!

Our last day was spent taking the boat upriver – back to civilization so we could catch our plane to Arequipa. It felt so much hotter when we got back to the main office to claim the rest of our luggage (we had to leave whatever we weren’t going to use) because we were no longer protected from the sun by the canopy. From the office we went straight to the airport and said our goodbyes to Gerson. It was really sad for all of us – including Gerson, but we exchanged contact information, so maybe we’ll see each other again someday….