Day 15: Jungle I (Sandoval Lake)

Our days in Peru were, unfortunately, coming to an end; we'll spend the last three days in the jungle, completing the third stage of our trip (coast-mountain-jungle).

We met the rest of the group and our guide at breakfast, being a total of seven people (the funny couple, three Ozzies and us). Sandoval Lake is in the middle of the jungle, so it's not easy to get there. We first took a one-hour ride by boat along the Madre de Dios river and then another hour on foot through a path until we reached a family-run small resort by the lake. Although it is part of the well-known Amazonian jungle, that was not precisely the wildest part. Gina the adventurous had been deeper into the jungle in Malaysia before, so this was less wild for her. But it was the first time for me in a jungle and the first impression was fascinating: weird animal sounds resembling an electronic device, very humid weather and sticky heat (different to the heat I'm used to in the south of Spain), enveloping atmosphere...everything was new to me. It could hardly be believed that we were all bundled up in warm clothing just two days ago.

 

We dropped our backpacks in our room (small humble wooden huts) and went to the lake right after for a short canoe trip before lunch. Gina wasn't very keen on canoeing, so she decided to stay and go for a quiet jungle hike by herself in hopes of seeing strange jungle flora and fauna. At one point during her trek through the dense vegetation, she heard noisy rustling and high-pitched chattering high above in the jungle canopy. She looked up to see small monkeys swinging from branch to branch as a group passed overhead.



Heliconia

butterflies

The bean-shaped lake was all surrounded by a dense bright-green vegetation and the constant strident sound of birds and other animals. We saw Stinkbirds (called like that because they smell so badly that not even predators want to eat them) and Snakebirds (they are just as likely to fly as to dive into the water).

 

 path to the resort

 

Snakebird catching fish

After lunch, consisting of a tamal with rice and a homemade lemon juice (some ice cubes would have been great to help cool off from the stifling heat, but water was a precious commodity requiring use of water-treatment tablets), we went back to the lake to try to see some monkeys unsuccessfully.

water lilies

 

Later at night, we got back on the canoe in search of caymans. In order to do so we had to point our flashlights at the lakeshore, where they hid, looking for two sparkling dots: their eyes. We approached very cautiously to a young cayman, which the guide finally grabbed by the neck and then passed on to us, one by one. The cayman surprisingly kept still all the while; it didn't try to attack or defend itself. It was beautiful, and holding it gave me a surge of adrenaline! (note: the cayman wasn't hurt at all; the guide put it back gently into the water).

cayman (in the middle)

 

After dinner, we went for a short walk around the lake to listen to the noisy night sounds of the jungle and contemplate probably the starriest sky I have ever seen.

Sunset at Sandoval Lake