One of my favorite activities on the ENTIRE Peru trip involved us taking a morning excursion to the clay lick. But before I get into that, I want to write about the other two excursions we took: our night walk and the 7 mile hike to the lake in the Amazon.
I'll start with the lake. A seven mile hike doesn't sound too difficult, and it isn't when you're walking on nice, smooth pavement sidewalks. On the other hand, walking through the rainforest, through deep, thick mud and in between bushes and shrubs makes it slightly more difficult. Gosh, I make it sound pretty horrible, but it was quite the opposite. Actually, it was pretty refreshing. I don't think I have ever been completely submerged in nature like that. I mean there was Girl Scout Camp... but we were in log cabins with electricity, were eating hot dogs in a huge cafeteria, and maybe going on some sort of hike. Then there are all the botanical gardens I've been to all over the country. As beautiful as those have all been, it's all been so contrived. Oh, then there was Muir Woods in San Fran. But, that had man made paths and a cute little cafe inside. I did go zip-lining. That was a fun, thrilling eco-adventure, where you fly through the canopy of old growth cypress trees, some up to 100 feet tall! Ok, so I have definitely done some nature related activities, but I have never felt as immersed in nature as I did in the secluded and exotic Amazon. In the Amazon, all you could hear for miles were toucans and howler monkeys. You can smell the fresh dew from the early morning and you can see green and brown (green being all the plants and trees around, and brown being the mud you're walking on. There is no blue because the treetops cover most of the sky) with random and exciting bursts of colorful wildlife.
We started the hike by getting special pairs of sturdy, and intensely padded boots. These were comfy! An hour into the hike I could see how death by mud was a possible fate. The ground wasn't too uneven. There were lots of tree roots that you had to step over. Mostly, the effort was put into not getting stuck in the mud, or slipping. There is some deep, sticky mud! Once we were able to trek for an hour or so, you got used to the mud and it became fun going through the muddy parts. Our boots made all sorts of funny fart noises (I know, I'm so immature) and if you didn't angle your foot correctly, you could pull your foot out of your boot! So after we got used to it, it was all about the nature watching. We saw tons of different types of birds, three different species of monkeys, wild pigs, and plenty of other wildlife. Then, I had my first encounter with... a tarantula. This guy was probably the size of my head, I'm not exaggerating, ask William. We were walking, fearlessly really. I wasn't expecting to see any spiders since they are nocturnal and this was in the early morning. THEN, out of nowhere, Listen, our guide turned around and made a little whistling sound. I looked at him and he tilted his head towards the hairy spider. I immediately got chills all over my body and refused to move forward. The spider was sitting comfortably right in the middle of our path. I had both arms wrapped around William, my face buried in his back, and my nose pressed against his spine. (For some reason this has always been comforting for me. I used to do this when we used to go to haunted houses. William never understood how this was comforting to me since the only thing covered is my face-and he finds it extremely uncomfortable.) My heart was beating 100 miles an hour and William desperately tried to pry my arms off. Eventually he told me to close my eyes and dragged me to the grassy area next to the spider and I peaked to see that he was going to pass me to Listen on the other side of the spider. Listen held out his hand and William pushed me off and said, "RUN!" That freaked me out because when he yelled, I thought I was being attacked by the tarantula. I jumped over that general area and Listen had my hand so I didn't die. When I got to the other side, I turned around to see the creeper and Listen said that the tarantula ran off faster than he's ever see one move and that I probably gave it a heart attack. I hope so. After that, I felt pretty comfortable and fearless. I wasn't really scared of anything anymore. Listen even told me that that spider was one of the larger tarantulas he'd ever seen. I felt rather accomplished.
Once we got to the lake we took a canoe out to go look for wild otters. Because it had been sprinkling all morning, Listen said the otters probably didn't feel like coming out and were probably still sleeping. I was sad not to see the otters, but we saw more cool breeds of birds. Some of those birds look so wacky! We also got to see some more monkeys. They are so funny! We saw them chase one another and jump from tree to tree. It's so cute to see monkeys in their element, not behind bars, playing freely with one another. Listen described how lazy the howler monkeys are and explained that the howler monkey is so lazy that it takes its middle finger, licks it, sticks it in their own butt, pulls it out and holds it up for mosquitoes and flies to come to it. Once his poopy finger attracts mosquitos and flies, he licks the finger, eating the bugs, and satisfying his hunger. That, my friends, is the laziest way to get food. I will NOT be trying that at home. After a good hour on the lake we started our trek back where we saw many more species of birds and plants. My favorite was a plant the natives call "Monkey Eggs." So weird!
That evening we went on our "Night Walk." It was after dark and we were told to meet at the gazebo with a flashlight and our boots. We were going to go through a trail in the forest to try to see the nightlife. This was something I had been dreading. I was seriously nervous to go at night, when all the creepy crawlers come out. We had met these British and Australian guys in Puerto Maldonado that has been with Listen the days before we had arrived and they told us that Listen is an expert at finding tarantulas and their nests. UGH. I was so freaked out. Then when I turned around, they were showing William with their hands how big the tarantulas were and I accidently saw. My face must have looked horrified because the guy apologized, claiming that I wasn't supposed to see that. Just as I had gotten the image of him holding both hands up, I had come to the end of my trip...the last night in Peru and here I was going on the night walk. Before we even started Listen stopped and giddily whispered, "Look! That pretty thing is a pink-toed tarantula!" I tried to not look disappointed and let out a fake, "Ohhh." William was all up in it. Gross. When we entered the forest, my heart was beating so fast. I had pulled my arms inside my shirt just in case a creepy crawler tried some funny business with me. Eventually I took my arms out-I needed them for balance. I was still in the rainforest and was trying to avoid twisting my ankle and falling, giving easy access for tarantula molestation. Luckily, I did not fall and was not molested by any insects. About 10 minutes into the hike, we came across our first tarantula nest. I barely saw it. I just remember saying, "Oh, how neat," and looking at the tree above the spider. I didn't want to look directly at it. Tarantulas live in holes at the base of trees. There, they lay eggs and hang out before going "hunting" for food. They do all their hunting at night and hibernate during the day. The only reason they come out during the day is if a predator is near them and they need to escape, or if they didn't get enough food at night. We kept walking and came across another nest and I decided to look at this one. Gross! It was huge and had babies behind it. Sick. I was over it.
Listen finally realized that I wasn't into the spiders (and that even William, who was open to it at first, seemed a little freaked out also) and he stopped pointing them out to us. Thank god! One thing we saw on our night walk that was really interesting was sleeping butterflies. Listen told us that butterflies are like us and are active during the days, but then find a nice sturdy plant to sleep on at night. That was cool to see. I saw a few just sleeping on leaves, very still, very pretty. The only thing I saw flying around were moths. Not giant freaky ones, but just normal pretty ones. We saw lots of caterpillars hanging out on trees. I saw a GIANT grasshopper that was eating fungus. He was friendlier looking than the tarantulas. Oh! One really neat thing we saw was a tree frog. This little guy was on a branch and was tiny!! He was at eye level so I was able to take a picture of him. At one point we heard lots of rustling in the forest, and our flashlights were pretty fancy, but even they can't allow you to see deep in the forest. This part was pretty thrilling because Listen was like SHHHHH and turned off the flashlights. I was sort of freaked out, but excited at the same time. He whispered to me that he couldn't tell what the sounds were. That part was sort of scary, I was like, "Um...what could it be then?" His response was, "I thought the sounds were of wild pigs...but no... maybe a jaguar." OK, William and I did not respond. I realized that there was nothing but black all around me. The treetops covered any moonlight there could have been and I could not see even 1 centimeter in front of me. Finally a few minutes later I said, "You cannot see anything at all without our flashlights," and he turned it back on and goes, "Ok, just wild pigs." Great. Thank goodness it was just wild pigs, but WTH there are jaguars?!? William and I just looked at each other.
We turned off our flashlights one more time, just because I wanted to soak in the darkness. I mean complete darkness. I have never seen that in my life. In fact, when I closed my eyes in the dark, I could see more light than when I kept my eyes open with out the flashlights. That's how dark it was. But then out of nowhere, was a little yellow glow bouncing up and down a few feet in front of me. I made a little noise and Listen quickly pointed out that we had found a firefly. It was pretty! We finally made it through the trail and ended back at our lodge. I was so proud of myself. If this was 10 years ago, I would have cried and been such a baby. I pulled through! Good thing too because this accomplishment made for a glorious last night in Peru!
The next morning would be our last in the Amazon jungle and in Peru. Out of all the amazing, wonderful, and exciting things we did... this last activity would be my favorite! That last morning I would get to fulfill one of my childhood dreams: to see tropical birds in their natural setting and at the clay lick!!
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