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I was a little vague about where I was going next and what I would do when I got there. Being so near the Peruvian Amazon I figured I should take a couple of days, fly down and take a look.
Peru & Ecuador 2002 - Part Two: Puerto Maldonado
Dougburnett2003-11-24 13:04:53
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Puerto Maldonado, Peru
Tuesday, September 3, 2002
I was a little vague about where I was going next and what I would do when I got there. Being so near the Peruvian Amazon I figured I should take a couple of days, fly down and take a look. The closest place was Puerto Maldonado. Being no real fan of camping or the outdoors, I decided to split my time between the town and the jungle. I figured first I would see what a town at the end of the road looked like. Puerto Maldonado is in fact two full days by road from Cuzco - and accessible only during the dry season - but a short 30 minutes by air. From there I figured I could deal with a jungle lodge for a day.
I arrive from cloudy, cold Cuzco into the heat and humidity of Puerto Maldonado a little before lunchtime. My hotel, Wasai Lodge, had said they would send someone to meet me. As I never check my bag I was one of the first people out of the airport and quickly found the hotel guy. He had two other passengers to retrieve, so I stood around with him and the other guides enjoying the hot day.
Finally, when the other passengers and their baggage were collected, the hotel guy hired two motokars - open three-wheel motobikes - for the ride to the hotel. With the sun blazing and a hot breeze blowing - what a relief after Cuzco - we rode about 15 minutes to the hotel. The land I saw along the way looked decidedly unjungle-like - there were more cola signs that trees and most of the open ground looked like either pastures or soon-to-be building sites.
The Wasai Lodge was a series of small thatch-roofed cabins set high on the banks of the Rio Madre de Dios on the north end of Puerto Maldonado. After I checked in and left my return ticket to be reconfirmed, I had lunch. As almost no one spoke English I was a little unsure of what I had ordered. I knew it was fish - it was in that section of the menu - but little
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See photographs from:
Peru Gallery
,
Ecuador Gallery
