peru: day 3 and 4

The third day of the trip we moved to the second lodge, a lot further down the river. This one had a bunch of trumpet birds, an anteater, and the largest roden in the world as pets. Charlie (the rodent) is about 2 feet long, with hippopotamus-like ears (that he wiggles) and webbed feet (he´s semi-aquatic. They also have some parrots around. One day we came back from a walk and found a parrot exploring in our room, trying to eat the dirty socks. At this second lodge we went on a long boat trip in search of the black waters and prehistoric hoatzin birds. The waters are literally jet-black, because of tanic acid. They are pretty creepy, like something evil out of lord of the rings or something. It also makes for a perfect mirror. We ended up finding the hoatzin too, even though it is really elusive. It´s probably the ugliest bird in the world, looking like a turkey (same size) but even weirder, with a bright yellow spiked mohawk. There´s nothing obviously prehistoric about them, except the babies have a single claw on each wing (think teridactyl), used for climbing out of the water.

We also got to go on a great walk through the jungle nearby, to a rope bridge in the canopy. This went from platform to platform at the very tops of the trees. It was really cool to look out across the jungle. It´s not often that you get a distant view that´s totally free of human influence. The best part though, was a flock of toucans that were hanging out around us. They had orange, yellow, and red striped chests, beaks half the size of their bodies, and looked totally awkward while flying.

One of the most interesting activities was a trip to the local shaman´s medicinal garden. It seems like a huge portion of the health needs for the people of the Amazon are taken care of by the village shamans, or traditional healers, because the closest hospital is in Iquitos (hours and hours away) and a lot of clinics aren´t well-equipped at all or don´t exist. This shaman, Julio showed us a bunch of plants he uses for all sorts of purposes. He´s got one tree used for snake bites that has the same pattern on it´s bark as a poisonous snake´s skin! Nature is cool. He also said lemon grass tea is great for insomnia (good to know). He showed us this one plant sued for opical pain relief, and when we chewed it, it numbed our tongues! It seemed to me that alot of these remedies really work. For instance, Julio said that if a person takes a combination of the herbs used to treat diabetes, their diabetes will disappear! But even so, there´s almost no research being done on the plants´ chemical properties becasue the Peruvian government is so strict about exports of anything here. Too bad, I bet you could find a ton of medicines from this guy.

Of course, Julio also had a bunch of non-medicinal remedies in his garden, like love potions and such. Apparently the various forms of elephant ear (the plant) can be used to get a girl/boyfriend. He also showed us the male mimosa bush, whose leaves close as soon as you touch them. He said this can be used to stop a promiscuous spouse. I don´t disbelieve it, but I didn´t take any of it either.

Charlie

The canopy walkway