Creature Comforts

Date of events depicted: 13 May 2012

Two Crazy Chicks Productions, in association with WorldWild PhotoGraphics and What Am I Going to Tell Your Mother? Productions, is proud to present episode 4 of The Adventures of Yumiko and Eden in Peru…

“Spikes!” José shines his flashlight on a species of palm that looks like it has mated with an angry porcupine.

“Spikes!” Eden repeats the guide’s warning for the benefit of the hiker behind her, who in turn passes it on to those behind him.

The adventurers on this night hike through the rainforest are careful to point out to one another the myriad potential hazards on the trail: fire ants, mud, army ants, low hanging branches and vines, spider webs with and without spiders, thorns, cobra ants…

But the jungle at night is more than a place of danger; it is a place of discovery. José’s light reveals tiny frogs, delicate mushrooms, strange insects, and tarantulas.

Miko and Eden usually don’t mind tarantulas. Unless, as had happened the previous evening at Yine Lodge, one suddenly appears in the folds of the shower curtain in a dimly lit stall just as Miko finishes her shower and the lodge’s generator powers down, leaving the bathroom building in darkness.

Our intrepid heroines and company are returning to Camp Sachavaca from Cocha Salvador, an oxbow lake upon which they had spent several hours observing wildlife from the relative comfort of the “catamaran,” a somewhat dubious-looking pair of weathered wooden dugout canoes connected by an equally dubious-looking weathered wooden platform.

Emerging briefly from beneath the forest canopy at the Manu River’s edge, the group is treated to a breathtaking view of the Milky Way. Before continuing on their way, Miko and Eden pick out the Southern Cross amid a host of constellations unfamiliar to those who dwell north of the equator.

Dinner is followed by cold showers by candlelight that temporarily alleviate the itch of the sandfly and mosquito bites our fearless females have sustained.  Miko’s bruised and scraped arm, they are relieved to note, is healing well.

It has been a good day, our fearless females agree as they enter their hut and tiredly crawl under the mosquito netting. As the boat had navigated the Manu River, they had been lucky enough to spot a capybara and had passed a clay lick where dozens of blue-headed parrots and several chestnut-fronted macaws had congregated noisily. On Cocha Salvador, they had caught glimpses of giant river otters, added “punk chicken” (hoatzin) to their rapidly expanding bird list, and, after sunset, used their flashlights to illuminate the eyes of black caimans floating silently on the lake while José told “jungle ghost stories,” tales of researchers and tourists who mysteriously disappeared in Manu, their remains either never located or found in the jaws of a jaguar or caiman. And, though Camp Sachavaca is even more rustic than Yine Lodge, Miko and Eden have not seen a single cockroach.

© Eden Feuer

Creature Discomforts

Date of events depicted: 12 May 2012

Two Crazy Chicks Productions, in association with WorldWild PhotoGraphics and What Am I Going to Tell Your Mother? Productions, is proud to present episode 3 of The Adventures of Yumiko and Eden in Peru…

“Get your camera, go out there, and photograph the rainbow,” Miko orders.

“But…”

It has not been a good morning thus far. Our intrepid heroines, fellow adventurer John, and their guide had woken especially early and hiked in the dark in order to witness the elaborate courtship display for which Peru’s national bird is famous. But as soon as they arrived at the lek, it began to rain, dashing their hopes of seeing vibrantly-plumaged male Andean cocks-of-the-rock (the name makes Eden snigger) bowing, jumping, and wing-flapping in an attempt to attract the drab females.

As the four trudged back to the lodge, it occurred to Eden that she had not seen her sunglasses since last night and had no clue where she put them. Freaking out, she spared only a passing glance at the magnificent double rainbow that appeared with the dawn before she started searching the room frantically.

“Go! I’ll find your sunglasses.”

Eden does as she is told. And Miko makes good on her promise, locating Eden’s wayward eyewear – in the pocket of Eden’s rain jacket (where Eden had placed them the night before for safekeeping and which she had been wearing most of the morning).

So Eden is feeling like a bit of a birdbrain as they climb into the SUV for the bumpy ride down the narrow, winding, rutted mountain road to Atalaya.

It is late morning by the time they arrive at the small village on the banks of the Alto Madre de Dios River and board the motorized canoe that will carry them into a place of stunning biodiversity so remote, so difficult to access, that fewer than 3,000 tourists visit per year: Manu National Park.

On the long journey to the mouth of the Manu River, the travelers get a taste of that biodiversity. White caimans bask in the sun. Snowy egrets fish in the shallows. White-throated toucans call from the trees. Neotropic cormorants hold their wings out to dry. King and black vultures circle overhead. Roadside hawks and bat falcons scan for prey from their high perches.

The light is fading fast as the boat pulls up to the riverbank. Its passengers disembark, grab their gear, and make their way from the beach to Yine Lodge.

The sweep of a flashlight beam sends cockroaches skittering from the small thatched-roof bungalow that is our intrepid heroines’ room for the night.

Swallowing hard against her revulsion, Eden sets down the backpacks while Miko lights the single candle the lodge has provided for illumination.

It hadn’t occurred to them that Manu’s great biological diversity would include roaches – though on reflection it really doesn’t come as a surprise. That doesn’t make the idea of sharing quarters with the nasty creatures any less disgusting.

Our fearless females square their shoulders. In Panama, it was ticks. In Costa Rica, it was bees. So here, it is roaches. Miko and Eden know that a few loathsome insects are a small price to pay for adventure.

© Eden Feuer

Legends of the Fall

Date of events depicted: 11 May 2012

Two Crazy Chicks Productions, in association with WorldWild PhotoGraphics and What Am I Going to Tell Your Mother? Productions, is proud to present episode 2 of The Adventures of Yumiko and Eden in Peru…   

“It could have been a lot worse,” Eden says as she dabs Neosporin on Miko’s badly scraped and bruised right arm. “You could have broken a bone. Or landed on your face – like you did in Maui.”

Miko winces, both from the contact and from the memory. That fall had occurred two miles into a hike in Haleakala National Park. Fortunately, she had not sustained an injury that immobilized her or required immediate medical attention. Unfortunately, her injuries had been serious enough to ruin the rest of that vacation.

Eden carefully tapes down a gauze bandage procured from the first aid kit. “If you had been seriously hurt tonight…” She trails off, recalling the way Miko had gone tumbling into the mud when the slippery path had crumbled beneath her feet. 

Our intrepid heroines are in a primitive lodge in the cloud forest on the eastern side of the Andes. Getting to this point, only part of the way to Manu National Park, had required spending the day crammed into a Mitsubishi SUV packed with the food, supplies, and personnel (guide, cook, and driver) necessary for a multiday excursion into a remote portion of the Peruvian Amazon. 

Neither of them wants to contemplate how far they are from decent medical care – and how close they came to not being able to continue on to Manu.

Though satisfied that Miko’s wounds have been tended to adequately for the moment, Miko and Eden know that tomorrow they will be headed to the lowland rainforest, where, in combination with the humidity, the higher temperatures and even more rustic conditions increase the risk of infection.

With that not-especially-comforting thought, our fearless females crawl under the mosquito netting and attempt to sleep. 

© Eden Feuer

Related link: video diary of the day compiled by fellow traveler John Millspaugh

The Lost City of the Incas

Date of events depicted: 10 May 2012

Two Crazy Chicks Productions, in association with WorldWild PhotoGraphics and What Am I Going to Tell Your Mother? Productions, is proud to present episode 1 of The Adventures of Yumiko and Eden in Peru…   

In the predawn darkness, Miko, Eden, and 500 other hardy, sleep-deprived souls determined to see the sunrise at Machu Picchu board the buses that ferry tourists from the town of Aguas Calientes up a steep, winding dirt road to the Lost City of the Incas.

Our intrepid heroines, bleary-eyed and breathing heavily in the thin air, pass through the entrance gate and hike to the Caretaker’s Hut. They watch, entranced, as the first rays of the sun touch the surrounding mountains and caress the polished stone walls and neatly groomed terraces of the citadel. It is a spectacular, almost surreal sight, though the landscape crew – three llamas – seems unimpressed, just as jaded as they were the previous evening when our dynamic duo took in the sunset from the same vantage point.

By late morning, the mist that had risen from the Urubamba River far below has burned away and the ruins are teeming with thousands of people. Miko and Eden sweep their admiring gazes over the exquisite stonework of the temples, plazas, and houses one last time before returning to Aguas Calientes to await their train to Cusco.

Though only 80 kilometers (50 miles) separate Machu Picchu from the bustling city of Cusco, the rail journey takes more than three and a half hours. It’s an awfully long time for two exhausted adventurers to be trapped with a group of happily hammered Dutch day trippers, so it is with a great deal of relief that they disembark, catch a cab to Plaza de Armas, and make the walk to their hotel.

Still, they know that there will be little rest for them. Though it is late, they must re-pack their gear in preparation for their upcoming adventure: a 7-day excursion into the Peruvian Amazon that will begin the next morning – well before dawn.

© Eden Feuer