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