Otterly Amazing

Date of events depicted: 14-15 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 5 of The Adventures of Yumiko and Eden in Peru…

Eden is doing a happy dance on the deck of the catamaran.  After one last spin and a celebratory fist pump, she high-fives a grinning Yumiko.

Though not quite sure why seeing a pair of scarlet macaws flying overhead generates this reaction, Miko and Eden’s traveling companions – with the exception of the guide, non-birders all – are clearly amused by her antics.

Having no desire to fall into the caiman-infested waters, Eden sits down carefully before explaining that scarlet macaw had been a “target bird,” one that our intrepid heroines had tried – unsuccessfully – to get last year in Costa Rica.

The last of the sun’s rays fall on a small troop of spider monkeys high in the trees as the boat heads to the dock, ending the adventurers’ third and final excursion on Cocha Salvador. And though the sandflies are once again out in force, Miko and Eden are sorry to be leaving this remarkable lake where, just this morning at dawn, they had watched the resident family of endangered giant river otters frolic, fish, and feed and saddleback and emperor tamarins leap through the branches.

Move on they must, however, and so the next morning the hardy travelers vacate their little palm-thatched huts, board the boat, and once again take to the Manu River. On a stop to hike to Cocha Otorongo, they spot dusky titi monkeys, disturb hundreds of bats roosting under an observation deck, and climb the stairs to a platform 20 meters high from which they take in the view of the pristine rainforest.

Once back on the river, all eyes avidly scan the banks in hopes of seeing a jaguar. This is the last real chance of seeing the elusive cat.  But as the hours wear on and the temperature rises, their hopes wane.

By the time they reach Boca Manu, everyone is hot and tired. The gluten-tolerant among them take enormous pleasure in sipping ice-cold beer purchased from the tiny village’s store – until the sky darkens ominously and the humid air becomes heavier and cooler.

What ensues is a torrential downpour unlike anything our fearless females have ever experienced.  The adventurers huddle under tarps in a futile attempt to stay somewhat dry as the wind-driven rain comes down so hard that the Madre de Dios River looks like it is being pushed back.

It’s rather exciting – for the first 15 minutes or so.

The deluge lasts for more than an hour, easing up briefly when the boat disgorges its damp, cold, bedraggled passengers at Tambo Blanquillo.

José eyes the sky doubtfully. “Let’s hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow morning. Otherwise the macaws will not come to the clay lick.”

It’s too depressing a possibility to contemplate.

© Eden Feuer

Related links: BBC video of river otters of Manu, fellow adventurer John Millspaugh's video of traveling on the rivers of the rainforest

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