The Amazon Basin - Manu

So I have just returned from a 4 day stint in the middle of the most remarkable landscape I have ever had the privelage of beholding.

We began by boarding a tiny propellar plane at the Cusco airport (of course, being the flagrant nerd that I am I was listening to the Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park themes the whole time, that really helps get an already pumped fellow even more excited). What followed was the shortest and most breathtaking flight I have ever been on. It was only 45 minutes, but as soon as we passed over the Andes mountains we were greeted by this... staggering expanse of rainforest that stretched well beyond the visible horizon. There was just SO much biomass! I have never seen so many trees! We were literally flying over nothing but dense jungle, occasionally crisscrossed by veins of Amazonian tributary, for half an hour, and when we finally landed on the grassy airstrip there was still an unfathomable expanse lying ahead. It really did my heart good to see so much pure and uninterrupted wilderness.

And that was just the beginning.

Manu is actually a massive swath of private property set aside specifically for conservation. You need permission to enter the actual Manu preserve. Though our lodge is called and associated with Manu, it really rests in a large buffer zone between unprotected rainforest and the Manu site. Could have fooled me though. This place was breathtaking. The rainforest is simply indescribable. No matter how eloquently I craft my descriptive portrait, no matter how many pictures and videos I upload when I get back (and there will be many, rest assured), you just are not going to be able to appreciate it as it should be. There is no way to convert this sensation to binary code.

So, back to the narrative: After landing we hopped on a small motor-boat and began an hour and a half aquatic sojourn to the lodge. The river we traversed was absolutely massive, and yet it is a mere tributary of the Amazon River! Lined on both sides by uncannily swift-growing vegetation that at less than a year old (regular floods obliterate most waterside flora, which returns immediately via opportunistic pioneer species) was already a solid 15-20 foot tall wall of palm and chloroplast, the river wound and weaved, snaked and forked, throughout the landscape like a colossal hydra. That`s one of the remarkable things about this place, the landscape is constantly, kaleidoscopically, rearranging itself. The floods are always opening up entire new pathways that didn`t exist before and shifting in other parts to cut off portions, forming massive oxbow lakes.

Manu is home to some 1700 of the 1800 species of bird which can be found in Peru; their website boasts that an entire 9th of all avian species the world over can be found here, a factoid which I was loathe to disbelieve as we sailed away on this Ornonoco flow. Everywhere you looked you saw birds. Macaws, parrots, and parakeets flying overhead, turkey and black vultures circling patiently here and there. Kingfishers and who knows what others darting every which way along the water, skimming the surface and keeping pace with the boat, all manner of heron, crane and spoonbill dotting the shores... who said the dinosaurs went extinct?

Finally we arrived at the lodge, a picturesque escape free of electricity sewn delicately into the jungle. My very first stroll around the compound yielded an exciting sneak-peek of what was in store: Countless flowers in the richest, deepest, most vibrant hues all fit for paradise, massive 2 and a half foot lizards scurrying into the underbrush, frogs hopping away upon my approach, a hummingbird buzzing to and fro, a penis tree (more on that fellow in a bit), a 3-4 inch black scorpion sleeping on top of a broad leaf at eye-level, the most remarkable fungal growths, a tiny lizard welcoming me to the steps of my cabin (I was in Jaguar cabin), butterflies everywhere representing every stage of the visible light spectrum (including an enormous and striking blue variety), and so many other insects of the most remarkable shapes and sizes; my jaw dropped when we discovered a titanic locust that was literally 5-6 inches long, it was one of the coolest things I`d ever seen, I must`ve snapped about 25 pictures of that one guy alone.

And then came time to depart for our first hike.

I must away for now. Manu: Part 2 will follow soon, I promise.