To the jungle

wooly monkey about to join us on the boat

I'm not sure what to expect when we decided to book an Amazon tour. Somehow images of the Mel Gibson's movie, Apocolypto, popped into my head, with scantily clad machete wielding barbarians, decapitating religious sacrifices, blue slaves and all. But we're very excited because it signalled the end of our intense course and the beginning of a jungle adventure. Though it didn't start too well because of all the emotional goodbyes and we also boarded the wrong bus to head for the port. What do you expect a bunch of jungle bound people to do when you see a tour bus called "Amazon Rex"? So we were meant to take a motorcar to the port and already it was a task in itself to strap down my backpack on the back of the motorcar. Much like attempting to strap down an abusive drunk patient to the bed, but thankfully my backpack doesn't hurl obscenities at you and it smells slightly better. So we all arrived safely at the port, completed the remaining administrative issues, filled up our water bottles, wet ourselves with DEET, and with an open mind, we're off to the jungle!

*cue jungle music*

coke on the tarmac

we've heard alot of stories about south american airlines, about how having a bunch of rabid bats carrying you to your destination is far safer than flying planes. so far these horror stories are purely anecdotal, but what we've experienced first hand here are mainly logistical problems of flight delays, flight cancellations, bad service and the like.

our flight from lima to cuzco was just an example. our scheduled flight was at 1015 hours, and we only boarded the plane at 1205 hours. not only that, we had to wait on the tarmac for another hour because the the runways at cuzco's airport was being cleaned? what, some dog didn't clean up after itself? and when we finally arrived at cuzco, we waited another 30 minutes at the tarmac because there weren't enough space at the airport! anyhow, before i risk sounding like a typical singaporean (gasps!), i'd have to say we really didn't feel much of the waiting because being the chatterboxes that we are, we whiled the time away yakking about the latest in pimple cream technology, barney the dinosaur and everything else under the sun.

the cuplrit for our "misery"

pedro could have had a few meals while waiting, this was one of them

taca airlines (transportes aereos del continente americano), despite some unexpected delays, are one of the better regional airlines and it comes recommended by some locals. rather good service despite the delay because they opened up the "mini bar" whilst we were taking up space on the tarmac before take off. am always satisfied with some coke, the drink, so no complains here.  

the journey

i had one of the most bizzare bus rides i've ever had whilst on the way from arequipa to chivay. no, there weren't any clowns on board the bus juggling knives and riding a unicycle, and no, there weren't any magicians pulling fluffy rabbits out of bowl hats either, though that would have been awesome. instead, we had a severe test of our senses and physiology as we.....rapidly ascended to 5000m above sea level rendering us cyanotic, skidded on snow that induced palpitations, descended quickly to a thick fog at 3500m, and as we finally emerged from the seemingly endless fog, we were greeted with lush plains populated by wild llamas and alpacas. just as we were recovering from that roller coaster of physiological insult, we came accross a lonely pink flamingo (!?) trudging around some marshlands. or at least what we thought was a flamingo. anyone care the shed some light on this mystery of gargantuan proportions and enlighten us?

snow, at 5000m above sea level. cyanotic inducing.

relentless fog upon descending

wild alpacas enjoying breakfast

mysterious flamingo like bird roaming the marshlands alone

"too often we are so preoccupied with the destination, we forget the journey."

faraway birds

surely the main attraction at the colca canyon are the andean condors. as it's name suggests, it's native to the andes which ranges on the west coast of south america. we started our journey from arequipa city at an ungodly hour of 4am just to make it in time to see the condors. there are only a few things i'd willingly wake up at 4am for - to relieve a full midnight bladder or rectum, and to see andean condors - and i managed both so it was a rather productive morning. there were many warnings from various sources that gave us the impression we needed a high dose of luck and a sackful of four leaf clovers to be able to see the condors as their numbers are dwindling over the years. bleh. we gathered that only people with previous lobectomies would come to arequipa and not make an attempt to see andean condors, and after confirming that none of us had a prior lobectomy, we decided to leave arequipa at 4am to arrive in time to see the condors. apparently, the optimal time to view the condors are from 8 - 9am.

 

cruz del condor



whoever spots the condor will be rewarded with a lolly

no lollies for you if you cannot spot the condor here

have to squint really hard to see the bird

we managed to see 5 condors! though i must admit it was a slight anticlimax because they were quite far away. (duh!) even with my lasik enhanced eyes i couldn't see any of the physical distinguishing features of the condor, and if someone told me that it was big bird from sesame street i'd believe it. but we were able to notice that the condor soars in circles, hardly flapping their wings if at all. they rely on thermal air to soar. quite graceful actually, and rather engrossing staring at them happily gliding without a care in this world. part of our delight was also pride that we proved the naysayers wrong because we managed to see the condors and it also made our 4am wake up call a leeeeetle more worthwhile.

andean condor, close up - on a finger

we managed to bring a condor home, sitting pretty on simon's finger. this one is for keeps, a small reminder of our awesome morning.

everytime you wake up and ask yourself, "what good things am i going to do today?", remember that when the sun goes down at sunset, it will take a part of your life with it.

yet another breath taking sunset overlooking the pacific to wind down my evening run. sunset does indeed signify an end to a day that you can never reclaim. unfortunately, or fortunately (if you look at it from another angle), today's sunset swallowed an empty day. it wasn't very productive at all and the only thing worth mentioning is the sunset. no complaints there though.