I was so excited to visit my friend who had been volunteering in the jungle for several weeks, and to have the opportunity to see another diverse, beautiful area that this country has to offer. The adventures of this trip in the jungle began the Thursday night before, as I was packing and preparing for a 4:30am departure. The coordinator here in Cusco called and paid a visit to the house to drop off some mail that needed to be taken to the Reserve in the jungle because there is no post office there. When she brought the items to me she also explained that there would be a complete change in the four day itinerary, and I would not be riding the public transportation bus or be picked up there by my friend and a guide, but instead would be arriving there in one of the later days of the trip. I have quickly learned that Peruvians do not really do plans, it´s just not their thing. The whole trip was kind of just going with the flow because I never really knew where we would be going next, but there was never any stress about the situation at hand. This lack of stress is clearly portrayed by the lifestyles of the people here day in and day out. It is even evident in the clinic where a systolic blood pressure above 120 or 130 causes the doctors to be nervous and to have the patient come in on a regular basis for it to be checked because the´normal values´ are so much lower here. In the US, many patients come in with pressures over 150. The relaxed environment of this place can even be seen in my own bad habit change resulting in having long fingernails for the first time in my life.
So, I wake up bright and early, eagerly peaking out the front door for the 15-passenger bus to arrive and pick me up. And I wait, and wait, and wait. About 45 minutes later, I see a woman running down the street to come take me to the car about a block away; this is Peruvian time. And so we begin what we thought would be about an 8 hour ride to Manu. Traveling in the bus I got to meet 10 wonderful volunteers from the US, Canada, and Australia. They are also living in Cusco and volunteering in different areas of interest including construction, teaching, & medicine. They all live together in a big house; I kind of got an image of a Real World house in Peru when they described it to me. But, I was so thankful to have other companions to travel with and to be able to speak in English for a while. We all tried to sleep most the morning away, but the one-lane, bumpy, dirt road did not allow for very good rest. The bus came to an abrupt stop around lunchtime and we were instructed to gather all of our things and start hiking down a trail. There had apparently been a landslide, leaving no passage for vans or buses. So after hiking down a steep, slippery trail carrying our bags and heavy boxes of food, we were greeted at the bottom by two other small vehicles and we all squeezed in. At this point, I had no idea where we were going, if I would get to see my friend, where I was staying that night, and if I would even be able to get home on Monday (everyone else was planning on staying for at least 10 days). We piled into the two cars and continued the drive on. The road was constantly interrupted by waterfalls and creeks that the cars had to pass through, but eventually, 12 hours later we made it to the Reserve, where we were staying for the night. We hiked down another short trail and found ourselves at a briskly moving, large river. There were two cables running across the river and a platform to sit on, as someone on the other side pulled you across. The area was beautiful, full of life and surrounded by green and colorful plants. The courtyard of the reserve had lime trees and rescued animals, including some very friendly monkeys running around. After covering ourselves in bug spray we enjoyed a dinner by candlelight because it was pitch black dark by 6:00 and there was no electricity. Later, we crawled under our mosquito nets and got ready for a good night^s sleep before waking up at 5:30am to hike to a waterfall. The most amazing thing to me about the whole tour through the jungle was not only the beauty and hugeness of all the plants and wildlife, but the knowledge that the people of the jungle have about all the uses of everything there. Our guide lives in Cusco but was born in Manu and grew up there with her family, and through that learned all the many uses of the jungle plants. We passed by and learned about trees that are specifically used for inflammation. The sap is placed on wounds and the tea is drunk for any type of inflammatory problem within the body. There were plants good for digestion, the liver, infection, respiratory, and any other problem one can think of. Bamboo is also common in this area of the jungle and serves many uses for them, including: hunting, obtaining water, and they also believe that washing your hair in bamboo water will make it grow quickly. After a delicious breakfast of yogurt and fresh fruit we headed on to visit a coca plantation, a bird reserve, tour other small towns, go on a hike, and enjoy a 3 hour bumpy car ride to the next Reserve that we were staying at that night. On the way we stopped in Pilcopata, a small town (that does have internet) and our driver told us that he would not take us any farther because the roads were so bad. So, we waited for about an hour (you can walk around the whole town in about 15 minutes) for another car to come pick us up so we could continue on our journey. On the way, once again we crossed through the waterfalls, large streams, over rock piles, through herds of sheep and cattle, and through deep mud -- only getting stuck and having to push the car out one time. Around lunchtime the road ended into a large river and a small town with two working telephones. From there we took a boat upstream about 5 minutes to the Reserve on an island where we would be staying the next two nights. I finally found my friend; we had arrived at the reserve she had been volunteering at for several weeks, but she was feeling sick because of something she had eaten the night before so had to spend the day in her tent sleeping. So along with our guide, another volunteer at the reserve, and the newlyweds from Poland, I headed off in the afternoon to explore the nature of this jungle. We rode the boat further down the coast of the island where we encountered a small plantation of bananas, pineapple, ans sugar cane. Our guide, equipped with her machete bushwhacked through the thick brush until we came to a trail winding through the trees. I tried some of the most interesting foods this day, beginning with a mint-tasting termite at 6 in the morning. We ate fruits of all varieties, some type of sweet, fuzzy beans (which are apparently a monkey´s favorite food, over bananas), a type of wild tomato that had a sweet and sour taste to it, mushrooms, and berries. The following day we woke up around 4:30, headed out on the boat, and traveled downstream for a while until we arrived on an island shore facing a rock wall. Early in the morning hundreds of parrots and other birds come to this wall to lick the minerals off of it. So as the sun was rising over the river, we watched these beautiful birds and enjoyed our breakfast. Following this, we put on our tall boots and trekked through deep mud into the midst of the jungle for some more hiking around. We saw all kinds of magnificent wildlife and plants, including a gigantic tree thought to be over 300 years old. We had the afternoon free, so I decided to climb up the waterfall near the kitchen and was able to enjoy the solitude in being surrounded with even more of God’s spectacular creation.
One of the most memorable parts of this voyage was the return trip, lasting a total time of 21 hours, only slightly longer than the predicted 8 hours on the bus. The bus stop is in Pilcopata, and we were planning on leaving around 1 or 2pm so we could arrive home by 11 at the latest. However, after waiting for a while, we soon realized that this bus was not coming and we would have to take the bus leaving at 6pm. So we had lots of time for exploring this small town and the river nearby. But finally after killing time in this pueblo, we were on our way and the ride was going rather smoothly with only a few stops in small towns to pick up other people. Around 11:00 we reached the edge of Manu, and were greeted by several policemen rushing on to our bus and yelling at specific people to open their bags. Apparently this drug bust for cocaine is fairly normal because my friend and I were the only ones who seemed shocked by the whole situation. The coca leaf is one of the largest crops produced in this area of the jungle; it is full of nutrients and the tea is great for individuals trying to adjust to a higher altitude. However, the leaves are also used for the production of cocaine. So because of this, there is a limit put on the amount one can carry out of the jungle at a time. After the police had thoroughly searched the bus and carried one woman off with her bags, we were on our way once again. The next awakening did not come until 4:30am, when we jolted quickly to a stop. Through the thick darkness, we could barealy see that a large truck carrying wood had gone off the side of the mountain, but not completely, leaving the one-lane road blocked, not permitting anyone to pass. So we waited there for 3 hours, in the middle of nowhere with no cell phone service, and at least 2 hours away from any town with communication. By 7:00 there were six buses waiting full of passengers all trying to get to Cusco. At this point they agreed it would be best to take the one other road that leads in the direction of Cusco. However, the problem with this road is that it’s in the process of being built right now and they are using dynamite on it, so we were not sure if we would even be able to get far at all. Our first stop was at the Government Transportation Office because we had to get permission to go on this road, as it is not open yet to the public. The drivers also had to convince the workers to go ahead of us with the bulldozers so that they could clear the road, if there did happen to be any problems. Well of course there were; we drove around a corner and found ourselves facing a gigantic pile of rocks, which lead to more waiting for about two hours while they cleared off the road. We encountered a second pile later on that had to be cleared as well. But, finally we made it to a small village only an hour and a half away from Cusco, and all the passengers were just so thrilled to be almost home. However, here we had another encounter with the police. Though we all tried to explain that the bus had already been checked, they insisted and in fact found that the driver was carrying a ton of coca leaves. He was being questioned by the police, and it turned out that he did not have official documents (or a license) to be driving the bus. So he ran, yes he just ran away and all of the passengers were left stranded with a bus, but no driver. There were two taxis that people raced to claim, but we were too slow and missed this opportunity. So there was more waiting, but finally a sketchy combi pulled up and we all squeezed in with our bags and made our way to the outskirts of Cusco where we were able to take a taxi home. Whew …HOME at last, I was not sure if we would make it at all. But overall it was such an incredible and memorable trip being able to explore the incredible Manu Jungle ...the true Peruvian way.
