Results tagged “Posada Amazonas”

The rain forest was AMAZING!! We saw sooooo many different types of animals and bugs!!!! I would love to talk about it all, but I am going to focus this blog entry on our journey to the canopy tower at the Posada Amazonas lodge. After an early wake-up to go to the parrot clay lick (unfortunately we didn't see any parrots due to the weather) we decided to go to the canopy tower to view the rain forest in a new perspective.

We had a 15-20 minute walk down the muddy trails of the rain forest until we finally made it to the tower. It was a 120-foot metal tower. I looked up and couldn't even see the top (that's how tall it was). We went up single file on the narrow steps to the top. It was very neat to see the trees in different ways every step we took. Once arriving to the second to last step we got to crawl through a little trap door onto the platform on the top of this structure.

While we were at the Posada Amazonas lodge in the Amazon, we saw many cool creatures, from monkeys to birds to capybaras. My favorite animals to see (although it was pretty hard to choose a favorite) were the many species of insects and arachnids found on every tree, always amazing. I saw a scorpion (thank you for pointing that one out, Elliot), many spiders, some moth larvae, some centipedes, and many, many snails. Snails were in trees, on leaves, on flowers, everywhere! The mosquitoes, on the other hand, were, should I say, annoying, but because of the rain, we didn't see too many for a few days. Speaking of creepy-crawlies, we were offered to try termites, a food source for those who have run out of supplies. I...tried some. It tasted a little weird, but if you didn't think about it, you could eat them without difficulty.

Don't get me wrong, the birds and mammals were spectacular as well! We saw some grey titi monkeys and we saw and HEARD some howler monkeys. The titi monkeys were adorable; I wanted to hold one! We also saw some gorgeous scarlet macaws. They were like the birds you see in movies, only better! We saw them fly by; flashes of yellow, blue, and red darted across the sky as we took the boat back to dry land. They were flying to the clay licks, where they eat the red-brown earth to help with digestion. I don't know how that helps, but I'll do my best to find out. The guides were amazing! They could just say, without another thought, "That's definitely a green violetear, a type of hummingbird." Just like that! Wow! The insects were still one of the chart toppers.

Hola, everyone! My name is Sharon Andrews, and I am one of the teachers who went on the National Geographic Hands-On Explorer trip to Peru. Wow! What a fantastic trip it was! All of our days and evenings were filled with new sights, sounds, flavors, and adventures! The Peruvians were very happy that we were visiting and were anxious to show us their country. We had so many exciting adventures on our trip that I could write volumes, but I will summarize the trip according to Peru's three geographic areas: the dry coast, the highlands, and rain forest.

I thought that instead of writing my blog about the rain forest overall and the awesome activities we participated in, I would write about the lodge itself and the little details about our stay there. I want to give you a sneak peek into what it was truly like to spend three nights amidst the wild, free spirit of the Amazon rain forest surrounded by exotic animals and plants, the thick undergrowth of the jungle, and the overlying blanketing canopy above. It truly was spectacular...and a very interesting experience.

THE LODGE
We finally landed ashore on muddy, steep banks after riding for more than an hour down the Tambopata River. We trekked through deep, sticky mud down a narrow, twining path cut in the edge of the rain forest. It eventually led to the lodge that we stayed in for three nights and two full days, the Posada Amazonas.

At first glance, the lodge looked almost like a vast tree house or wooden hut, built with countless planks and boards of dark, water-soaked wood. The path led to the lodge's unique lobby that was literally completely outdoors. There were no walls at all! The lobby was separated from the thick surrounding undergrowth of the jungle merely by a few, sturdy wooden rails, and a fragile straw roof.

Hi everybody, this is Rachel! Today was our first full day in the Amazon rain forest. Our group was split up into 6 different groups to do different activities at different times. Our morning team activity was to go to Oxbow Lake to search for giant river otters, which can be 2-3 meters (6-9 feet) long. To get to the lake, we went by boat ride on the river and then hiked on a very muddy trail for about 20 minutes. We never saw any otters but we saw bats clinging to the side of a tree, several birds, and we fished for piranhas! Grace K. and Dewey both caught piranhas. It was very cool. We did put them back in the lake after we looked at them.