June 2009 Archives

"Whoa!!!" I yelled when I lost traction in my wet, rubber boots. Splat!!! I was lying, facedown, in Amazonian mud. I can laugh now, but I sure wasn't laughing then. It was 8 a.m. We had just started our journey to spot giant river otters at Oxbow Lake.

I pulled myself upright. I was covered from head to toe in brown, sloppy mud. This was not the look I was going for. I was OK, but I couldn't say the same for my new camera. It was practically encased in the dirt. Perfect...

Thank goodness for Luis, our jungle guide. He took my equipment, wrapped it in a towel and put it in his backpack. We continued on our hike to the lake. Once on the boat, Luis wiped most of the grime off of my camera.

"You were lucky, Grace! The lens cap stayed on. Also, the body of the camera seems OK." The zoom control was a different story. It was a mess. I sat there looking at my suddenly-not-so-brand-new-looking Nikon camera. I was filthy and worried. I put the camera away. It began to rain--and we didn't see any giant river otters.

Hi, it's Becca again! One of my favorite moments of the trip was the school in Cusco. You get to talk to real kids from a country that a lot of people wish they could visit and see what they're learning. As soon as we got there, the kids, in awesome costumes, started dancing for us and playing in their marching band. The dancers formed lines that wove in and out of each other, twirling before us. This way and that way; it made me a bit dizzy to follow one dancer in the group (and the high altitude added to that too).

Hi, everyone! This is Becca, here to tell you all about the Explorers' Symposium '09 at National Geographic headquarters in Washington, on Thursday the 11th! I drove down from Pennsylvania and arrived at the symposium at 5 o'clock.



Before going into the hors d'oeuvres party, I walked around National Geographic's really cool sculpture garden with my dad. It had statues of lots of different bugs, my favorite being a group of leaf-cutter ants carrying the greenery on their backs. That reminded me a lot of the trip to Peru and how much I miss all of the fabulous people on it.

"All Aboard!" There it was! The Vistadome--a long strand of painted blue metal sitting heavily on the tracks at the Ollanta Station, waiting zealously for us to climb aboard, eager to carry us from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes, a small village at the foot of Machu Picchu.

Never in my life had I ever ridden on a train before, so getting to ride one in Peru was an absolute thrill! Our train twisted for more than an hour on a snake-like railroad track up the side of a mountain and revealed to us a stunning panoramic of the Peruvian countryside.















Photo by Grace K

During their trip to Peru, the kids on the Hands-On Explorer expedition met up with the Global Bros, two brothers on a year-long trip around the world.

Read what Stefan has to say about Peru.
      Trip to Peru
      Rain Forest Adventures

Read Tyler's take on Peru.
      First Thoughts on Peru
      The Amazon

I knew that when I visited Peru I would see children. I wasn't disappointed. Just like in the U.S, they were everywhere. I saw them walking home from school as well as running and playing with friends in the street. Some were sitting on the front step of their parents' store watching the traffic roll by. Often the little ones were carried around on their mothers' backs inside a colorful fabric scarf.
























The kids in this picture are busy twirling around to some Peruvian music, while having a cool treat. I guess I got the little girl's attention, because she started beaming at me. I got her to keep dancing, so I could get a picture. Her brother didn't pay much attention to me. He was too distracted by his Popsicle.

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.

Along with the other Hands-On Explorer Challenge winners during our expedition to South America, I experienced some of the most beautiful, most amazing wonders of the breathtaking country of Peru. But, four days into the trip, something happened to me that took me away from the planned expedition itinerary and the team, and lead me to a unique adventure of a very different kind. My explorations took me to the grand cities of Lima and Cusco, the beautiful landscapes and countrysides of Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu, and the wondrous and lush Amazon rain forest--but I also had the unexpected and vivid opportunity to experience first-hand what it is like to be a patient in a Peruvian hospital.

Allillanchu! As you know that is Quechua for hello. There are many amazing things in the rain forest but my fave is the parrot clay lick. A clay lick is a giant slab of clay on a cliff. In the morning, the birds make their screeches, caws, and squawks and then they descend from the sky to the clay lick. There they eat damp clay that helps them with digestion. It slides down their throats and helps them chew their food in the gizzard. Also the minerals found in the clay enhance the bird's health and well-being after digestion.

Hi, this is Ian! I got home from Peru four days ago and can't stop thinking how cool the people were. Everyone: the photographers, the Explorer team, the guides, and just regular citizens of Peru. The people on this trip helped me learn a lot. Everywhere we visited there were interesting people. From the cities of Lima and and Cusco, to the highlands, to the rain forest of Puerto Maldonado, the people of Peru were some of the most fascinating people I have ever met.

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.

"Alpaca or llama?" was one of my FAQ's during our Peruvian adventure. We saw these soft furry creatures everywhere. They were in the fields, walking along the roads, at small markets, and in the villages. Llamas and alpacas look very similar, but like any animals that are related, they also have some differences.

The alpaca is shorter and they are softer to the touch. Llamas spit A LOT more than alpacas. (I found this out from personal experience...) Also, the ears on a llama are banana-shaped, while alpacas have straight ears. Llamas and alpacas are considered pack animals in Peru. They can carry as much as a donkey or horse, but have more benefits. they are easier to train, their wool can be used for many different things, they can be guard animals, and (unfortunately for the alpaca) you can eat them. At one of the hotels that we stayed at, lunch for the adults was alpaca. I could not bring myself to eat it, but my mom did. She said that it tasted a bit like lamb.

Our trip was spectacular--the nature and ancient ruins were beyond belief! 

Hey! This is Laura Beth again! I just wanted to write about what we did the last few days of the expedition, since we didn't have Internet access where we are staying and couldn't blog every day.

On Saturday we flew out to a tiny airport at Puerto Maldonado, which is in the rain forest area. I wish all airports were like that! Everything there was so calm and there was no possible way to get lost. There was one thing I was not prepared for, however, once I stepped out of the plane: the humidity. The air was so thick that at first it was kind of hard to breathe! I soon got used to it though, and started to appreciate the beauty of the area.

We drove for about an hour in a bus down a muddy road, and then took a boat for an hour and a half down one of the Amazon river tributaries. Once we got to our new home for the next few days, a few of us were very surprised. I guess the lodge can kind of be described as sleeping on a porch in a bed covered in mosquito netting. We didn't have electricity or hot water, and there were no doors or locks to separate the rooms--just curtains! I don't know about anyone else, but I loved it! We could all hear monkeys and birds at night, and the rain falling, and the first night I found a three-inch-long grasshopper (well, at least it looked like a grasshopper) in my bed! Everything was beautiful, even the cockroaches! My mom and I took pictures of the roaches we found in our bags because they were the prettiest roaches we'd ever seen--with red and brown bodies.

Staying in the jungle for three days was like going to the best summer camp in the world. One side of our room was open to the trees, and it had a hammock in it! My favorite thing at the lodge in Puerto Maldonado, however, was the canopy tower. Standing 120 feet tall, it towered above the trees.

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.

On the last few days of our expedition, we had an awesome time in the Amazon Basin. We explored the Tambopata Natural Reserve. Although the weather was not great while we were there, we saw some amazing things. We woke up at 7 a.m. to look for the resident family of giant otters. We took a fifteen-minute boat ride up the river and then went on a half-hour hike through the rain forest. When we finally arrived it was raining, but that didn't take away from the great scenery of the lake.

Hi, it's Elliot again. I'm on the way home but I wanted to write one last blog about the trip.

The whole Amazon forest has been the most amazing thing I have ever experienced in my life. One thing that really thrilled me though was the canopy tower. After a muddy hike through the jungle, we reached a rickety (well, it looked rickety) metal tower that seemed to stretch on forever and ever up into the sky.

Around and around we went up the winding metal stairs. Only after I was convinced the metal structure never ended, we were at the top. For a moment, I didn't dare breathe. Stretching out below me was an endless expanse of wonderful trees.

In the final days of the expedition we started our journey to the rain forest. From Cusco we took a plane to a small airport where we boarded a bus to our lodge. Instead of traveling on roads to get to our lodge we took a motorboat up a tributary of the Amazon River. We saw a caiman and two capybaras on the way there. After about an hour-long boat ride we reached the edge of the river near the lodge. From there we had to hike for about ten minutes through the forest. The calls of many exotic birds surrounded us. I could only wonder what they could be.