The final chapter aka For the love of Pepe

For our last stop on the gringo trail, we opted to head towards Peru's Amazonian region. As much as I enjoyed visiting all those Inca ruins, I figured it would be a nice change of pace to relax in the jungle and get to see some wildlife. So we flew into Puerto Maldonado, where we were met by our guide, Jose Antonio, who would remain with us for the next five days. He led us a couple of hours down the Tambopata River to the Inotawa Lodge, which would be our home base. Once we arrived he gave us a tour of this lovingly created eco-lodge, its facilities and its residents. That is when I fell in love. Near the dining room/ bar area lived the lodge's most charismatic ambassador, an ultra-affectionate red howler monkey named Pepe. Pepe's mother had been killed by poachers when he was still very young and through a series of events, he came to live at Inotawa. The owners have tried twice to release him far from the lodge, but he repeatedly finds his way back and makes it known that this is where he considers home. Over the next few days, we did plenty of "activities", as Jose Antonio would call them. We did night hikes, day hikes, swamp hikes through shin deep water, farm visits, a visit to a salt lick in search of parrots, a river cruise in search of crocs, an exploration of a nearby lake on a hand-made barge-like contraption in search of giant river otters...all with a surprisingly low success rate. Whether due to bad luck, bad timing or maybe just really shy creatures in this part of the world, we really did not see a lot of wildlife. We would walk for hours with nothing to see and in a last minute fit of desperation, Jose Antonio would rouse a resting tarantula out of its hole. The tarantula was Inotawa Lodge's one sure thing. At one point Shawn noted that he had seen more wildlife outside the Key Biscayne public library (one of my favorite spots in Miami) than he had along Rio Tambopata. But this was OK, because at the end of each activity, we would return to the lodge, where I would sit cross-legged on the ground and have Pepe immediately curl up on my lap. I would just sit there and stroke his thick fur until he decided I was done. If I tried to stop prematurely, or even if I removed my hand for just a second to grab a drink, he would reach back, grab my hand and place it back on his fur, where it belonged. When not bonding with Pepe, we simply relaxed on the hammocks, ate some of the best food I had in all of Peru (all cooked without the aid of any electricity whatsoever) or just enjoyed watching the river flow by. When the last day came, Jose Antonio (via CB radio, the only means of communication available to us) learned that our flight had been moved up a couple of hours, which resulted in a mad rush to get back to town. In the rush, I never got to say good bye to Pepe, a fact that I regret to this day. The lodge, even with its absense of wildlife would have been great no matter what, but spending so much time with this evolutionary ancestor is what really made it special. I guess it is true that a lot of times when you travel, it is who you meet, not where you go, that makes all the difference. Peru (and Pepe) were certainly no exception.

This brings to an end (finally) the Peru serial.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am now based in Amsterdam, with all of Europe just a train ride or short flight away. Pretty handy for seeking out the next adventure, I hope.