Due to the recent rain storms the rail line or any streets going to Machu Picchu are still out. There is no way for us to visit Machu Picchu. Instead we took 3 days and 2 nights to visit the Peruvian Jungle, Madre de Dios. On the East side of the Andes, the mountains drop off rapidly and the Eastern part of Peru is pure jungle. Hot and steamy, moist and rainy, very dense and tropical, this jungle is certainly dangerous. We picked the town of Puerto Maldonado because it had an airport and we could get a flight from Cuzco. Also the lodge we where we wanted to stay had a special program for the time we wanted. Like most things in Peru, the planning is only part of the job.
Our flight on Star Peru was delayed and we worried that we would miss the pick up at the airport in Puerto Maldonado. Not to worry, Peruvians are used to delays of any kind. Our pick up was there in a huge, brightly painted, open-sided bus and we were first taken to their office where arrangements were made right away for our boarding pass on our return flight.
After climbing over the prow of a very narrow riverboat, we travelled down river to a lodge in the jungle. This Eco Amazonia Lodge (www.ecoamazonia.com.pe), our home for the next 3 days was basic yet comfortable enough, even luxurious for Jungle standards. All food was included in the package, we did not have to cook or worry about not getting enough to eat. The meals were exceptional and great tasting.
Upon arrival at the lodge we were served lunch immediately and then taken on a tour of Monkey Island. This is an Island across from the Lodge in the middle of the very broad and very fast running Rio Madre de Dios, our highway for the next few days. Monkey Island is owned by the Lodge and is quite large. Monkeys found injured, or held as pets and no longer wanted, or taken from poachers, are brought to this sanctuary. These animals are set free there and are taken care of by the lodge. When we visited we were told that a total of 35 monkeys were on the Island.
Our transport to this Island was via a small river boats with a simple, homemade, outboard motor. We chugged across the Madre de Dios and landed someplace on the banks of the Island.
One boat was already tied up but getting off those slim, wobbly boats was a challenge. After climbing gingerly over the prow, we stepped off the boat and sank immediately almost up the knees into the muck and mud of the river bank. Climbing up the embankment this way was not easy. Each step threatened to pull the rubber boots we were given off our feet. Slick and slippery footing made our rubber boots a god send.
We were provided with these boots before we left the Lodge; they were stacked in a rack and ready for the taking by anyone from the Lodge going on an excursion. I am very glad we listened and took them along. Without those rubber boots, walking in the jungle would have been impossible.
A trail was already cut thru the thicket but some spots were so muddy we had to wade through water and mud over our ankles. In extreme spots, boards were laid out or little bridges were built to make the going a little bit easier (but not much easier). It was never an easy going hike. Each step had to be planned and each step had to be firm and secure. Without those precautions we would certainly have fallen and would have hit the mud. We came very close a few times and only by reaching out to the sides and holding on to a tree were we saved.
This holding on to any vegetation is a definite no-no in the jungle. We were just not savvy enough to touch things. Plants had so many defenses and snakes or spiders or poisonous frogs were hidden and could seriously harm us, holding on, while walking in this mud was not recommended and in fact was dangerous.
After some time, maybe 45 minutes, we came to a feeding station. The guides had set up a primitive table and before they got to this feeding spot they made monkey calling sounds to let the monkeys know we were close by.
Just before we arrived, our guide noted that Carol was carrying a water bottle. The water bottles in all of Peru have bright blue caps. The guide was a bit at a loss and asked Carol to hide the bottle in her pocket, because the monkeys, loving clean water, would certainly attack her. Well Carol heeded his advise and even kept a hand over the tell tale blue cap. But, once she saw the monkeys she forgot about the stupid water bottle and used both hands to take pictures.
Well, a large spider monkey saw the tell tale blue cap and immediately ran towards Carol to get clean drinking water. There was no defense from the relentless attack of the spider monkey. Even with the guide trying to divert the attention of the monkey back to bananas or other food morsels, this monkey wanted clean drinking water. As you can see by the pictures it pulled the bottle right out of Carols pant pocket. Naturally it climbed right up Carol’s legs and did all it could to get the water.
It all happened very fast, the pictures do not do the situation justice. Only when the guide finally gave water to this spider monkey did we have peace.
Other monkeys nearby were as eager for clean water but were not as bold. There is enough water around, it is the rainy season, but this particular monkey must have developed a taste for certain water and that is what he wanted.
The lodge also owns 10,000 acres of jungle and within the boundaries of this acreage no hunting, poaching or cutting lumber is allowed. It is a true sanctuary. Guided tours are given for tourists like us and explanations are given in an educational way. Students visit to learn about the delicate ecology of the jungle but are also being made aware of its dangers. Our monkey outing was just the beginning of a wonderful trip. We were lucky to be able to see a few of the monkeys and only thru the training of the guides were we able to do it. In general the jungle is quiet. Yes, mosquitoes abound, so do creatures like ants or caterpillars but Amazonia has really no large mammals. Those large mammals found in Africa are not present here. The jaguar is the largest predator and a rare sight. The main inhabitants of the Amazonian Jungle are bugs of all kinds. And the plant life is so varied that to know each plant seems impossible.
Then after seeing the monkeys we had to return to the boat. Again we had mud up to our knees and hot and steamy walking weather. Luckily, we had no rain that day.
We had been advised already, both in the U.S. and in Canada, to take anti-malarial tablets. Mosquitoes are a constant pest. Open your mouth to talk and they fly right in. Lucky for us they do not have bones; I ate a lot of them that day.
Once back at the lodge, again using the slim canoe-like riverboats with the peculiar outboard motor, we had about one hour to rest. Dinner was at 7 PM and we had just finished eating when we were told that a night tour on the river was next.
At 8 PM, our departure time, night had set in. There were no lights anywhere and getting into the riverboat again, this time in total darkness, was an eerie experience. Nobody dared to wobble too much for fear of falling into the pitch black water. The homemade outboard motor came to life and we chugged upriver, but this time we hugged the shoreline very closely. We had 2 guides on board, one at the helm and one at the bow of the boat with a homemade searchlight. A handheld light bulb was clipped to a car battery, voila, a searchlight. We were looking for caimans, the South American Crocodile, we searched and searched, chugging always upriver but never saw the tell tale reflection of their eyes.
After about 20 minutes of intense search, we gave up. Now, being upriver, the guides shut off the motor, shut off the search lights and we all shut our mouths and let the symphony of jungle sounds settle over us. The boat now drifted with the current guiding us downriver again. Swift and without sound we had 10 to 15 minutes with only the jungle sounds, in the pitch dark, in the middle of the river, in the night jungle. It was a sublime experience. Nature was all around us. We had water below, dark, cloudy sky above and wilderness as primitive as it gets left and right of us. It was such a simple yet very memorable experience. For these 15 minutes, the trip was worth every penny. As modern city slickers, we are in awe of such experiences. I certainly was impressed and strangely aroused.
Coming back and close to the Lodge again, the homemade outboard motor stuttered once more to life. It felt good to be back on land and back to light bulbs and other modern amenities. By 9 PM we were asleep and slept like logs in our cabin.
This cabin, made out of rot resistant wood, had the luxury of a shower and while everything inside the cabin was made out of wood because the humidity was so intense, we had a bed with a regular mattress. We slept well that night, despite the rain that fell on the straw roof right after we lay down. An overhead fan gave us some air current but, unknown to us the electricity was turned off at 10 PM, like it is done every day. But we never knew it, we were asleep.
The forecast for the day was 23 degrees Celsius, sunny with occasional showers. Of course, it rained most of the day and mud and puddles highlighted our riding. Some members of the BMW Motorcycle Club of Ontario arranged to meet at Clinton Smout’s training school, CMTS (www.cmts.org) in Barrie, ON for a day of trying our riding skills on dirt roads at Horseshoe Valley. We met at 8.30 AM and after the usual paper work and putting on gear, which made all of us look like we were Star Wars soldiers on duty, 
we began our ride on the practice field in front of the office. Because we all ride on pavement, riding in sand, gravel and ruts with large stones or boulders is a new experience. A little practice before entering the trails was a good thing. It gave us all a chance to warm up and gave all of us a chance to get used to the new, different bikes. I rode an almost new, 230 cc Yamaha. I believe all of the bikes Clinton has are Yamahas and I am not such an expert on off road bikes that I would notice that one bike is better than another. Chris, one of the instructors, rode a 450 cc but then he sure knows how to ride a dirt bike. We circled over little bumps, rode alongside a very small hill, skidded thru a bit of sand and got a feel for how the tires gripped the gravel before we split into two groups. Our practice day started around 9.30 AM. About 10 of us had Chris in the lead with another guide at the tail, so about a dozen bikes. The other group, and I was in this group, were led by Joe. Our tail rider was John and he was a quiet chap but rode well. The basic positioning of the body on the seat was our first lesson. To shift your body forward gives the front wheel better traction. To move your body towards the end of the seating bench, loads more weight unto the rear wheel. These basic positions, most of them now instinctive with me, are always good to rehash. We left the premises in wonderful weather and our next exercise was learning how to skid to a stop. On an oval, narrow, sand track, in third gear, and at a good speed, we had to pull in the clutch and step hard on the rear brake. No, do not use the front brake. The result of this maneuver was a good slide of the rear wheel and the objective was to keep the bike straight and move the front wheel in the direction of the slide. We prepped for the feeling of the rear wheel wiggling and sliding away from under us. It was nothing new to me but the first time it happens; it created some anxiety, because instinctively I try to avoid this behavior on a bike and to make it happen on purpose is counter to what I normally do. After some practice, though, I had a good time slipping and sliding in the sand. We moved on to a section at Horseshoe Resort where a very twisty, tightly curved, single track, dirt path was laid out. This path meandered among some trees and around bushes and was just a left right, right left, arrangement to learn how to maneuver your bike around objects. The objective was to do it slowly and ride smoothly. By pulling in the clutch, even partway some times, revving the motor to keep the RPM’s up we crawled around the neighborhood. Some turns on this path had deep grooves to making the ride a bit more difficult. The ground was mostly sandy and we were lucky with this exercise because by now, it was raining constantly. The sand did not give us much of a problem but now we had puddles on the track. We rode back and forth a few times along this path to get us really used to it. By now, the rain came down in earnest. Joe told us that if he sees lighting we would stop and go back to base station to wait out the thunderstorm. Sure enough, that is exactly what we did. We rode off to base in our soaked, wet clothing to wait for a break in the weather. It gave all of us a chance to drink some water, to use the facilities behind the trailer and to get some rain gear. Not all this lasted long, thank god, the thunder and lightning moved off and again we went out for some more fun. Next, we practiced riding the bikes over logs. In an open practice field laid a small, about six-inch diameter, log and then a larger, about 15-inch diameter tree trunk. Joe showed us that yes, you can ride over logs like this, especially with the bikes we had. He rode towards each log and made sure each time he approached the log it was perpendicular to him. Just before the front tire reached the log, Joe stood on the pegs, twisted this throttle, and just rode squarely over the log. It was amazing to see what rider and bike could do. As a unit, they just hopped over the log and rode on as if little mattered. Those off road bikes are amazing. The power transfer to the rear wheel is so fast and always available that with a flip of the wrist this exercise was more of a confidence booster than a skill learned. The bike did all the work, it was easy enough to do, just remember to have the object perpendicular to you, stand on your pegs, and twist the throttle to get over the hurdle. The bike will do all the work for you. Remember this too, when you encounter objects on the road that appear to be insurmountable such as a 4x4 dropped from a truck, or similar debris. So now that we had practiced some basics, we moved on to ride into the woods under strict rules not to get lost or what to do if we, or someone else got hurt. Horseshoe Resort is very large and one can get lost in the vast forest. Staying with the group was essential. Lead by Joe and tailed by John we rode into the woods assuming that after our practice sessions, we now could ride among the trees. The speed was frisky and the road conditions were nature at her best. We encountered tree roots, wet soaking soil, rocks strewn about, tree trunks from previously cut down trees, steep grades up and down, whoop-de-doo sections, ruts of all dimensions, sand, low hanging branches, narrow passages between trees, twisty single file sections, angled hills, old and slick leaves, puddles of water and muck of undetermined depth. Sure, some folks got off the bike and inspected the surface of the forest floor a little closer. Sure, it took a bit of time to get the bike back on its wheels and get going again, but overall it was fun. This is a new way of riding for me. My bike performed flawlessly. I am very impressed with how the Yamaha performed when my performance was a little short of stellar. With a mind of its own, my bike found the route. It climbed over the fallen trees, jumped over rocks and inclines and bad sections of the trail. All I had to do is hang on and point it in the right direction; the bike did all the work. I give myself credit in that I took our training sessions in the morning seriously. It truly helped me not to fall, it really made the difference when I trained earlier, paid attention to the details and tried hard while testing myself just a few hours before. Riding roads like the ones we did, doing easy and not so easy trail riding, being in the extreme end of motorcycling could be addictive. I can see how this adventure could be part of me if only I were a few years younger. 
After a lunch at Crazy Horse, a nearby eatery who allowed us in with wet boots, wet clothing and a huge appetite some of us changed clothing or donned a rain jacket or rain suit back at base camp. My feet were soaked from all the rain. I did bring dry socks but what is the use, it still rained anyhow and the inside of my boots were soaked. I changed to a different pair of gloves; put a rain cover over a dry, new shirt and off we went for more of the same woods riding all afternoon. Our group increased because Joe took on some folks that wanted to ride along with us. We cut a swath this afternoon. I have no clue which way Joe took us but the terrain was very varied. At one point Joe asked all of us if we wanted to try climbing a steep hill. “You need considerable speed and be in third gear”: he said, “with high revs and not let up on the gas”. All of us said yes, of course and a long line formed. One by one, we assaulted the steep grade and I am happy to report all made it. 
Even the smaller 125 cc bike, with some coaxing arrived at the top. Ok, I give the riders some credit but all the bikes of our group did a fantastic job. All the bikes did what we asked of them and more. I made a small video clip of the last two riders. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ve9MGYomIP0 ) I hope the video downloads correctly. The ride for the afternoon took a good two or two and a half hours but it did not feel like it. My bike, at one point just died. It ran out of gasoline. Switching to reserve saved the day; I did make it to home base. The final treat for the day was a run on a motocross course. We had a large group of riders, like I said before and the course was crowded. One section, immediately after a left-hander was muddy. I had to go wide into the grass to avoid being stuck in the mud. The bumps were such that, with some extra speed, you could learn how to fly. I took it easy, no use spoiling the day with acrobatics. Joe explained to all of us that with age our bones are more brittle and snap easier. Young folks have more resilience. Well, as I said before, I did pay attention to Joe; I made it out of this experience unscathed. It was a good ride and I will do it again someday but not today. My arms are sore and my neck and shoulders are aching from exercising muscles I have not used for a while. I am glad I went and the newly developed riding skills may come in handy on the pavement, too. My confidence in my own bike is now much better, too. Many believe that BMW is the best bike around and if a Yamaha took that good care of me, then my own BMW certainly will take care of me. I sure hope this is true. All is well that ends well.
