Kill Creek Park

Recently, Pocky and I went on an adventure to Kill Creek Park in Olathe, KS. It's about 20 minutes down the county highway from where we live, and is located within a wealthy Kansas City suburb (so the park is well funded!)

When we arrived, we headed down what looked like a wooded trail that followed the shoreline of the man-made pond. Most of the bodies of water in Kansas are man-made- very much unlike Wisconsin!

Pocky loves to run through the woods- I took a video of her frolicking but it's kind of shaky- I'll have to film better next time. On our walk, we saw some strange looking bugs that seemed to be slowly killing a plant. They were an almost fluorescent whitish purple, and if you look really closely you can see they are fluffy little winged guys.

Unfortunately, the trail through the woods was pretty short, and soon we were on a paved trail through a prairie. If you click on the video, you can hear how noisy it was out there!

We went down to the edge of the water and walked on the rocks, where Pocky got a drink, before circling back around the pond through another stretch of woods. The rest of the walk was paved (*sigh*) but we met a group of dogs on the way which was nice for Pocky. We stopped on the little pier before heading home.

I decided to go back a different way, trying to head north and west, but somehow ended up southwest of where I wanted to be and almost ran out of gas. Luckily, we made it to Baldwin City (about 20 minutes from home)- otherwise we would have been stranded on a country road!

Sandoval Lake

"We all went to bed early and woke up for breakfast around eight. We left for the National Reserve, down the river from our lodge, at 9:30 and hiked through the jungle for about an hour. Along the way, we saw all kinds of plants and animals, and about ten different kinds of ants. Army ants, leaf cutter ants, fire ants...all marching along the forest floor or along tree trunks. We saw a huge black, green and white butterfly that we tried to photograph for ten minutes, but it wouldn't land! It finally landed on my shirt, but took off again before Travis could get a picture.

^Leaf-cutter ants!^

Our destination was Sandoval Lake, and we used a small boat to explore its shores. We were a party of nine, with our guide and a solo traveler, Amelia. We all piled into a narrow canoe, and followed a small waterway through the trees to the open water of the lake:

We glided along the shore, looking out for animals in the water and trees. About ten minutes in, our guide pointed out a family of giant otters swimming in the center of the lake! We drifted closer, but not too close as to scare them. Carlos said that the mother otter will stop producing milk if she is scared and her baby will die. There are only eight otters in the lake, and they are an endangered species, so we were very lucky to see them that day.

Snacking on a fish!

After the otters, we went ashore and had lunch. Our guide company had packed us each a lunch: two banana leaves filled with a rice mix with a 'chicken ball' as well as some fruit and cookies. Where we pulled up to shore, there were about 1000 butterflies. They were mostly grouped along the muddy shoreline, but as we disembarked, many took off. They seemed to segregate themselves based on type or color, because all the brown ones were grouped separate from the green ones...

After lunch, we went for a swim in piranha-infested waters. The lake is home to lots of scary critters hidden below the murky surface, like anacondas and caimans, but we took the long boat out and jumped in. We all managed to retain our limbs and our lives :)

Once back in the boat, we saw a bunch of spider monkeys playing in the trees along the shore!

Can you spot the monkey?

We paddled around the edge of the lake some more and got off at a rickety old dock. Inside the trees here, there is a big canopy tower, so we climbed the five or six flights up the spiral steps and got a great view of he lake from above.

We spent the rest of the afternoon following the shoreline, looking for animals on our way back. We saw all kinds of birds, such as a Kingfisher and "snake duck" that swims underwater and has a long neck that looks like a snake when it pokes its head up. We saw lots of bats sleeping on trees, a few caiman, and lots of different plants. At one point, I saw a big pair of eyes peering out at us from out of the water (they reminded me of the eyes in Peter Pan of that big alligator), but when Marla saw them she screamed and he quickly hid below the surface.

Bats taking a nap

A little monkey!

First day in the Puerto Maldonado jungle

7:40 am 

"Once we got our rooms settled in, we showered and changed out of our travel clothes. Each 'room' has a bathroom with a shower that uses water from a big water tower, so it is only warm some of the time but it is very refreshing in the heat of the jungle. We were taken by our guide Carlos, the owner of 'Carlos Expeditions,' for a botanical walk through the jungle surrounding our lodge. I forgot to mention, there are five rooms along a covered porch, with hammocks between the roof supports and along the deck. 

On our walk, we learned about the trees, plants, and animals around us. There is a tree known as a 'strangler ficus' that grows around another tree and strangles the life out of it. We saw one with a big hole in the trunk where a palm tree once grew.

A 'walking palm' that puts down new roots to move itself when other trees block its sunlight!

Strangler Ficus! See where the old palm tree once grew?

Sweating and loving the jungle.

Travis shows us how the root system on this massive tree works: there is a man-sized hole!

8:30 am

We also saw some tarantula holes, and Carlos coaxed one out of his hole with a thin stick. He wiggled the stick in the dirt outside the hole, and the spider thought it was a bug, so as Carlos pulled the stick away, the spider followed! He was close the the size of our guide's hand!

We came back to the lodge for a short rest, then got back in the boat and headed for 'Monkey's Island' across the river. We walked along a muddy beach and entered the forest through some chest-high grasses. The jungle here felt really 'jungley' and looked like the forest in Disney's Tarzan. It was a neat experience. I took a video trying to capture the feeling of being surrounded by the greenery, with the sounds of the birds and monkeys, but it does not do the place justice.

We walked through this heavy forest for about ten minutes before we heard the monkeys. We got to a small clearing and saw about seven small monkeys up in the trees! One was on the ground along the jungle path, but our guide said they can become very aggressive so he ushered it into the trees with a stick. The cries that came from that little tan monkey sounded like an angry banshee.

We looked at and filmed/photographed the monkeys for about fifteen minutes. At one point, Marla stuck something in her pocket and a small, dark monkey saw her do it. He was then incredibly intent on getting to her because he thought she had stuck food in her pocket. He shimmied down some vines and jumped from tree to tree, following. 

Our guide told us that a long time ago, there used to be a big market for monkeys that were shipped out of the country as exotic pets. A few years ago (perhaps the 60s) they reintroduced monkeys to the island and their population grew. For this reason, the monkeys get very close to the people who visit the island.

^Here is a huge tree!^

1:30 pm

We walked around Monkey's Island for about an hour, then headed back to the beach as the sun was setting. Once we got back on the boat, night had set in but it was still bright due to an almost full moon. We then started our search for Caimans. 

Caimans are a type of alligator that live in this region. Along the Rio de Madre, there are mostly white caiman, which can reach up to three meters in length. We were 'caiman spotting' with a huge flashlight along the dark river. Caimans have yellow or red eyes that glow in the light of the flashlight. We only saw a few for a very short time and it was not very exciting. However, after a bit longer we saw a bigger one along the shore and there was talk of catching one. After a few attempts, our guides caught a small caiman, about the size of a cat with a long, thick tail."

Carlos holding the caiman.

Katie holding the caiman!

To the Jungle!

I am finally able to post from my actual journal again! Here is my next entry after the one about Machu Picchu:

Monday, June  4 6:55 am

"Our adventures in M.P. and Arequipa will have to wait until we are back in Cuzco, I have been having the best time now and want to write about it.

After getting back from Arequipa on a ten hour night bus, we had the day to rest and wash clothes before getting on another ten hour night bus in the other direction. We were headed for Puerto Maldonado, in the tropical jungle region along the Peruvian border with Bolivia.

We got in at seven in the morning, and immediately got into three motorcycle rickshaws. Marla's husband had come with us, so we were a party of seven (Marla, Anna, Ismael, Katie, Derek, Travis and me). Our rickshaws took us to the travel office, and we left our bags there to grab breakfast around the corner. The biggest differences between the jungle and mountains are present in the food- the bread here is very soft and there are all kinds of fresh tropical fruits here. In comparison, the mountain bread is much firmer and very flat due to the altitude. Puerto Maldonado is at a similar altitude to Lawrence I think, and the ground is "Peruvian flat". 

After breakfast of eggs, bread, and fresh papaya juice, we walked to the port and got on a long, skinny river boat. They make them narrow for better control on the strong river currents. We rode for about an hour and got out at a small wooden platform in the mud of the riverbank (it is the dry season, so the river is much shallower and the water has receded from the shoreline about 20 feet). 

^Here is a video of what it looked like on the boat!^

We followed a path through the jungle for about five minutes and continued on a small boardwalk until our lodge came into view. The main building is a large wooden dining hall with screened walled and doors. We were given fresh starfruit juice and rested while they finished preparing our rooms.

The lodge has a few mascot animals: two macaws that hang around, and a small howler monkey named Lalo. Everybody loves the monkey, and he loves to explore people and their things. He is currently sleeping on Travis, who is resting in one of the hammocks."

Colca Canyon and the Long Drive Back

The next morning, Travis and I woke at six to catch our ride up the mountain. If you will recall, I mentioned that the only vehicles in the canyon were mules. Mine was a nice grey one.

We met a man with a mess of donkeys, and he set up our saddles and helped us on. After that, he basically tapped the mules on the bottom, and they went up! The way up was incredibly steep, and we passed a bunch of people who decided to hike (Katie and Derek had opted to hike) as our mules charged onward. The Mule Man kept shouting "moo-lah!" ("mule" in Spanish), and whacking our mules when they would stop for a rest. About halfway up, I noticed that Travis' mule was absolutely covered in mule sweat. It was a thrilling climb, because we were on huge animals walking along a steep cliff, and their eyes are on the sides of their heads! The path wound back and forth, sometimes having "stairs" of cut stone, other times being relatively flat, so to speak. The Mule Man mimed that we should lean forward on the stairs, so as not to topple off the back of the mule and go tumbling off the edge of the mountain.

About an hour later, our mules hit the summit. Derek was waiting at the top (the hikers left about an hour before we did) and Katie joined us shortly after. We paid our Mule Man and went on our way...hiking along more "Peruvian flat" land to town.

At the top!

We had breakfast, and then got back into a big van to drive back to Arequipa. I filled an album with some pictures from the drive, which you can look at here if you are interested!

There are two points from along our drive that I would like to discuss on here. First, we passed through a beautiful, fertile valley (I think it was called Colca Valley?). I am posting a giant version of this picture so you can better see the details.

Here is a picture of an eagle that a man let you take pictures with for a Sol. It is sitting on some guy's head.

The second stop I would like to mention was at the highest point in our journey. If I recall correctly, our guide said it was 5000 meters or so (over 16,000 feet!). At this point, you are supposed to build a small tower out of rocks and make a wish. The sight of thousands of small rock towers from people who stopped here was incredible.

There were signs that pointed to the various mountains in the distance, naming them and giving their height.

We were so high up, it was pretty chilly!

Eventually, we got back to Arequipa. And after that, we caught a Night Bus back to Cuzco. We were wishing we had taken the Night Bus to Arequipa to begin with after we saw how awesome they were with over-sized reclining seats, an outlet per passenger, and airplane food service. It was a far cry from our journey out.

Colca Canyon and the Condors

We were picked up from our hotel in Arequipa at three in the morning by a group of young, energetic guides who would be taking us on a two-day hike. After about 4 hours of sleep, we were groggy and we hauled all of our gear into a 15-seat van. When we left Cuzco the day before, we had to pack light since we would be carrying all of our belongings on our hike. Travis decided to be chivalrous and carry my stuff in his pack, so I just brought a small bag with the essentials (camera, water, toilet paper, etc.)

We rode for several hours in the dark, and most of the ride I spent drifting in and out of consciousness in a straight-backed seat next to Travis. Once dawn broke across the sky, our guides roused us and described our upcoming adventures.

First, we were to stop and see some condors. Then, we were going to drive straight through to where our hike was to begin, since we would need all the light of day to do so. The next day, we would stop at the places we drove past for photo ops.

The condors we saw are most active around 9 am, so that is the time we hoped to glimpse some of the massive birds. We were not the only ones at the condor viewing spot, and I had to wiggle between other people along the railing at the edge of a cliff to see. I took a video of them in flight, but they spent much of our viewing time dive-bombing one another.

Here is the backdrop we watched the condors on. Beautiful, giant mountains.

Our guides told us that condors mate for life, which can be 50 years or longer! When a condor's mate dies, the widower often becomes depressed and will fly into the cliff face, ending their life.

Their wingspan can reach up to 10.5 feet!

Can you spot the condors?

After viewing the birds and driving for another hour or so, our driver pulled over in the middle of nowhere. There were no markers on the road, no buildings to speak of, just open land. We got out.

It was a warm morning, leading into a warmer day, in which we would be hiking for 10 miles, up and down a canyon. Since there were no places to use the restroom, I ended up holding it until we got to our lunch destination, two hours later.

Our guide walked us around a hill, and we got our first glimpse of Colca Canyon.

Excited for our hike!

See those white patches on the lower left side? Those are towns that we would pass through. The only access to them is by the mountain paths we would be taking- no vehicles (except mules) have ever visited there.

Here is our hiking group! We were accompanied by two Mexicans, one Canadian, one New Zealander, on Peruvian, one German, and one guy from Oregon!

 We began our trip along the side of the mountain, winding back and forth as we descended.

There's Travis!

I look cheerful because we haven't had to go "up" yet.

Most of our path was dusty, rocky, windy and steep. After this picture, I stopped taking them in an effort to keep pace with the others until we got to the bottom.

By the time we reached the bottom (about 1 1/2 hours down) I was exhausted, dirty, and had to pee like a racehorse. But once we reached the bottom, the only way to go was up. We crossed the river that passes through the bottom of the canyon, and wound our way up and over on the other side to reach our lunch destination. The only problem was, I hadn't been acclimated to the altitude, and it was still bothering me physically. I felt about 30 years older, unable to breathe and keep pace with the group. On our first real "uphill" I had a breakdown at the back of the group, and our guide became my new best friend. He said that this trip was for fun, and that he would stay with me while his partner led the others. I pulled myself together, and trudged on.

On this side of the mountain, we were shaded by trees which was a blessing from the midday sun. We passed a variety of Andean plants, and our guide made note of a few poisonous ones to watch out for. Eventually, we made it to our lunch stop. It was the home of a family who live on the mountainside, and thankfully they had a (toiletseatless) bathroom. Our lunch was nothing too memorable, probably because I was already dreading the rest of the day. There was, however, a cute friend to cheer me up:

The rest of the day I spent cursing the fact that I was on the hike at all. Our guide, ever the cheerleader, kept me going. The way was "Peruvian flat" which means lots of ups and downs but nothing too drastic (I say this but realize that while I was there, it felt like I was scaling Everest!)

We reached our lodge (The Oasis) before nightfall, at least 30 minutes after the group did. Everyone cheered when we arrived, although I felt like vomiting.

The lodge had no power, and our mud-walled rooms had dirt floors. There was a natural spring-fed pool that everyone was playing in, but I got in for three minutes and immediately got out because it was too cold and I was too exhausted. It was an incredible place, and I wish I had been in better spirits to enjoy it.

I crawled into my pajamas, and tucked myself into bed, suddenly feeling quite ill. I felt a fever coming on, and my body and head ached so badly that I just wanted to sleep. Our guide knew better, and had Travis bring me a bowl of soup in bed to bring back my strength for the next day. I took small bites, and went to bed before everyone. I was miserable and hated that I had to get up at six the next morning to go three miles UP the steep mountain...