A Rendez-vous with Dorilla Plus Two

Dorilla and baby

Whilst on the way to go searching for poison dart frogs during my first trip, I was introduced to a Woolly Monkey named Dorilla. Guides always used to stop when they came to the spot where Dorilla was and she would come right out onto the boat and we'd have the absolute pleasure of feeding her fruit along with her friend Chippa. Now 3 yrs later I find myself having an upclose and personal encounter with not only this amazing monkey but her baby as well.

For those of you who don't know Dorilla or Chippas story, I'll summarize it right here. Dorilla was rescued off the black market and brought under the care of Angels of the Amazon and the people of Tahuayo Lodge. They released Dorilla into the forest thinking she would find another tribe to join but she never did. Instead she chose to stay around and enjoy attention and free fruit.

Chippa (whom they believe she may be pregnant at the time of this writing) was being kept as a pet in someones home. She was being fed rice and not given the proper care needed by her species. Dolly Beaver convinced the woman to hand Chippa to her and the woman finally did.

Chippa

Due to conflicts with the village nearby between the monkeys and the people, Dorilla and Chippa were relocated to the Amazon Research Center to avoid further trouble. Unfortunately Coby (the father of Dorillas baby) did not cooperate with the relocation and is currently still in the orignal location close to where I first met Dorilla while going to look for frogs. But they will continue with efforts to relocate him and bring him here to reunite him with his family.


For now it was me who had the joyous reunion with Dorilla.  I was overjoyed to see the monkeys and they were overjoyed at the sight of fruit. Both of them would come running down the limbs of the tree, snatch the fruit out of our hands and then find a limb where they could perch on to enjoy this succulent treat. The monkeys tore into the fruit with such a voracious appetite that the juice of the fruit would rain down on me from high above the branches. With such a healthy appetite I don't think that it will take much to convince me that Chippa just might be eating for two.....

Canopy Ziplining My Way Thru Culture Shock

full disclaimer: this pic of me and the monkeys are from my visit to "isla de los monos". Not from any excursions from Tahuayo lodge

"I'm sorry but we have to ask you not to use the hairdryer. It takes up alot of electrical current." That was the approximate translation of one of the staffs gentle reminder to me when I had turned on my hairdryer to dry my hair following a cold shower. Yes, you heard me right, a cold shower. In the Amazon jungle if water is heated to 33 degrees it becomes a soup for bacteria, leading to upper respiratory diseases. I was reminded of this fact he first day I landed back in the lodge and found there was only one option for the shower temperature.....COLD.

But back to the story about the hairdryer, I had completely forgotten that here at lodge there are only certain times in the day that devices can be plugged into the wall to conserve energy. The lodge is powered by solar power that converts it into electrical energy. Devices can be plugged in between 1-3 and then 6-8. Of course no one is going to punish you if you plug in your device any other time but it is the principal of respect for the lodge and the limited natural resources. I courteously apologized to the staff member after she reminded me.





Then I proceeded to pack my hairdryer into my suitcase because if I leave it out there is no doubt in my mind that when I get up in the morning my first instinct would be to grab it to dry my hair.  That incident opened my eyes again to how scarce our resources can be that even the use of my hairdryer was using up electricity that the staff badly needed to keep for themselves in order to prepare breakfast for the guests early in the morning. 

Tahuayo Lodge has a 40 meter high canopy zipline that runs through the jungle. They have such a good standing with the Peruvian government that they are in fact the only lodge in the jungle that is allowed to have one. Visitors always come back from having been on the zipline beaming and gushing endlessly about how thrilling the experience was.  Day to day life in jungle lodge and amongst the people of the village made me feel like I was on a canopy zipline of a different sort. Canopy ziplining my way thru culture shock.

As some of you know, I came to Tahuayo Lodge for 4 nights in July 2013. And like many visitors, once they get a taste of this place they fall in love and want to keep coming back. Who wouldn't want to come back to a lodge where you are greeted with love and hospitality the moment you get off the boat? In addition to that being paired up with a guide who takes you on fun excursions like: canopy ziplining, searching for poison dart frogs, looking for caiman, fishing for piranhas etc. My guides were wonderful and caring to me when I actually got bit by a piranha on my first trip. Make a note to oneself.....if your guides catch a piranha and show you its teeth the fish is NOT dead. Please do not reach your finger out to touch its teeth.

For the full recount of that incident you can click on the link below:

Pecked by a Peeved Piranha

I couldn't get Tahuayo out of my mind so I came back as a volunteer english teacher, teaching english at a local village named Chino. Stepping into the classrooms of Chino as a teacher and not as a visitor was an invaluable lesson in itself. The moment me and my guide entered the uniformed children would rise to greet me with a "Buenas Dias." And the funny thing was that no matter what age or classroom I went to, whether it would be primary or secondary school the kids would do it automatically on cue. There was no arguing, bad attitude, moodiness, or whining. These kids knew exactly how to treat visitors or authority figures.

On the theme of culture shock, a vastly unsettling sight that was completely normal to these people was the sight of children of all ages running around with machetes. Here in the jungle a machete is an essential tool for day to day life. Kids learn the proper use of a machete right from young from watching their parents and also being shown by the others in the village.  It makes me breathe a deep sigh of a relief that these children are so well schooled; the last thing I would ever want is to come face to face with an army of unruly misbehaving children skilled with machetes.

Trudging down the muddy hill one day, having finished a session in the village, I silently thought.....

"It really does take a village to raise a child."

 

A Ghoulish Amazon Encounter

While on my way to do canopy ziplining,  I had an encounter with the most ghoulish forest creature of my trip. It is called a Plant Hopper and there is no doubt in my mind that this odd insect would do very well in a vampire or zombie flick. If you think that the sight of this sends chills down your spine then check out this article by National Geographic that features  7 Demonic Creatures  But as freaky as that insect was, what was twice as fun and freaky was flying through the air over 40 meters above the forest floor.....

Featured Photo: Can You Spot the Bats in the Tree?

Can you spot the bats in the tree?





No? Look again



   



hint: Those funny looking bumps on the tree aren't really bumps.....

Hunting for the Elusive Poison Dart Frogs

All my life I have heard about the amazing diversity of the amazon jungle but nothing on this earth could have prepared me for the level of diversity within the forest jungles. There are many excursions you can go on depending on your needs and preferences, likes or goals. Among the millions of options available, one of the excursions is to go searching for Poison Dart Frogs. Up until now I had only seen them on the discovery channel.

Pecked by a Peeved Piranha

"Look at the teeth" the guide said holding the piranha we had just caught to me. We had spent the morning floating down the river in a motorized speedboat. I was experiencing an activity that was a source of food to the tens of thousands of people that made up the rain forest communities, fishing. My guides had informed me that early morning is the best time for catching fish and seeing animals because that is the time that the animals are out and about searching for food. As the day goes on, they tend to head for territory with shade, decreasing chances of spotting any animals or catching any fish. Up until then, the only time I had ever seen a Piranha was on the discovery channel. But as luck would have it, not only would I have my first close encounter with a piranha but unbeknownst to me before the end of the day I would witness first hand the power of a piranha's punch.

 I don't know what was going through my head, maybe its because I never fished before and it didn't occur to me that the fish was dead or anywhere close to dead. As the guide held the fish out to show me the powerful jaws and teeth, curiosity overwhelmed me and I reached out my finger to feel the piranhas razor sharp teeth. The moment that the piranha felt something touch its teeth it immediately clamped down onto my tender unexpecting finger. And I can honestly say that my curiosity to what the teeth of a piranha were like were more than satisfied as blood began to ooze out of the fresh wound.

The guides wasted no time in throwing the piranha back into the river and getting out tissue and hand sanitizer from the first aid kit in the motorised speedboat. They didn't even flinch or panic at the site of me wounded and bleeding. It almost seemed routine to them and I soon found out that this was because piranha bites weren't uncommon.

In fact, when someone is attempting to reel in a piranha that they've caught, they have a special way of getting the hook out of the mouth. One has to use your thumb and forefinger to press on each side of the cheek/jaw area at the same time to make the piranha's mouth open. They cannot stick their finger inside the mouth to remove the hook. Once the mouth is open only then can they carefully remove the hook out. And I was told that in some cases the piranha is so incredibly aggressive that they cannot get their hand anywhere close to the mouth, the hook has to be removed with a plier.

 Just to demonstrate the power of a piranha bite, I'll let you know that it took about 30 mins for the bleeding to be able to slow down. We continued floating down the river catching fish without further adieu and each minute found myself learning more about the ways of the jungle. As it turns out, towards the surface smaller piranhas and deeper in the water are larger piranhas. The smaller piranhas are the ones that are intelligent because they will pick away at the bait without getting hooked. It was the piranhas down deeper that were not so intelligent and are more prone to greedily gobbling up the bait hook and all.

We arrived back at the lodge with 8 fish and a 9th being a piranha. For lunch they cooked out catch and made fish soup for everyone and the piranha was handed to me fried on a plate. Having been bitten earlier by a piranha, I felt like I was getting back at it by having another piranha served to me on a plate. Revenge never tasted so sweet…..