Sensible traveler Destinations Where they went Travel gear Student travelFinding thrills, no luxury, in Peru
By Diane Daniel, Globe Correspondent, 06/02/02
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Sensible traveler Destinations Where they went Travel gear Student travel |
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They first stayed in Cuzco, "capital of the Incas," and visited many of the ruins. "We weren't really fans of Incan architecture and art before we went down there," said Hillary, 35, a reporter for the industry magazine Advertising Age. "But it was amazing."
"The ruins are exceedingly remote and just kind of sit up there on top of the mountains," Neil said.
Before leaving Boston, they had learned that "some of the best untouched rain forest is in Peru," he said, and they decided to arrange a guided tour into the Amazon once they got to Cuzco. They passed over budget tours and signed up with a service recommended in their guidebook. An eight-day trip into the Manu Biosphere Reserve cost close to $2,000 each, and it promised private lodges with bathrooms and electricity in the rooms.
"It's the least accessible but most protected region," Neil said. "It's never been logged or touched, and has what biologists called the greatest range of diversity of trees anywhere on earth."
They started with a bus ride over the Andes. "Every time we'd think we can't go any higher, we'd go higher," Hillary said, until after hours of switchbacks, they reached about 14,000 feet. "The road wasn't paved, and very bumpy, but the scenery makes up for it."
The first bit of bad news came that night, when they were staying at a lodge in the "cloud forest." Their luggage had been stolen from the bus earlier in the day. They were lucky to be carrying toiletries and sleepwear, and they asked the guides to work on getting them more clothes.
There was a huge rainstorm that night, and Hillary recalls thinking, "I hope this doesn't cause a mudslide." It did. Not having time to reach their next lodge, they had to stay at a hostel in a small town. "It was pretty bad. We didn't know when the sheets had been changed," Hillary said. "It was lit with candles and the doors were blankets. The bathroom was across the courtyard through the mud."
The next day they took a beautiful motorized canoe ride along the Amazon to an airstrip, where they joined another small group of tourists - and were given some clothing. But it wasn't enough, and the other guests were nice enough to loan pants and tops.
The lodge, it turned out, had little privacy thanks to screened walls - with holes. The promised electricity came on only three hours each evening. The bathrooms were in a hut 50 feet away, which meant "10 to 15 mosquito bites, unless you were lathered up," Neil said.
All this would have been acceptable, they agreed, had they had advance notice instead of being promised luxury in the jungle - and paying for it.
The Hohmanns did enjoy the various hikes to view trees, birds, monkeys, and more. In the water they saw caimans, which are crocodilian reptiles, and giant otters. On the final night of their lodge stay, they were taken to see macaws roosting. Though they had been assured there would be daylight on the way back, "it was pitch black," Neil said.
The group heard a rustling in the brush. "I was kind of excited about maybe seeing something," he said.
"This big thing came running out of the bush," straight toward Hillary, Neil said.
"Neil told me to stand still, and then I just let out a scream," she said. " I could feel the wind of it going by." The animal appeared to be a tapir, a hog-like nocturnal hoofed mammal.
Once back in Cuzco, the Hohmanns filed an accident report to claim insurance on their stolen luggage and are attempting to get part of their tour money refunded. One thing they do agree that the operator came through on: an adventure in the Amazon.
Send suggestions to ddaniel@globe.com.