Our boat ride back to the port of Puerto Maldonado was to take about four hours and Listen had his eyes peeled for glimpses of animals along the river bank. Our best chance of spotting any more wildlife was up to the first checkpoint. After that the reserve zone ended and the presence of human habitation made it unlikely that rarer animals would be spotted.
About an hour into our journey our boatman spotted a jaguar sitting on the river bank. There was much commotion and excitement on the boat while at the same time we were supposed to be as quiet as possible. Silently we swung around and got as close as we could while everyone took dozens of pictures. I had my binoculars and spent some time just looking at the jaguar; what a beautiful animal and it blended in so perfectly with the leaves and shadows that an untrained eye would never have spotted it. As it was it took me at least 30 seconds of staring straight at the spot where it was before I could make it out. It stared back at us in a lazy, disinterested sort of way and I got the feeling it was wondering what all the fuss was about. Finally it got tired of us and walked back into the jungle. Of course the humans on the boat couldn't contain our excitement and we compared photographs and talked about it for the next half hour.
We had just been lulled into a state of extreme contentment thinking how this was just the icing on top of a fabulous Amazon cake, when more excitement and commotion from our guides indicated yet another jaguar sighting. This one was walking along the beach on the river bank and again it took me a long time to pick it out because it blended in so well with it's environment. This one seemed larger and very powerful; it also seemed to have a pretty full belly. After the requisite photographs I gazed for a long time at the jaguar marveling at how beautiful and majestic it was. The students couldn't believe their good fortune - the odds of seeing two jaguars within an hour are incredibly low and the chatter on this sighting continued all the way to the checkpoint.
However, our day of spotting rare animals wasn't quite over. While we were waiting at the checkpoint Listen spotted something on the opposite bank and the boatsman sped away to the other side. It was a tapir and we just got a brief glimpse of it before it went back into the forest. Not long enough to take any pictures but still the students can say that they saw a tapir in the rainforest.
From then on our journey back was unevenrful and we got back to the port and then made our way to the airport where we said our goodbyes to Listen. He had been an amazing guide, full of an encyclopedic knowledge of the flora and fauna of the jungle and an uncanny ability to spot animals out of thin air. He was also really smart with real insight into the issues surrounding the preservation of the rainforest. We all agreed we couldn't have had a better guide. Thank you Listen!
It took two planes for us to get from Puerto Maldonado to Juliaca where we met our new guide Allen, and another hour bus ride to Puno. We were a weary group of travelers that checked into our hotel. We had been traveling for almost 12 hours. Luckily we found a cozy restaurant right across from our hotel and we liked it so much we are going back the day we return from Titicaca.
Tomorrow we leave in the morning on a a boat to visit the island in Lake Titicaca where we will stay overnight on one of them before returning the next day.
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