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Puerto Maldonado, Madre de Dios, Peru 2006
After four weeks of heat, insects, and mildewed clothing, I was ready for a weekend of air conditioning, laundry, and cable television.
All transportation up and down river is by boat. This includes tourists, staff, kerosine, food, booze, building materials, and research equipment. The boat drivers are incredibly skilled, navigating narrow, tippy, 50 foot boats up and down class one rapids, and dodging fallen trees being swept downriver, sometimes in the dark. Getting up river from Puerto Maldonado to the Tambopata Research Center takes about nine hours. Fortunately, going down river is much faster, taking only about 5-6 hours.
I traveled with several staff members who were going home for a few weeks. They not only kept me company during the ride downriver, but also took me out for beers and dancing at a couple of nightclubs. The music is Brazilian in flavor, not surprising given how close the Brazilian border is. I gave up at 11:00 pm. I later found out that everyone stayed out until 3:00 am.
I stayed at the nicest hotel in town, the three star Cabana Quinta, for $29 per night.
While not much to look at from the outside, the gardens in the inner courtyard were wonderful, the internet service was free, the rooms were air conditioned, and the showers were hot.
Puerto Maldonado (population of around 70,000) is a frontier town. It is the capital of Madre de Dios and is the largest (and almost only) town in the department (province). Only a few main highways and streets are paved. All of the rest of the streets in the town are dirt (or mud). Even the Cabana Quinta, supposedly the best hotel in town, is on a dirt street. Transportation in town is provided mostly by hundreds of two- and three-wheel motorcycle taxis. It was possible to go almost anywhere in town for less than 60 cents. Going to the airport was about $1.25.
I spent a couple of days hiking around town. One of the nice things about Peru is that large retailers are non-existent. Every business is family run and small scale. As a result there were numerous internet stores, cellular phone stores, motorcycle shops, pharmacies, and copy stores, seemingly one of each on every block. There were numerous small sundry shops and restaurants. I never found a supermarket or grocery store, but I did find the central market.
I cannot say enough about the integrity and kind nature of the people. Everyone was friendly. Everytime that I accidentally overpaid for something, the store keeper would always return the extra. I was trying to find someone in town for whom I had a street name and a phone number. When I asked a store keeper on the street if she knew the person, she replied that she did not, and then proceeded to close up her shop, walk with me two blocks to a pay phone in the neighborhood, and helped me call the person (who only spoke Spanish and I was still having problems understanding Spanish). Despite being the only gringo in town, no one stared, no one begged, and no one approached me trying to sell anything.
Copyright (c) 2007 by Dick Delanoy
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