Peru, Day Seven (July 18, 2009)

Ate my daily dose of huevos fritos for breakfast and then met the director's friend Wagner in the lobby at 8am. We hired a taxi and drove to Morro de Calzada. Blew a tire on the way, but the taxi driver was a machine, and he had the tire changed in 10 minutes.

Morro de Calzada is a lush tangle of montane forest with some tropical flora thrown in for good measure -- such as ficus, bromeliads, and giant ferns. The forest was spectacular, and the view from the top 2000 feet up was utterly breathtaking. We learned there is an unusual , deep sand formation due east of the Morro that completely changes the ecology. Unfortunately, from that height you could also see patches of the forest burning in every direction. But overall, it's still a stunning, untouched, unexplored landscape.

The only big, fat downer of the day was that I blew my left knee on the descent. Thankfully El Squid, my beloved brace, was with me, so I was able to make it down by bracing the left leg and putting all my weight on the right. Ow, quit it. Tomorrow is a travel day though, so I should be good as new after a day of rest. And enough Tylenol to kill a horse.

As a thank you, we took Wagner to the Mud Bucket where I ate another fabulous meal of paiche (local fish) with garlic and a side of fried yucca. Spent the rest of the afternoon packing for the trip tomorrow and nursing the leg. Not sure what city we'll end up in -- still trying to to decide where we'll have the best luck finding caves that might be worth excavating. Mmm....caves.