Puerto Maldonado, late December 2018

[cranefly]

Oh hold the phone...was that grub alive?

Yes, but it didn't scream.  So it's okay, right?

At the ecolodge we have a chef, very accomplished, renowned in the area, and he even received an award from the government while we were there.  So we're getting some top-notch meals.

Oh, I forgot to post a photo of Paula (not a very good one):

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2018-12-30: Character Study -- Paula
Paula is 59, maybe 60.  I've called her a professional athlete.  Actually, she's a fitness trainer these days.  But in her prime she could run the mile in 5:15, and that wasn't really her event. She competed in Iron Man and Triathlon and was once ranked 5th in the world.  Just looking her, you know there's something going on.  Her arms are incredibly veiny.  She remains competitive in her age group, and was worried she wouldn't be able to train for an upcoming event while on this trip.  But there's a 200-yard stretch from the ecolodge to the first steps going down to the boat, and she's taken to running back and forth on that every morning for conditioning.  There's also a horizontal branch wedged into a corner above the ecolodge deck that works well for pull-ups and stretching.

Early on, she mentioned to me how sometimes she gets into a zone where her only thought is to complete some activity.

On the way back from the mammal copa, she fell into that zone.