On Friday we had an early wake up and headed off to the airport bound for Puerto Maldonado, where we were to spend the next 2 nights staying in an eco lodge on the banks of the Amazon River.

As soon as we landed and got off the plane we were hit with the humidity and warmth of the jungle and was a welcome break from the icy cold nights high up in Cuzco. We boarded a bus which took us down through the town to the river where we changed and got on to a canoe and began our hour and a half long journey up the Amazon. It was awesome to see how dense the jungle was either side of the river and interesting to think of how many animals were lurking. We eventually reached the Eco Lodge Amazonia and made our ways to our lodges which I shared with two others. The lodges were pretty special, all up on stilts and consisted of a front porch with hammocks, a main room with the beds and a bathroom too. The lodges only have electricity for a couple of hours in the evening so the rooms get pretty warm considering the fans dont work during the day. In the evening all the paths are lit by oil lamps too!

After dumping our bags off in the room we headed over to Monkey Island, which is just on the other side of the river from the lodge. As soon as we entered the jungle a Spider Monkey made his way noisily through the trees towards us in search of bananas, and he didnt leave us until he got some. Heading deeper in to the jungle we came accross a group of capuchin monkeys so we lay out a load of chopped bananas and laughed as they took turns to stuff as much banana in their mouths before running away!

In the evening we went on a boat ride in search of Caymen but it was pretty disappointing as we didnt see many but with it being so dark at night the sky was amazing with so many stars and we took time to drift down the middle of the river with the engine of the boat off just looking at the stars and the moon which was the only form of light, a pretty unforgettable 20 minutes. After arriving back at the lodge we sat in the bar and had a few beers before heading to bed.

The following day we woke up early once again and after breakfast headed off on a jungle trek to learn about the animals and fauna of the jungle. It didnt take us long to find a drum tree, at least thats what I think its called. Basically its this giant tree and you take a log and hit the tree with it, and it makes a drum noise which can be heard over 2km away, good to know if you ever get lost in the amazon!

In the afternoon a few of us decided to take it easy so headed over to the hammocks which lined the river and chilled out, napped and watched the sun set, it was a pretty perfect way to end our stay in the jungle.

This morning we woke up early...once again and headed back down the amazon and to the airport where we are now waiting to board our plane back to Cusco and find out what is happening with the next part of our trip. We are due to be leaving to go to Puno and Lake Titicaca on Monday however the farmers are blocking the road to Puno and also blocking the Bolivian border so we are unsure as to what will happen, hopefully we can get going!