To the next adventure the Amazon,
After staying with the family, we stayed in Cusco for another 2 nights, before our trip to the rainforest.
Ben decided to take his malaria tablet to prepare for the adventure. This had disastrous results ! The next day Ben awoke and was terribly sick. Aching body and green sick. (Not good)
After spending most of the day sleeping and watching TV, he felt a little better. But would he be well enough to travel to the Amazon?!?!?
The next day Ben felt a lot better and managed the trip to the Amazon (loud cheering) we got a taxi to the airport only 8 soles. When we arrived at the airport it was very very busy and because there were bad storms the night before our flight was delayed 2 12 hours. When we eventually boarded the plane, we made it to Puerto Maldonado in 40 minutes in the middle of the jungle. Sarah crapped her pants the whole way there because the plane was too small and the fact she couldn't see the runway when we landed; which was basically a strip of tarmac in the middle of the rainforest.
After we landed, we were met by our guide, who took us to the tambopata river, where we boarded a boat to get to our rainforest lodge. Our lodge was called the Explorer's Inn and was the only one inside the Tambopata nature reserve.
Being inside the reserve meant that all of the animals were protected so we had a pretty good chance of seeing some wild animals.
On the first night we went on a hike in the jungle in the dark it was very scary we saw grasshoppers, spiders, fireflies and beetles we heard monkeys and birds but couldn't see them.
In the morning we got up early and trekked 5k through the jungle to see giant otters in a nearby lake. When we got there they were waiting for us to arrive and we were in a hideout by the lake no more than 3ft away from the otters who where fishing.
Then we took a canoe out into the lake and we saw loads of different types of exotic birds and bats and even howler monkeys that were making a horrendous amount of noise on the other side of the lake. Then we trekked back 6k were we got taught about the different trees and plants that grow in the area and what they are used for mostly for medicinal use.
When we got back it was midday and very humid so we had a nap and later on in the evening we went caimen hunting in the river. It was really hard to spot them the guide had a big torch which he shone across the river, when he spotted a small caimen he jumped off the boat and caught it. Steve Irwin style. We got to look at it and touch its skin before he put it back. It was very cool.
Then next day we had to head back to Cusco: a very short but amazing time in the Amazon.

Once more into the Frey my friends.