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YOU DON'T NEED EYES TO SEE YOU NEED VISION.....
After a bus and a plane we landed in Puerto Maldonado. This town can only be described as a shanty town with shares in 1980's motorcycles. There were millions of them, all with the same passenger routine, man on the front, woman on the back and new born baby wedged in between them!!
Taking another bus, we stopped at an old shack to transfer some of our belongings into a duffle bag and left the rest of our luggage in a shed with no locks or labelling of any kind, as you do. Back on the bus we headed along a road which turned into a dirt track, which turned into a mud slide, it was lashing down! Bumpyer and bumpyer I decided to put my i-pod on and try to concentrate on the views. The flora and fauna was superb. Everything was lush green with splashes of exotic colours.
Arriving at a small shack which sold coca cola and fags, and had 2 loos (which even had loo roll in them!) we set off for a 3 hour trip on a boat down the Amazon river, taking me to Puerto Maldonaldo in the heart of the Amazon basin. From 4200 meters above sea level at Dead Womans Pass to just 200 here in the forest, I was beside myself with excitment.
Once on the boat, I was set, enthusiastic to take in as much of the environment as I could. After about a minute however the motorised canoe conked out, we bobbed for about 20 mins, listening to some Spanish expletives and watching a small Peruvian man run up and down the boat with various tools and a new propella! Then we were off again.
Along the journey we saw Giant Ginea-pigs, Herons and lots of Vultures (and that was just the guides ha ha).
We also got given a basket typical Peruvian food, pickled beetroot, cold fried chicken nuggets, cold fried yam sticks, cold rice and some waffers...... Things just keep getting more strange....
Once at our destination i dumped my bag into my eco jungle lodge (no light, no heat and no hot water - everthing is done by candle light), put my lilac 'jack in a pack' on (not exactly forest colours but I like to be different), put my rubber boots on (that's the wellington kind not the knee length, high heeled sort), covered myself in 50% deet, found my torch and headed out for a night walk.
Check the photos of the spiders and other gross insects. The sounds in the jungle were amazing and things really do drop from up above! 'Amy you've got something on your back'one of the girls shouted. To which I automatically went into a body popping, kill Bill, Ninja style convulsion and shouted 'GET IT THE F*CK OFF ME!'
It turned out to be a giant ant which was about 1 inch long and harmless but in my torch light and with shadows playing tricks it looked more like something out of 'Day of the Triffids'!
The finanle of the night though had to be when a guide stopped us and pointed out a hole in the jungle floor. She explained that this was where a female terantula lived and that we should turn our torches off. It was pitch black, we all just froze and listened.
When she turned her torch back on, there, 6 inches from my feet was a F*ck Off massive black mother F*cker! Apologies for my languge but it 'was emotional' if you know what i mean. Have a look at the picture.
Back at the logde I wedged my mozzy net around my bed so I was encased and tucked my trousers into my socks whilst I them spent the rest of the night developing my OCD for checking my bed and body for jungle insects......
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