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Thurs 15 March
Another early start - we got a taxi to Lima airport at 7.30am for our flight to the jungle (otherwise known as Puerto Maldonado) via Cuzco. We landed briefly in Cuzco - as the city itself is 3500 m above sea level, it was quite strange to be flying through the mountains just as we were about to land. Stunning views of the mountains around but unfortunately we couldn't spot Machu Picchu from the air. We then continued to Puerto Maldonado, a city in SE Peru, in the Amazon jungle. When we arrived we weren't asked to show our Yellow Fever jab certificates (apparently no-one ever is), but we were pleased to see a man holding a board with our names on. We expected a taxi or maybe a minibus so imagine our surprise when we were taken to our very own jungle truck (an open backed truck with seats nailed to it and a straw roof!). To make it even better it was just us so we had the whole truck to ourselves (yet still had to hold onto our luggage to make sure it didn't fall out!). We drove straight to Wasai Lodge - I have to say that this was the closest experience to India driving that we have had. Rough, bumpy roads, hundreds of tuk tuks, even more motorbikes (with up to five people on them) and lots of people staring at us. We were greeted with a tropical fruit juice at the Lodge and met our guide for the next few days, Jose, and our boat driver. After the drink we were taken to the boat - tiny little boat with nailed down seats, we were made to wear our life jackets though! We cruised up the Tambopata River to the second furthest lodge, Wasai Tambopata Lodge. It was all quite exciting at first but four hours later, deafened by the sound of the engine we were pleased to eventually get to the lodge (we did get a nice picnic along the way).Â
We walked up the riverbank to the lodge and it really felt as though we were arriving on the set of 'I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here'! Thankfully though our bags were taken to our lodge, and we were greeted with more tropical juice rather than witchety grubs or any other nasties to eat! Jose kitted us out with wellies, huge plastic ponchos and a flashlight then we had a rest in our room for a while.  Our room was great, an individual wooden lodge with four beds with mosquito nets, no proper windows, just mosquito-type mesh, even in the bathroom - we were definitely 'at one' with nature! We met Jose for a night walk around the lodge grounds - we were expecting to see tree frogs and other nice animals but instead got grasshoppers, cockroaches, wolf spiders and a family of tarantulas! All within walking distance of where we were about to sleep - yuk. I was very pleased that we had mosquito nets, more because of the fact that they's keep spiders out of our beds than mosquitos! We went back to the main lodge for dinner and were served a fabulous three course meal, had a beer then went to bed at 9pm. The generator was turned off at night so there was no lighting in the lodge just a candle. The sound of the rain and animals was so loud there was no escaping the fact that, yes, we were definitely in the jungle!
Fri 16 March
We met Jose at 5am for an early morning boat ride up the Tambopata River. We managed to fail our first jungle task - getting out of the boat! We had to walk up a muddy bank, I was so busy laughing at Marie stuck in the mud that I didn't really notice how deep the mud was and I got stuck.... and so did Ed! Jose helped us out and we walked around the jungle - we saw lots of squirrel monkeys jumping around the trees, then lots of stunning macaws at the clay lick. This is a sort of clay bank which attracts the macaws and parakeets as they eat it! By the time we got back to the boat the driver had cut down some of the vegetation and made a leafy path for us, even with bamboo sticking out of the mud for us to hold on to - what a nice man. We went back to the lodge for breakfast, had half an hour rest then we were off in the boat again to a local farm. We saw star fruit, limes, oranges and bananas - we also tried some of the oranges (which were actually green). We then headed back to the lodge and had a couple of hours just to chill out. In the afternoon Jose took us for a walk on one of the trails near the lodge where he pointed out some of the trees and plants native to the area (including an erotic palm tree!). At 7pm we went on a boat ride in the dark looking for caimains. Jose was an expert and could spot them with his torch (their eyes reflected very brightly), we saw a small one sat on a bank then another in the water. We slowed down as we went past it and were absolutely amazed (and slightly horrified) when the boat driver grabbed the caiman out of the water and brought it over to see us! Ok, it was only about three feet long and looked pretty petrified of us, but it still had very sharp looking teeth! None of us wanted to get too close but Jose gave us no choice and grabbed it from the driver and came and sat with us - we wouldn't go anywhere near it which seemed to amuse the boat driver who just laughed at us! We went back to the lodge (pleased to have not been eaten by caimans) and had another great three course dinner (including fried banana and yukka).
Sat 17 March
7.30am breakfast then unfortunately we had to leave the jungle lodge and head back to Puerto Maldonado. The three and a half hour journey back was quite gruesome as it rained the whole way back so we were all cold and wet. My MP3 player kept me happy though. We eventually got to the Wasai Lodge in Puerto and were fed more great food (chicken, rice, vegetables and egg all steamed in a massive banana leaf). In the afternoon it was still raining so Jose said we could either relax at the lodge or head out for another boat ride and jungle walk. Being the intrepid travellers that we are now(!?) we opted for the boat and walk so kitted ourselves out with wellies and ponchos again and headed out. We arrived at a National Park and walked up a muddy path to the office where we had to check in. Jose said that the path would get worse but I'd never have imagined just how muddy it was - I've never seen so much mud! We squelched our way through the mud and puddles, sometimes the mud was near the top of our wellies. I was sure I was going to fall over so I was the slowest in the group and they had to keep waiting for me. Marie kept slipping too whereas Ed was something like Indiana Jones and just seemed to stroll through the mud no problem. We eventually reached our boat only for Jose to tell us there was something wrong with it so we'd have to carry on walking. About half an hour later we reached a very basic hut in the forest where Jose spoke to a local man who took us down to the lake and we borrowed his boat. We realised then that we had at last reached Lake Sandoval, a beautiful oxbow lake surrounded by trees. I was pleased to be able to sit down at last, and cool down as despite it raining on and off, it was really hot wearing the ponchos. Jose rowed us around the lake and pointed out more squirrel monkeys jumping around the trees, more macaws and parakeets, a black caiman, long nosed bats, woodpeckers, tiger spiders and lots of different species of birds. It was fabulous to see so many different animals in the wild. We then headed back along the long muddy path to the boat, then back to the lodge. We all had showers - I actually got into the shower wearing my trousers as they were so muddy! We later had dinner (not so great this time - boney fish which we think may have come out of the very brown river), a few beers then bed at 10pm. This was the last official day on the Wasai tour but we had decided to stay at the lodge for a few more days. The tour was fabulous and I would definitely recommend it to anyone (www.wasai.com).
Sun 18 March
We had breakfast then bumped into Jose - we asked him to help us book some accommodation in Cuzco so he sorted that out for us. He then arranged for a minibus to take us to a local snake house...... and then tagged along with us! The guide at the snake house didn't speak English so Jose translated for us. We saw boas, vipers, turtles, frogs which was ok but a shame to see animals in cages after we'd seen so many in the wild over the last few days. We then went to the Albergue Zoologico Jaguar Centre where we saw turtles, tapirs, squirrel monkeys, a spider monkey, parrots, leopards, pumas, caimans and vultures. There was a young boy (probably about 10) who was holding the monkeys in his arms, then playing with the leopards and pumas -the gaps in the railings were big enough for him to stroke and kiss them! We went back to the lodge and then had a walk around Puerto Maldonado. We managed to find a Chinese restaurant where we ordered some food - we somehow ended up with an extra plate of rice when we asked for an extra plate! Obviously our Spanish has not improved much since we arrived. We had a walk around the main square where there was some sort of event going on - lots of families, men watching football on a TV that had been set up and a band playing. Marie was quite amused by the amount of people staring at us, and even one man who took three photos of us on his mobile phone camera!
Mon 19 March
We walked into Puerto Maldonado trying to find a post office but failed miserably. We had a walk to the one tourist attraction in the town, the Obelisco, a lookout tower. However we had read that when it rains they close it as rain pours down the stairwells and when we got there it looked decidedly dodgy so we decided not to risk the lift to the top! Ed & I thought that Marie should experience a tuk tuk ride (or 'motorcar' as they call them here), so we asked to go to 'el correo' (post office) which the man seemed to understand so off we went. Ten minutes later, down some dusty bumpy roads we arrived at the prison and decided we had probably gone the wrong way! We showed the driver the map and he headed back exactly the way we'd just come. He still didn't seem to know where we wanted to go so we just asked him to take us back to the main square which he understood - hooray! We went back to the lodge where we saw Jose again and arranged to go out on another boat ride with him. We went down to the boatyard to find our boat was the worst wreck of a boat there. It took about an hour to get to the Reserva Ecologica Taricaya, a sort of reseach/volunteer centre. I wasn't too impressed when we started trapsing through more muddy forests again but after about 30 minutes walk we arrived at a tree canopy. It didn't look anything special at first but after we'd climbed the three tier ladders we could see the canopy properly, and just how steep it was. We had to take our shoes off then started the walk across the canopy - this was a metal wire and wooden slat bridge leading up to another platform (42m high). It was really steep, and not having any shoes on also made the wood quite slippery, and it was also not rigid at all so the three of us walking across made it quite a bumpy walk. We spent about 30 minutes on the top platform just looking at the view of the trees and river beneath us, and listening to the sounds of the jungle. We then set off back down, getting back down the ladder from the platform onto the canopy was a bit of a challenge for me as it appears that my fear of height had set back in. I got down after a few minutes though then we practically slid back down the canopy (steepness and sock combination again) then headed back to the boat. We left at 4.45pm when little did we know this would become the boat journey from hell! The journey back should have taken about an hour but the boat engine kept cutting out. The rudder also hit a piece of wood in the river so the boat driver had to change part of the rudder. After about three hours the engine finally gave up altogether and Jose started to paddle us up the river! By this time is was dark and all I could think about was the caimans in the river that we'd gone out to look out a few nights before! We sat on the boat whilst the driver tried to fix the motor - at one point it popped and flames came from it and then the thought of the boat setting on fire in the caiman infested water became more of a worry! Marie tried to use he rmobile to ring one of Jose's friends but we couldn't get through - eventually the driver produced his phone and rang one of his friends to come and help. We weren't too pleased by this point and had our own ideas about why they hadn't just rang for the coastguard - Jose confirmed our thoughts and told us that we shouldn't have been in the boat as they didn't go through the proper procedure to take tourists out and as there were no life jackets the owner would get a big fine if they did call them - great! We could hear another boat coming so Jose went to turn on the searchlight....... but it didn't work! To make matters worse the other boat just dropped off more fuel then drove off. Unsurprisingly the engine still didn't work properly so they rang the other boat again who came back to collect us. We then had to get into the other boat which was a challenge in itself and Marie thought she was going to capsize the boat! We eventually set off, arriving back at the lodge at 9pm (a one hour journey actually took more than three hours) but we were just pleased to get back there in one piece! Jose had the nerve to ask us for some money to tip the second driver who'd picked us up but we refused and told him to get some money back from the original driver. We had showers then went out for a meal, accompanied by several beers and wines to help us wind down after out stressful journey back.Â
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