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Back in Cusco. Have spent the past three days in the jungle in Puerto Maldonado. We had to get a half hour flight into the main town then a 2 hour boat ride down to the lodge.
We arrived, were introduced to the lodge manager, Mr Antonio, and were served lunch which was rice wrapped in big vine leaves before being shown to our bungalows. Each bungalow has 2 single beds and 2 hammocks as well as a shower etc. It was a pretty nice bungalow and an excellent lodge in the middle of the Amazon jungle. We went straight out to the boat and over to Monkey Island. Here we saw 5 different types of monkeys and got some photos of us with the saddleback tamarin monkeys on our shoulders. The spider monkeys are notorious for climbing down to the lowest branch and then jumping on the backs of the tourists which was a bit scary since we got surrounded by about 5 waiting for a chance to leap. And they are about waist-height, all legs and arms.
After monkey island we had a siesta in our hammocks, had dinner which was a big buffet and went out in the boat again. It was pitch black dark at this stage and we were out in a very thin canoe which had an engine like a lawn strimmer. We went out into the middle of the river and because we were out in the middle of nowhere we had a really clear view of all the stars and the milky way. The tour guide Pedro pointed out all the constellations which were all really clear. We sat in darkness for a while listening to the sound of the jungle around us, the largest sound was being made by some sort of weird rat. We then went downstream to look for Caiman which are alligators. We saw a few with their heads poking out of the water and a few above water. We got back and got an earlyish night as we were to get up at 5 the next morning. There was a huge millipede under one of the pillows in the bed before we went to sleep.
We got up in darkness (there is only electricity for a few hours) which meant Lisa spent the day with her socks inside out. We were going for a tour to the Lost Lake which was about a 13km round trip, long enough in the heat of the jungle. We went with the tour guide Ronal and an english couple, Tracey and Joe. We walked most of the time and paddled down a small stream for 3 km where we saw lots of different birds and even a few hummingbirds. At the lake we saw more Caiman, lots of turtles and looked for anacondas but were unfortunate not to see them. Ronal said that although the books said they are 10metres long he has seen a 25metre long one in the lake.. sceptical. We climbed a 25metre tall lookout which is constructed around an iron tree. It has to be replaced frequently because of termites which made it a bit dodgy. In the jungle we saw lots of termites, larvae and beautiful butterflies. We saw lots of tarantula holes but no spiders which was nice. We got to taste a variety of random things but weren´t brave enough to eat any larvae or termites.. or ants. We saw an elephant tree which was 500 years old, absolutely massive.
We got back from the tour in time for lunch and then went out to the botanical gardens which Ronal showed us this bird that is called a guard bird (this was far more interesting than any of the plants). You can stroke the birds head and it sends it to sleep but otherwise it keeps awake 24/7 which is why people use it for security. We tried bananas and oranges and starfruit off the trees and saw pineapple plants.. they were really weird.
That evening we met Tracey and Joe for a few drinks before dinner and then a few more drinks after dinner. The cocktails at the lodge were pretty good. The next morning we left by boat again and came back to the same hotel in Cusco to a really bad room with no fire and tv. This wouldn´t really matter if we weren´t paying the same price. Today we got switched to a pretty good room and plan to go back now and get a fire lit up.
The jungle was amazing and we´re really glad we did it, could have spent a few more weeks there easily - apart from the mosquito and sandfly bites all over us.
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