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Published: June 17th 2008
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Cayman spotting
Our night boat ride to spot some cayman. The guides tried to get in the water to capture one!! Brave or stupid? Day 1 We headed to the airport at around 8am for our flight to Puerto Maldonado. The flight was pleasant although when we got off the flight humidity smacked us in the face!! The humidity is almost 100%!h(MISSING)ere!!! It was also raining when we landed which was pretty crappy but overall the area looked really nice.
We met our guides in the airport and jumped on a bus to head to the local office. We left our big bags in the local office and just took what we needed for 2 days in a small day pack. After switching bags, we headed to a local market to pick up some supplies. Sugar-coated Brazil nuts (yummy!!), snacks and football socks (for inside the wellies used for walking around the jungle).
The journey to the lodge was pretty long. First an hour and a half bus journey on a tiny dirt road. The bus was sliding all over the road because of all the rain.... and it was dry season.... can only imagine how difficult it would be to travel in the wet season! After the somewhat scary bus ride we jumped on a boat/canoe for a 2 hour
boat ride. The boat was really nice... very relaxed and the scenery was lovely.
The lodge - called Cayman Lodge - was fab. Each of the rooms in the lodge was part of a bigger house. So imagine a large wooden house divided into four partitions, with each partition making up one room. Our room was lovely but the walls were so thin we could hear each other breathing in the next room!!! So no hanky-panky for the next two days :-) There was two hammock rooms scattered around the grounds of the lodge for relaxing in as well as a main house with a bar and restaurant area.
The first task when we arrived was to get our wellies, then get changed for our night walk in the jungle. The night walk was really cool and we got to see loads of wildlife - monkeys, spiders, frogs, lizards and other insects! At one point our guide made us turn off all our lights and stand for a few minutes in the pitch black listening to the sounds of the jungle!! After the night walk we got changed and met in the main house for dinner. And the
What the F**k was that!
I was a bit on edge walking through the jungle at night in complete dakness! food was amazing! All home cooked and delicious. The lady who owns the lodge is french and quite eccentric! She used to own a restaurant in France and it was clear from dinner that she definitely knows how to cook!
We had an early night that night because we were up at 6 am the following morning for more jungle walks!
Day 2 We woke early this morning to a delicious breakie followed by our long jungle walk. The walk consisted of 3 hours walking to a lake, a lovely boat ride on the lake and then 2 hours walking back to the lodge. The weather was lovely but really, really hot! The walk itself was really cool and it was great to see the jungle during the day. We got to see some amazing stuff. A massive tarantula, a small snake (not slimy at all), some cool insects, parrots, macaws, etc.
At one point we encountered some fire ants on some of the jungle trees. Supposedly these ants are used to 'punish' adulteresses! The story goes that if a married women is caught having an affair on her husband, she is stripped naked and tied
Iceberg ahead!
Manny, of course, is as cool as a cucumber in the face of danger! to the fire ant tree for a few minutes and the fire ants are let loose to bite her all over!!! Sounds really sore. I wonder if the same thing happen to the men'!! We were all given the option of letting one of the fire ants bite us so a few of use did. It was pretty sore but nothing major. It felt like a burning sensation that increased over about a minute or so but it went soon after. So another thing to tick of our list :-)
One of the most amazing bits of the walk was the trees themselves. Our guides were able to point out multiple types of trees all of which can be used to heal or treat something. The funniest of these trees is the 'Viagra' tree. I can't remember the local name but basically the tree grows with lots of protruding roots that grow down into the ground and these 'roots' resemble one intricate piece of male anatomy!! Amazing!!
The heavens opened on the walk back so we had to break out the ponchos! And trying to cross the river using the large fallen trees was pretty hard in the
I love this branch SO much!!
"DonĀ“t make a move. There are a load of gringos looking this way!" rain because the barks became reallyslippy!
When we got back to the lodge I went straight for a shower (really cold but just what I needed), while Paul and Karl went to play football with the staff. I headed down after my shower to show my support to the guys! The setup was really cool. Each team consists of 5 players and there were about 7/8 teams. Two teams play against each other until one of the teams scores a goal - at this point the loosing team leaves and another team plays... in a winner stays on type of setup. It was hilarious to see Paul and Karl, these two white Irish men playing barefoot soccer in the middle of all these tanned, topless Peruvian men!! Unfortunately I don't have any photos but needless to say that as the match progressed, more and more females watched happily from the sidelines.... screaming 'macho, macho'!! :-)
After football watching....we headed out on the canoe for Cayman spotting! It was amazing. I don't know how the guides were able to spot the Caymans along the river banks - some of them were pretty small and very wellcamouflaged . We were
The Howler monkeys!
Strange, strange creatures! able to get really close but unfortunately the photos we took weren't great.... time to upgrade our camera! After the Cayman spotting back to the main house for dinner followed by a few beers and a few games of poker!
Before bed we spent a while with the gang in the hammock house!! Paul and I have decided that hammocks should be the new way of life in Ireland!! Very relaxing :-)
The jungle experience was really cool, our guides were great and overall we had an amazing time and were fortunate to see some amazing wildlife. Tomorrow we fly back to Lima for our last night with the group. We've had a great time on this group tour and have made some amazing friends......we'll be sad to say goodbye to everyone.
-- By Karen & Paul
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