Blogs from Amazonas, Peru, South America - page 5

Today we are in the amazon jungles taking a hike.... read more

The aim when leaving Cusco was to get up into the high mountains of the Cordillera Blanca for a few weeks of trekking en-route to Ecuador. This was achieved via a short flight, a long bus and a half day layover in the capital Lima. Half a day is not much to devote to a nation's capital, but it felt like it was probably all I really needed there!! I visited some pleasant parks – including an impressive one containing 14 different fountains all lit up at night – and got to see the sea for the first time on my trip, but that was enough for me!! Huaraz is the gateway town to the high Andes in northern Peru and to my mind was another unremarkable town, with a remarkable setting: a high altitude valley ... read more

A 4.30 start we had coffee before we started to paddle in a catamaran across the lake looking for otters. The sun was just rising and it was deliciously cool as we skirted around the edge of the lake. The colours of the lake were changing from a pale watery grey to pink and orange as the sun rose. We saw many different birds, a heron, cormorants, macaws, parakeets, and Annie's . Then a cayman started to swim across the lake and monkeys, cappuccino and squirrel, were jumping through the trees, all foraging for their breakfast no doubt and after about two hours we returned for breakfast. Yummy scrambled eggs and pancakes. We rested then went for a 2 hour walk through the forest with the rest of the group we were with and saw an ... read more

A time-consuming border crossing once again! There are three border posts between Ecuador and Peru: the most popular one, on the coastal Pan-American Highway, is also widely known as "the worst border crossing in South America", with (likely exaggerated) stories of bribe-hungry immigration officials and aggressive scam artists abounding. The remaining two are within relatively easy reach (I say relatively) of Vilcabamba, our last stop in Ecuador. The crossing between the Ecuadorian town of Zumba and its Peruvian counterpart San Ignacio is the one we are aiming for, as it will lead us to the Peruvian departamentoof Amazonas and its capital, Chachapoyas. This town lies at the heart of a region of immense archaeological significance, one we are eager to explore. A pre-dawn start from Vilcabamba. A seven-hour bus takes us, over a largely unpaved road, ... read more

Day 257 Sunday 24th June Today is all about filling in time till our 9.00pm bus, so we did not check out till 1.00pm and asked the hotel to mind our bags. Then it was a fruitless walk around, but we did achieve in getting money out with our Mastercard no problem, I think that it is just pot luck if the ATMs have money and if on that day they want to accept your card. After aimlessly wandering we headed back to the hotel to sit in the dining area and watch the football on TV and a bit of reading. For dinner we headed out a bit early and had an early feed at Romana restaurant along with a couple of beers to help us sleep on the bus. We wandered back to our ... read more