Manu Biosphere Reserve

We feel a bit like frauds filling this in now we are back in the UK, but here is the last entry for your enjoyment!

After another night in Cuzco we headed off for the Amazon basin and Manu Biosphere Reserve. After another early morning (seems to have been too many of them this trip!) we started out on what would be an 8 hour bus journey up and over the Andes and into the jungle.

On the way up we stopped at the highest point to see some pre-inca tombs. There was a restoration project in process which was rebuilding some of the ruins. Seems a little pointless to me - surely the point of the tombs is that thay are there and they are old. Who wants to see new replicas....

Anyway, after this we headed down into the town of Paucartambo for breakfast. It was a reasonably busy place in the middle of nowhere. We happened to arrive on the day of the month the government hands out its monthly monetary incentive to keep people in the smaller towns, rather than move to the slums of the big cities. You can see the women all queueing up in the photos.

Incidently the town holds an annual 3 day festival when the population of the town swells from 5, 000 to 50,000! The centre of all this festivity is the figure of the Virgin of Carmen, who is honoured with songs, dances and masses inside the church, and paraded around the town. Her final act of divinity is to drive away the demons - represented by the Saqra dancers - who perform daring acrobats on the rooftops of the town, dressed in Inca colours and costumes. Also a huge excuse for an enormous piss up!

From Paucartambo we head back the mountains and into cloud forest. Now the roads started to get a little interesting. Given the sheer sides of the valleys and the amount of water that can be deposited in a very short period of time, the roads are constantly being eroded and rebuilt. Its not unusual for the road to be blocked for several days following rains. Anyway, squeezing a lorry and a bus past each other is very interesting....

We eventually made our first camp in the lower cloud forest. This was our first introduction to life with the millions of insects found in the forest. A quick walk to the loo with your headtorch on resulted in being bombarded by hundreds of flying bugs.

The next day we left by bus for Atayala. This is the end of the road and access into Manu is only possible by boat. The boat was a huge motorised canoe shaped - probably 15 metres long and 1.5 metres wide, with a tarpaulin roof. Once aboard we headed down the 'Alto Madre de Dios' - The 'Upper Mother of God river' and then into the bigger 'Madre de Dios' river. Little rain in the last 6 months had left this river very shallow. Thsi meant that on several occaisons on the way downstream many of us had to jump out and push the boat down the riffles when it grounded. still, it all adds to the adventure, especially with the Pirahnas and Caiman hanging around.....

Its impossible to do the rest of the trip justice, and it would take pages and pages to describe it all here. The wildlife was amazing, every corner we turned revealed something new and amazing. I think the final count was 7 species of monkey, lord knows how many beautiful birds, Tarantulas, wolf spiders and cockroaches sharing your bedroom; we watched a family of 5 giant otters for a fantastic hour; cruised around a lake at night searching for Caiman with our torches; watched at the clay lick whilst hundreds maybe thousands of Macaws, parrots and parakeets flew around waiting for the first volunteer to descend, then they all joined in; We fell asleep to the noise of the crickets and frogs, slept some of the deepest sleeps, and awoke to the noise of troops of Howler monkeys calling all around us; and we listened and watched in awe as the dry season very abruptly and thrillingly became the (very) wet season.

At the end of our planned 7 days we couldnt fly out due to the rain, so had to head back into the boat and head upstream. The river had grown massively with the rain, but as we found out, some of the riffles still remained unpassable. At one point the boat got turned sideways into the flow and was a whisker away from tipping over completely! Near death experiences always give you something to remember......

I have forgotten to mention that, once again, we managed to have a wonderful bunch of people on the tour and 2 expert guides - Tina (from Devon!) and Darwin (from deep in the rainforest). The people you meet are often are the difference between a good experience and an unforgettable one - this was no exception.

So trip over. Enjoy the final photos, whilst we go away to plan our next one!

P+H

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