Made it to Puerto Maldonado

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Well, dinner last night with our new friends was fun. It was nice to be able to see them again before parting ways. We talked a lot about theatre. These boys have had quite the performance stints... including Puccini's La Boheme on Broadway! Right up my alley...

Anyways, we were VERY happy to awaken this morning and hear cars on the street. This meant we would be able to get to the airport and make our flight to Puerto Maldonado. We arrived at the airport around 9am. Our flight wasn't until 10:20 so we had lots of time... except that we didn't, and actually got lucky. Our flight time was apparently changed and we had no idea. It was bumped up to 7:20. We think maybe they sent us an email about it, but since we can't check our school e-mail account due to some new program they're using, we missed the e-mail. Lucky for us, the flight was 3 hours delayed and we STILL had to wait to board. We were SUPER lucky that it was very cloudy over Cusco today!!!!

So, we made our flight and we arrived in Puerto Maldonado. When we landed, I was wearing a hat, scarf, mittens, and two sweaters. They then announced the local temperature was 31 degrees and I was SO excited. I took off my layers, stuffed them into my backpack and was hit with very warm and humid air as we walked off the plane. It was wonderful after such cold nights under 3 layers of blankets in our other locations around Peru.

We caught a motortaxi (little tuk tuk on 3 wheels) to our hostel. We were overwhelmed by the amount of motorcycles on the streets! They actually have mototaxis that are literally just dudes on motocycles (wearing yellow vests to be identified) who ride around and give you a ride on the back of their motorcycle!!! The roads are littered with them. At stoplights, it looked like a motor gang with about 20 bikes speeding off under the green light. CRAZY.

Our hostel is nice. We're staying at Tambopata Hostel. We got a small dorm room for S25 each (about $8) with shared bathroom. They have mosquito nets, free breakfast, 15 mins free internet/day, and a shared kitchen. There are some nice hammocks out back and a TV room where people are currently watching the World Cup. We may not be staying here very long. Tomorrow we are most likely taking off on a 3 day/2 night trip arranged through the owner/guide at this hostel. It's into the amazon jungle, hitting up the lake and the animal reserve that we'd been hoping. It's going to cost us about $130 but this includes all our lodging, ALL our meals, and the trips and tours. I'm guessing there won't be internet there so don't worry when I don't write. I'll write all about it when we get back!!!!

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