Jungle Boogie

We finally arrived in the quintessential South American country of Peru on 11 July 06, a day ahead of schedule. We had decided against traveling through Bolivia due to time constraints and the fact that we wanted to stay longer in Argentina.

Peru is a country which once played host to the fabulous Inca empire, the last of the complex pre-Columbian civilizations. We arrived in its Capital Cuzco to begin the next leg of our adventure. The city, at 3325m, is nestled amongst the beautiful Andes and is surrounded by some of the continent's most stunning archeological sites.

We will come back to Cuzco and the few days that we spent exploring the charming colonial back streets and plaza, and our Inca ruin crawl to Tambomachay and Sacsaywaman (sexy woman) in our next blog.

Before we move on to Puerto Maldonado we should note that we met up with our very good friends Kristin and Matt (who got together at our wedding). They both live in England and it has been over a year since we last saw either of them. So it has been fantastic catching up again.

On the 14 July 06 we hopped on a plane (for 25mins) and descended to the hot and humid Puerto Maldonado situated in the Amazon Basin on the Rio Madres de Dios.

We stayed at the Tambo Jungle lodge (run partly by SAS) for four days and three nights. We spent our authentic jungle experience in the Reserve National Tambopata park, alongside a major tributary, the Rio Tambopata.

Highlights of the trip:
- Seeing an impressive collection of over 67 species of reptiles, mammals, birds and insects. Our favorites included: the Blue and gold Macaw, Chestnut fronted Macaw, Roadside hawk, Golden woodpecker, Rufescent tiger heron, Squirrel monkey, White fronted capuchin, Capybara (largest rodent in the world), Giant river otters, Owl faced butterfly, Morph Achilles butterfly (largest in the world), White spectacled caiman, an over 2m long Black Caiman, Fer-the-lance snake, Leaf cutter ants and of course black tarantulas.
- Walking through the Amazon at night and listening to the jungle music (as our guide put it) in total darkness and being followed by a pack of night monkeys and wild peccaries (pigs).
- Waking up at the crack of dawn to experience the unique activities of parrots and parakeets congregating to eat the Amazon clay to neutralize the toxins from un-ripened fruit that they eat. Unfortunately on the morning that we went a turkey vulture was present and disturbed their activity, resulting in an impressive display of nervous fly-overs.
- Seeing unique trees such as the walking palm, Wasai tree (dental anesthetic and treatment of malaria), Tangarana tree (used to torture, and also cure stomach upsets), and Iron tree (magnetic powers).
- Getting a jungle tattoo from the liquid of a rare fruit (don’t worry it’s not permanent).
- Going caiman spotting under the cover of darkness on the Tambopata river, and getting stuck on a bank (for 20mins) shortly after seeing a 1.5m caiman in the area.
- Canoeing on the Lago Sandoval for a couple of hours taking in the stunning surrounding flora and fauna.

Next stop back to Cuzco for the Inca trail.

Ciao for now,

Kerry and Kai.

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