Travel to the Rainforest

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This morning Martin's alarm went off at 5:40 so we could be ready to leave for the airport an hour later, having eaten breakfast.
The area around the airport is less salubrious and the terminal itself modern with a variety of shops.

Our plane didn't take off until 9:40 so there was quite a bit of hanging around.

Lima Airport is very busy, not so much with international flights, but rather internal flights because the Andes present such a barrier to road transport.

We flew to Cuzco first over a barren landscape with snow capped Andes to gaze at. The approach to Cuzco was dramatic - paralleling the runway and then following down a ravine to make a sharp turn left and land. We waited on the plane before taking off again after refuelling for Puerto Maldonado.

The next stage of the flight was very different - the barren east side of the Andes giving way to lush vegetation. At the small airport at Puerto Maldonado we were again met by a guide and driver who took us through the town to the bank of the wide, brown river Madre de Dios. A long thin boat then took us 7km down river to our lodge.

We are staying in the main building and after a quick bit of late lunch we we taken on a guided walk through the rainforest.

The site used to be owned by a Spanish doctor who not only treated the local inhabitants for yellow fever and such but also established rubber and cocoa plantations to provide work. We were shown both rubber and cocoa trees.

Tonight we went out on the river looking for wildlife. Our tally was 3 spectacled cayman.

Tomorrow we have another early start, up at 5:00 to leave by 6:00, for a walk to a lake through the rainforest.

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