Blogs from Madre de Dios, Peru, South America - page 13

Hello everyone, thanks for the messages, just back from the Jungle where there was no Internet, so we will try and catch up. 20th September Another early start with the alrm going off at 5.30am. We had packed the majority of things the night before, but were ensuring we had all the items we needed as we would be leaving some of our luggage at the airport beofre heading off into the jungle. Our flight went via Cusco, before carrying on to Puerto Maldonado. As we flew into the airport, we got our first view of the jungle, and we landed at a small airstrip - proportedly an "International" airport with one runway and two baggage carosels! We were met in arrivals by representatvies from our Lodge, where we were shown to our transportation. This was ... read more

After a day back in Cuzco to recover we then got a plane, a bus and a boat to the the Amazon basin jungle. On arrival we had a quick lunch (chicken and rice wrapped in a big leaf) before heading to monkey island. It lived up to its billing with hundreds of monkeys, as well as some impressive jungle vegetation and a great sunset. After dinner our Spanish failed us and we followed our group into a boat not knowing what we were doing. The Italian next to us informed us it was a search for alligators so it was with both excitment and trepidation that we set off in a flimsy looking boat in pitch black in search of creatures known to prey on man. The trip was a double success - we saw ... read more

There are few words that can accuratly describe the jungle, but I will do my best. To start off with its hot. Not only is it ridiculously hot, it is also unbearably humid. The entire day from sunrise to sunset you spend sweating, you are always sweating. We arrived in Puerto Maldonado around 11 am where we met our guides and ditched most of our luggage before the hour bus ride with no air conditioning to the river town Inferno or Hell town. (side note: The town was settled by people immigrating from the highlands. They found the weather so unbearable that they names their settlement Hell. I think it fits) We took a boat down the Tambopata river 2 hours from Hell to our lodge. The lodge itself was georgous. Each hut was covered with ... read more

Well, I´ll start by saying that I am extremely dissapointed about this website crashing. For those of you that had been following the blogs, you know how much info was lost. Life goes on though right. Well I have three little adventures ready to be ¨blogged¨, the narrative may be a bit short though, my apologies. I am now on the road, and internet access is kinda rare. Anyways... the Mighty Jungle From the 27th to the 29th of July we made it out to the Amazon Basin, more specifically Puerto Maldonado. It was a short 45min flight down out of the Andes into the depths of the jungle. Upon arrival in the small town of Puerto Maldonado we took hour and a half boat ride down the river to our lodge, Eco-Amazonia. Eco-Amazonia is a ... read more

A 4am wake up call, followed by an announcement that the winds from Patagonia in Argentina had blown in overnight, so the original schedule had to be put back 3 hours. Eventually we got to go downriver to an oxbow lake just off the Rio Tambopata. On the lake we spotted numerous birds and a caiman. But we were out of luck when we took up piranha fishing! Just before lunch, we took a hike through the jungle to a clay lick where evidently Macaws come to feed on a regular basis, unfortunately we were out of luck again! However, after lunch we had a trip downriver to a Medical Centre. This was no ordinary Centre though! We were introduced to a Shaman dressed in a hand-made bark costume. Through an interpreter we were introduced to ... read more