Blogs from Madre de Dios, Peru, South America - page 9

Here are a few photos Hi All, We survived the rainforest and it was awesome. We got to see Cabybara's, caymans, two species of monkeys and lots of birds. We heard a Jaguar growl, but didn't see it. The lodge was nice, food was great and the only low points were the cold ride in the canoe due to a cold front came in and we got a little wet and cold on the 4 and half hour canoe ride. Also the cold showers were not my favorite but by the last night I was standing under the shower with the water on all the way, the weather had warmed up and we had just came back from a long hike. We met 3 great couples, one from Cape Cod, one from N. Carolina and one ... read more

For those of you who have been following my blog you will notice a large gap. I have decided to start writing about my current travels, but I will fill in the gaps as quickly as I can, so stay tuned and enjoy. A quick glance through the window revealed a seemingly endless blanket of green where, a few minutes before, there had been huge, snow-capped peaks. Just below us a wide ribbon of muddy orange water sliced through the green in a winding, haphazard manner. I knew the river well, though I had only seen it on maps - It was the Tambopata, one of Peru’s last wild rivers. As we got closer to the ground individual trees became distinguishable in the blanket of green and it hit me for the first time just how ... read more

8th April 2009 After our long trek we had a well deserved lie in. When we finally got up we headed to the highest Irish bar in the world to watch Liverpool play in The Champions League. Although the score wasn't good the food was. Today was Mike's (one of the guys from the trip) 30th birthday so in the evening we all returned to the Irish bar to help him celebrate. After a good night, a few beers and tequillas we were on our way back when Mike noticed his wallet was missing. After trying to search for it, they discovered that it was either lost or stolen, could anyone have worse luck. Unfortunately this meant that they could not come to the Amazon and were stranded in Peru with no money or cards. ... read more

Ok we're on our way in the morning. We'll post something when we get to Cuzco, so that will be sometime after the 19th. We fly all day May 15th and arrive in Lima the morning of the 16th, well it's 12am. We have several hours to wait for our next flight. So we're hoping to find a bench to catch a few hours of sleep. Our first four days will be spent in the Amazon (Puerto Maldonado), we'll be staying at the Refugio Amazonas. We will not have internet access while we're in the Amazon so you'll have to wait till we get back to civilization (Cuzco) to hear about our trip. We plan to find internet cafes or use the computer in the hotel if ones available. In the meantime here's some information on ... read more

After going bird mad when Gary the birdwatcher was here a couple of weeks ago, we have since changed our recent mania to herptiles (reptiles and amphibians) due to the arrival of a rather mental Swiss herpetologist called Conrad Mebert PHd. He is really a genetecist back home, but evidently has enough money to go on a mad snake frog spree in the Neotropics, catching as many things that creep as possible and taking photos of them. We went out numerous nights in swamps and on trails and came back with backpacks full of snakes and frogs for him to photograph. We also took a fair few, and these are on the blog. We´ve also been to carnival, which takes place every sunday of February in puerto and where people can throw water and paint at ... read more