Off to the Jungle

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We farewell Lima and head to Puerto Maldonado via Cusco. This means we go from 154m above sea level up to 3,400m and then down to 183m in the space of an hour and a half. At Puerto Maldonado, a rural town of about 120,000 we transfer our essentials for the next couple of days into duffle bags and our day packs and hop onto the boat that will take us 3 hours up the Tambopata River in the middle of the Amazon Jungle.

The river is wide and muddy brown. Sometimes there are sandy beaches, other time quite steep clay cliffs rising up into the jungle. It is hot, well over 30 degrees and very humid but because of the insects we are advised to wear long sleeves, long trousers and shoes not sandals. Fortunately the boat moves fast enough to cool us down a bit.

On the way we see some turtles, macaws and other birds like herons and vultures flying about. We also see a capybara - sort of a very large guinea pig crossed with a pig.

Our home for the next two nights is the Explorers’ Rest, a nice lodge with large comfortable rooms. The power isn’t on all the time so things get a bit warm and sticky through the day. We arrive in the early afternoon and convene at about 5:00 to view the sunset over the river and then go on a jght walk for about 45 minutes near the camp. We see all sorts of crickets, bullants, scorpions, spiders and a tarantula. None of which I have taken photos of as I didn’t take my camera. However I borrowed a few from others.

Another lovely meal and we retired to bed. Lights out is at 10pm but I am well and truly asleep by then.

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