Cusco & Puerto Maldonado

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Hola again,

Well we arrived in Cusco last Friday morning after a long, long trip from Tucacas. After the craziness of Venezuela, Cusco was a refreshing change. Its a fabulous city and despite a population of 300,000 and hoardes of tourists it is a very calm, quiet city- the cars dont even make noise! We spent the weekend relaxing and taking in the sights of the city. We made some friends wtih a french guy, a peruvian guy, a belgian girl and a lebanese guy and had drinks with them on Friday and Saturday. The conversation was interesting to say the least! Sunday nite we went to see a native peruvian dance show (more a collection of crazy unco-ordinated movements)- needless to say we didnt last long.

Monday morning we headed for Puerto Maldonado which is the gateway for many jungle lodges on the Madre Dios river in the Amazon basin. We stayed in Tambo jungle lodge until Thursday- it was a great experience. The lodge itself is on a tiny island and all our trips were made by boat. We had electricity for about an hour or two each evening- so we could see our dinner I guess. The food was great for the whole trip. During daylight we did a few walks through the rainforest, went to see monkeys, caimans, jaguars, snakes, parrots, turtles and a crazy jungle man who told us a little bit about his lifestyle- well rather acted out his daily routine as we couldnt understand a word he was saying. Eddie thinks he mite have had a few of his home brewed beers before we arrived and quite possibly could have hit his head at some stage in the past. The last day of our jungle trip involved a 4am start to go bridwatching. I dont know if it was the early start, the sheer noise of hundreds of birds or the feeling that we were going to get sh*t on any minute but it was the least enjoyable part of the trip.

Yesterday we went on a day trip from Cusco to go river rafting. Had a great day, probably made better by the fact that we were in a boat with 4 peruvian guys, 2 of whom were pretty experienced rafters and were willing to try a few stunts along the river.

Anyway, till the next time... hoping to find some hot water for a shower now - its just too cold to take cold showers here.

Hope you are all keeping well,
Chat soon

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