The lion sleeps tonight

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- FOOD: Excellent food on the tour, especially the soups and supplies of popcorn. Live termites that taste of mint. Animal shaped biscuits (so yummy) and Sublime bars - we're addicted.

- AREA: In the jungle, the mighty jungle.... WOW. A must experience. Everything is huge - including the spiders. Such a variety of plant and animal life, but didn't see any anacondas still.
Mountain biking, white water rafting, canopy sliding and staying in wooden lodges in the middle of the jungle.

- PEOPLE: Fantastic tour group. Apart from them, we didn't see many others except for the lucky few that live in the tiny villages in the jungle.

- WEATHER: It ain't called a rainforest for nothing....


Monday 20th: I persuaded Stephen (who is Belgian living in New York by the way - I'm getting slack with my descriptions. He was also at Sussex Uni at the same time as me, small world) to go on the jungle tour with me.
2 couples joined us (American and Peruvian who live in LA and a couple from Michigan). Everyone was very friendly and we started the tour with a 4 hour drive into the jungle.

We made some stops along the way - at a site with some Inca tombs, a small village for lunch and the beginning of the Amazon rainforest (which is a cloud forest - so cool to see the clouds at our level).
Then we made our way into the jungle... one of the reasons I came to South America. Over half of Peru is covered in it and Peru only has 15% of the whole of the Amazon. 50 indigenous tribes live in Peru's bit and it's the most biodiverse are in the world.
Enough text book talk - it was SO exciting to see the leaves of all the surrounding trees and plants begin to grow in size. Our lodge was in the middle of the jungle which added to the excitement. It was really nice - all wooden. Much better than we were expecting. Dinner was yummy and bed was early.


Tue 21st: Unfortunately (or fortunately as we got a lie in) it was raining so we couldn't go for our early morning trek to see the 'Cock of the Rock' (a strange parrot type bird that looks like it's had it's beak smashed in) mating dance.

We had a filling breakfast in preparation for our mountain bike morning. I wasn't put off by my previous mountain bike experience and this time we were give helmet and gloves so I felt safer. However, the road was worse - downhill on a very bumpy road for a few hours. Good hand exercise as they are constantly on the brakes!
It was just so amazing riding through the jungle though. This is one of the reasons I came to South America so I was just happy the whole time. We saw birds with yellow tails that make huge hanging nests that somehow don't fall down and they also make the most fantastic R2D2 type noise.
We passed a small village and then stopped at a larger one at long last. Our hands and bums were very sore and as it had been raining on and off for the whole journey, our behinds looked like we'd all had an unfortunate accident after eating too much curry!

After lunch we started the next exciting adventure of the day - rafting down the river to our next evening's accommodation. My wave fear tried to rear it's ugly head but was pushed away when we started and I realised it wouldn't be as rapid as Argentina. We still managed to get soaked though but no-one fell out.
We saw lots of macaws on the way and the beauty of the area surrounding the river. We then piled onto another boat which was very low to the river to make our way to Erica lodge.

It was beautiful - located on the river with a lovely garden, a red macaw called Coca (all she could say was 'Hola' and 'Coca') and a wild boar pet named Yipta (had 'fur' like a porcupine and a very inquisitive nose).
The place is run by a Dutch hippy who arrived as a tourist 8 years ago and never quite left. After more great dinner and playing with the animals (Yipta is just like a dog the way she acts!), we went on a night walk. It was a bit scary but so good even though we didn't see any insects (I wanted to see huge spiders). We heard a howler monkey which makes the strangest umm, howling noise.


Wed 22nd: Raining again so we missed our morning walk. But we did get to see lots of monkeys playing in the trees near to our hostel so that kept us happy. The day began with a walk uphill (uphill in the jungle? I was surprised) to a platform where our canopy ride awaited us. On the way, Joel prodded a termite nest and let us all have the pleasure of eating a live one (it's full of protein - good for you!). It was actually quite nice - a kind of minty taste. Well, if Jordan can do it in the jungle, so can I.

The canopy was great fun. There were 4 separate platforms we had to swing from and to. Very high and long.... the practice one we'd done back at the lodge was so easy!
The speed could be controlled which was a good thing because even though we all whizzed down the rope as fast as we could, we did have to stop! It was quite a feat to get feet onto the platforms. Some of the platforms were not the most secure floor to be standing on when you're very high up a tree - the tree wobbled quite manically when the next person was coming across.
But we all made it in one piece to the final platform where we were horrified to see that we were still very high up. How to get down? We spotted a narrow ladder leading down the tree and the thought of that scared me more than doing the canopy. But not as much as when the guide pointed out a hook hanging from a branch and informed us that was the way down! I was SO scared after being hooked on and left hanging. We had to edge our way down loosening the rope with our hands. I've never been so relieved to feel solid ground beneath my feet. It was fun though.

On the walk back, Joel found one of the BIG spiders we hadn't manage to find on our night walk. It was huge - the size of a big man's hand. We saw a million ants all doing their daily work across the path, a walking palm tree (it's roots are the trunk and when new roots form, old ones die and thus it moves - up to 10cm a year!), more monkeys and the song of the day was 'The lion sleeps tonight'. In fact, the song of the whole blimming time in the jungle was that. Anyone who has holidayed with me will know my thing about getting relevant songs in my mind that then STICK for the entire time.

We did another jungle walk in the afternoon to the biggest tree which is 150 years old. Absolute neck straining size. Shamens go to this tree to worship - along with eating the San Pedro cactus which is hallucinogenic. Therefore, many think the tree has magical qualities. The boys became Tarzan as there was the best vine dangling down from a branch so high we couldn't see the top.

On our return to the lodge, Yipta was in a really bad mood and became a wild boar rather than a playful puppy. Biting us and chasing us. I think it was because Priscilla and Wagnar had left and this guy replaced them who was telling her off for sitting on the couch. I think she was sulking and missing the attention Priscilla gave her.
So we all escaped to the upstairs section of the chill out lounge and were fed huge amounts of popcorn. We remembered to hang bags up and chuck food out of our room so had a more peaceful night's sleep without the company of the mice that joined us last night.


Thur 23rd: It was raining again so I prepared myself for another couple of hours of sleep only to be rudely awoken by Joel banging on the door and telling us our morning walk was on. We sleepily got the boat to a beach to see parrots who eat the minerals from the rock to supplement their diet.
But as it had been raining so much, the parrots just sat in the trees looking but not eating. BORING. So on that note, we left the jungle. I didn't get to see any anacondas (boo) but the experience was fantastic.

Sadly, the journey back to Cuzco wasn't. A wet boat ride followed by a VERY bumpy journey in the truck for the whole rest of the day. The highlight was Stephen juggling oranges and entertaining the locals who were fascinated and the lovely animal biscuits that Peruvians (and us) are fond of. Stephen and I went for a well deserved pizza back in Cuzco and then I got home just in time to have a bout of altitude sickness. Oh the trauma deciding how long to stay on the loo for before passing out.

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