Welcome to the Jungle

---

We couldn't come to Peru and not do the Amazon jungle thing, so we booked a Manu National Park tour that left from Cusco. The timing worked out well for a five day trip, so we jumped on board the mini-bus early on day 1 for the long bus ride north to the headwaters of the Amazon. There were 7 of us (including 3 young Swiss guys and a couple from Holland) in on the adventure and one entertaining guide.

The national bird of Peru is the interestingly named cock-of-the-rock, which of course was high on our list of critters we were interested in seeing. On the way to the first rustic lodge we stopped several times for wildlife watching, and at a known cock-of-the-rock lek (breeding area) we were able to get some great shots of this bizarre bird. The brilliantly coloured males put on a real show for us, dancing and singing. In actuality they were likely doing this for the female cocks (how often do you get to use those two words together?) but they were hidden in the trees so it seemed like a private show for us.

After the cock show we rolled into the lodge for a night where a capuchin monkey watched us from the laundry line. We learned later that these guys like to rip through the screens of the huts to get at any food left inside. The raccoon of the amazon.

The next day we bussed to the end of the long crazy mountain road. When we say road we should really call it a sketchy cliff-side gravel path that had obvious signs of previous landslides, in fact there was a landslide that closed the road behind us for a while while we were on our tour. From there we transferred to a large canoe-like boat to run a few hours down the huge river to our next lodge. At least, it would normally have been a three hour tour but because of the pouring rain we'd been driving through all day, the river had gone up about 5 feet and was in flood, filled with floating logs and trees. This didn't slow us down at all though, in fact we made it to the lodge in about half the regular time, and thanks to the tarps they provided we didn't even get too wet from the huge standing waves and rain.

We stayed at the second lodge for two nights and did a number of slow hikes through the trails there, the wildlife was amazing. We ran into three species of monkeys (spider, howler and more capuchins) and at one point we were virtually swarmed by monkeys; the treetops around us were bouncing with a troop of about 150 spider monkeys on their way by. There were more insect species than you could shake a walking stick at too -- some researchers from the Smithsonian were at the same lodge making some rather extensive butterfly collections and they told us several times that it was the most biodiverse area on the planet. There sure were a lot of ants, both in species and in number. The familiar leaf-cutter ants had trails everywhere, but the army ants were novel to us and literally kept us on our toes. We had to sprint through the parts of the trail where the roving colonies were thickest, and then quickly brush off any of the buggers that had decided to climb up our boots. Their bite can be nasty apparently, fortunately we didn't find out firsthand. The bullet ant, some of the first large insects we encountered after arriving at the lodge, apparently has the most painful insect bite in South America. We found out this fact after taking some up close and personal pictures with them. Yikes.

The night hike was probably the most interesting part of our jungle tour, it seemed like everywhere you looked some bizarre creature looked back at you. Moths with glowing red eyes, phosphorescent click beetles, furry hamster-sized poisonous caterpillars, tarantulas, walking sticks, tree frogs -- you name it we saw it.

We also got to take a boat ride upriver to a clay lick, where birds gather to eat dirt, essentially. We got some good looks at some different species of colourful, loud macaws. After two nights at the lodge deep in the jungle we boated back the way we came, on a much more calm river. We retraced our path back to Cusco, broken up by stops at some natural hot springs, an animal rehabilitation centre (Hello close encounters with a sloth, capybaras, peccaries and an over-aggressive macaw!) and another night at the first lodge. Both of the lodges we stayed at were great: amazing food was provided and we had great sleeps snuggled under alpaca blankets with the sounds of jungle birds and bugs nearby. The trip was well worth it and a refreshing break from city traffic and hostel life.

---

Photos

Passion Fruit
One of many varieties. You have to crack its shell like a hard boiled egg, peel it and then suck the juice and seeds out. It's a dirty execution requiring some skill.

Leaf frog.
Fraser found it after the entire group walked by. It looks identical to a leaf.

A clay lick.
No birds today. But we saw them the next morning (5 am). But we forgot the camera!! Obviously we didn't have our coffee yet!