Hot and stiffling Peruvian Amazon

---

We headed out early by flight to Puerto Maldonado, a frontier town in the southern Peruvian Amazon, via Cusco. The journey continued with a one-hour bus ride and a two-hour motorized canoe ride to our jungle lodge, Posadas Amazonas. As we are still in the tail ends of the rainy season, the muddy dirt road has many potholes, some of which made for very bumpy rides, to put it mildly. We had to help pull out a 4WD car stuck on the side of the road. We met our guides for the jungle excursion, Sally and Geraldine, and they offered us many locally produced treats - baby bananas, brazil nuts, banana chips and a fruit punch, all very tasty. Lunch was on the motorized canoe. It was fried rice wrapped in some kind of leaf. I devoured the whole thing because I was so hungry.

The lodge was a 10-min walk from the dock. The company that owns this lodge has two more, one another 2 hours upstream on the Tambopata river, and a research centre another 3 hours upstream. The lodge is posh, considering that it´s in the jungle. Each room only has 3 walls, with the other side open to the jungle. I guess this is one way of being closer to the jungle. There is no door, instead, there are curtains. There is no electric lighting in the rooms, instead, there are candles and kerosene lamps. The rooms are basic but comfortable with nice mattress and mosquito netting. There is no hot water, but fairly modern flush toilet and pedestal sink. Oh, each room also comes with a hammock. My came with bird droppings too so I didn´t try it out.

Ater everyone got settled in we went for a short walk to a lookout tower. It is about 120ft high, and someone counted about 190 steps. It is anchored on all sides to surrounding trees but still somewhat rickety with blowing wind. Once we got on the top we were swarmed by mosquitos. Perhaps it was the combined effect of everyone´s DEET, they left us along shortly after. The view was amazing on top. We were lucky to see a pair of magnificent macaws fly by and the sunset as well.

Back at the lodge we were fed yummy supper. I can´t recall what we had exactly, but I went for thirds. It included chicken, soup du jour, rice, potato/yucca and dessert. The only thing I didn´t like was the yucca, which was rather dry.

Even though the jungle evening was cooler, I was still soaked in sweat. A cold shower sounded inviting, but that first moment was still a shock to my system. I did eventually get used to the cold water but that shower was much much shorter than my typical shower. The lodge staff came by @ 2100hr to put out the kerosene lamps and the place became pitch dark, so much so I couldn´t even see my fingers in front of me. I was lulled to sleep by the sounds of crickets and frogs.

---

Photos

Peruvian Amazon-6
cold showers

Peruvian Amazon-7
rickety tower