Blogs from Madre de Dios, Peru, South America - page 15

I tagged a 3 night “jungle stay” onto the end of my tour. Sadly no one else from my tour was doing the same, so we said our goodbyes in Cusco, and I joined 2 very nice couples (one from Canada and the other from Australia) for this next leg of the journey. The lodge where we were staying, although in a lovely lakeside location and with great food, wasn’t quite as deep in the jungle as I was hoping, and the walks were not as adventurous as I would have liked. However, we did see a few animals, birds and insects...... read more

(by Callum) After yet another wild night bus we finally made it to Cusco!! We had a day to quickly look around, checking out the many Spanish churches built on Inca ruins. Cusco is a beautiful city loaded with cobblestone streets which cater for traffic in both directions even though they are singled laned and tiny!!! It has loads of great restaurants, bars and of course the ever present handy craft markets! We had just enough time to learn the layout of the city and get our gear ready for our Amazon adventure. We always seem to be in a rush to get to the next place, but there is so much to do in this region there is just no time to muck about. We did have some extra days after the Amazon trip ... read more

Hello. Day before I start the inca trail in the slowest internet place in the world, so will be brief. Got up early (again) after having yet another early night in yet another really nice hotel. Had a double bed this time. sweet. Up early to get flight to Puerto Maldonado, where we were met with more humidity than has ever existed anywhere in the world, which would lead me to sweat solidly for three days. Bad. On the plus side one of the guides who met us was quite a fittie, so that was nice. The other one was a very nice but quite fat man called Wilson. Not all the group had come to the amazon, only 8 of us were staying in the lodge that could hold up to 36 people, so we ... read more

We had to get up extra early (0400hr) so that we could get to a nearby lake in time to see the wildlife, including the resident river otters. Our wooden catamaran went along the edge of the lake. Despite the fact that it was still early morning and not very hot, mosquitos were already everywhere and feasting on us. I wore a long-sleeved shirt most of the time in the jungle and applied 30% DEET everywhere else that is exposed except my face, but still got bitten all over my neck and hands. We saw a number of birds, including herons, kingfisher, parakeets and some I couldn´t name, as well as bats and pirranas. The river otters didn´t show themselves, probably fishing on the other side of the lake, explained our guides, as they each ... read more

I´m afraid that this is liable to be rather a short entry, because I just wrote it all out and then the computer shut down and deleted it all... I am unimpressed... I´ve now spent a complete week in the rainforest, and I think that I´m starting to get used to the environment... gradually. On Monday morning I had my first early start at 5.45 am to go and do farm maintenence. I´m still working things out, but I think that Taricaya has two farms, one which is a ten minute walk away called New Farm, and one which is across the river, called Percy´s. We started off by cleaning out guinea pig cages (there are about 50, including lots of little baby ones - they sell them to people to breed for food). We ... read more