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Published: November 16th 2010
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Welcome to the Jungle Ha!! Like the last blog, we are actually in Lima, the Capital of Peru with over 8million people, and a crazy amount of smog and pollution. But it has some amazing buildings that we will upload and talk about in about 8 hours, for now, it's off to the jungle!!
On Wednesday, the 10th November, we all packed our bags from Cusco and headed on the plane to Puerto Maldonado, a little place on the cusp of the Amazon Jungle. From there we got picked up at the airport, and after leaving the majority of our luggage at the lodges main office, it was off in the motorised canoes to our lodge for 2 nights. It had been raining a fair bit (our luggage was wet) so the river was high and moving fast, unfortunately for us in the wrong direction!! 😊 So the boat trip took about 3 1/2 hours, but luckily included a nice filling lunch box and a stop to get a big but cool passport stamp. We arrived at the lodge at about 4:30pm, so kicked the football around for a bit before meeting up for our first adventure, a night walk.
The
group split up in 2 for the night walk, which was lucky because we had to be really quiet and trying to spot a number of different animals. We ended up finding a lot of insects (like stick-insects), a fair few frogs (because of all the rain), some leaf-cutter ants, a nice snake curled up on a leaf and some big and vicious ants. It was a good amount of time, as we were getting hungry, and dinner was ready at 8pm. After dinner the plan for the next day was explained, and so when we heard the wake-up call was for 4:30am, we all decided an early night was on the cards. So, it was into our beds in our amazing huts, which was harder than you think because you have to try and get under the mosquito net, then blow out the candles through the net....but we managed!! 😊
The next day, our full day at the jungle was a big one. We were up nice and early, had a very decent breakfast of fruit, toast and a hard-boiled egg, before setting off on our trek through the rainforest. Our final destination was going to be a lake
where we would hopefully see a family of Giant River Otters, but along the way we saw another snake (Jess was quite freaked out....she was in front!! 😊 ), lots of monkeys (Howler and Capuchin), a toucan and we learnt about a fair few of the medicinal plants and their uses. One of the first things we were shown was a very special plant that the guide (Natalia) chose us both to demonstrate it's awesome characteristics, but didn't tell us what was going to happen. Jess' rubbed it in, and her hands went VERY purple. Mischa's didn't really, but it was very funny, especially as it was there all day!! The walk was very informative, but long. 6km long. We eventually made it to the lake, to see photos of the other groups river otters, but after having a snack and a canoe ride, we never saw any. Unfortunate, but thats wildlife isn't it....it aint a zoo!! The canoe ride was very comfortable and pleasant, and we did see some more Macaws, monkeys (same plus Spider ones) and other birds, but no otters. It was a nice break before having to walk back to the lodge for lunch at 1pm,
another 5km later. Jess did have the unfortunate discovery of how mean those ants were, when one big black one bit her through her sock, much to the pain of Jess. A bit of swelling, a few tears later and some magiv ointment from Jill got us back on our way, but it wasn't a nice feeling. We eventually made it back to camp, had a very quick, cold shower before some lunch and then a siesta!! 😊
After siesta time, it was time for the Amazonian Cup. A football match between us and the locals, with a Coca-cola on the line for each player!! The first match ended in a flogging, 3-0 to the locals. They wanted to do double-or-nothing, thinking they could get another one, but unfortunately for them, we managed a 1-0 win. It came down to the last game, we were all buggered and sweating like crazy in the humidity, but we managed to salvage a 2-2 draw, which meant none of us went into debt, a good outcome we all thought!! It was fantastic fun, and a great way to get to know some of the other guys!!! After the football game it was a
really quick, cold shower again, before jumping into the canoes to do some night-spotting on the banks of the river. Again, not much was on show, with a lot of the caiman not showing their faces, but we did see a few Capybara (the big rodent). We returned to camp for dinner, a few goodbyes and tips to the guides and the cooks, and then off to bed, another early start to catch the plane to Lima.
Friday, 12th November, awoken to the sounds of the jungle and the beautiful sunrise. Then we went back to sleep!!! Breakfast call was at 6:30am, and onto the boats by 7am. This boat journey was a lot quicker as we only went half the way with the current, and as the weather was good we went the rest of the way on the road in a bus made for Peruvians (not much leg room!!). We eventually made it on the flight, said goodbye to Sue and Mark and the members of the group continuing back to Cusco, and flew off to Lima, our last South American port of call!!
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Fletcher
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Bridgestone
Reckon he has as much grip as Bridgestones?