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Of the eight people in our tour group, three of us did the optional jungle extension. We flew from Cusco to Puerto Maldonado and took a minibus for an hour to the Tambopata River, where we had a two hour boat journey upriver to the Tambopata Nature Reserve.
We stayed in a jungle lodge by the river for three nights, with no electricity in the rooms and cold showers fed by water that came from the river. We went on walks through jungle trails during the day and at night, and saw monkeys, tamarins, macaws, parrots, parakeets, capibaras, tarantulas, bats, frogs as well as huge trees including brazil nut and rubber trees. We walked out to a lake where we went out on a rowing boat and saw turtles and piranhas.
Most mornings we were woken early by jungle sounds, most notably the Red Howler Monkeys which make an incredible noise like a plane taking off. During the day the trees in the grounds of the lodge were full of colourful cacique birds which are also very noisy, mimicing other birds and insects.
One night we went out on a boat on the river to spot caimans (a
sub-species of alligator). We saw a few caimans in the water and some on the river bank. We stopped the boat alongside the bank where a caiman was resting completely motionless. Our guide tried to provoke it into moving by rustling some nearby twigs, and suddenly it darted towards us! I was convinced for a moment that it was going to join us onto the boat, but was relieved when jumped into the water, splashing us in the process!
I met some great people on the tour but now I've now said goodbye to them all and I'm back in Cusco. I was going to finish the tour in Lima last night but it made more sense to come back to Cusco where I can get an overnight bus to La Paz in Bolivia, which is what I will do tonight.
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Jamie Sinclair
non-member comment
Tarantula
Right, that would be me all done and back to the airport for the first flight home..... There is no way on earth i could sleep anywhere near a tarantula.... Makes my skin crawl... Keep the updates coming Paul, love reading them, takes me away from the hum drum of life in the UK.