From Cusco we headed to the jungle, to the Manu National Park, for a week stay with SAS travel, this is because the government allows only so many people to enter this park and only 7 agencies have permits to enter. Our guide, Edward, was exceptional, he really knew his stuff, was very patiente and helpful. We choose to go in by bus and out by plane.  It leaves from Cusco in a weird looking bus (looks tough), and goes high up in the mountains to the cloud forest only to descend once again to jungle. This ride was amazing and scary at the same time. The views were just out of this world, we were able to see a gorgeous waterfall (among other things), and stopped a couple of times because Edward spotted different kinds of birds, among them, the cock of the rocks, they are really cute. The bad thing was that the roads are very narrow and muddy, it was raining which made it even harder to drive.  At times it seems we were going to fall down, we were so high up, I think I made a tape in case we didn't make it! The roads were like a snake and at one turn we almost fall off becuase another car coming from the opposite direction almost crash into us. It was really scary.The first night we spent it in a little town, and continued our bus trip until we switch to a boat. I think the boat ride lasted about 8 hours if I'm not mistaken, but then again we got to see a lot of animals. Also, in the crew we had a cook, I don't know how he did it but he would feed us in that boat....really good food! and even had time to decorate the dishes! they also provided us with snacks and the fresesh fruit I've ever eaten.
When we arrieve at the Manu National Park, first we had to sign in and off we went, to our camp site. Our Camp site was just off river and somewhat rustic, but for what I was expecting in the jungle, to me, it was like a 5 star hotel! it had hot water and electricity only in the kitchen, so if you wanted to go to the bathroom you had to have your flashlight and be brave enough! I was paranoid about encountering a black panter....
We spent our days days, looking for wildlife and learning from the jungle. We spotted a bunch of different monkeys, a bunch of wild pigs, cayman and many other animals. Edward was really good at finding them, sometimes we would be walking and he'll be like, "hold on, quiet" and then there will be monkeys, or capybaras...We also had a night excursion, where we got to see spiders and the kind. Another unique visit was the one we had to a coca leaf plantation....
It was one of the coolest trips I've ever had, I'd would recommended to anyone, being there is just amazing!

One jungle tour van with the window taped on. One broken-down coach bus. One flat tire. One stuck river boat. Ten hours on winding jungle roads that embrace the mountain on one side and dropped off into nothing on the other. It was not easy to get into or out of the Manu Jungle Reserve. But it was a trip well worth it. It was beautiful. And somehow relaxing and adventurous at the same time.

We spent four days winding our way into and out of the cultural zone of the Manu Reserve, one of the largest reserves on earth, which contains a more diverse population of animal and plant species than any other reserve. There are over 1000 species of birds alone in this reserve. It is also inhabited by four native groups but they are in a zone that we didn´t have access to on our tour. We had only four days so we visited only a small section that included both cloud forest and rain forest and two lodge stays.

We were joined on our tour by only four other people, Americans. A young newlywed couple and a mother and daughter from Colorado, who  made me miss my own daughter terribly. It is the first time since we have been on a tour that we have met other Americans. They were nice and laid back and I was super happy to be in such a small group. Our guide, Ronald, was awesome and incredibly knowledgeable.

We spent most of the first day winding our way into the reserve on mountain roads that were so narrow, if we met another vehicle on the way, one of us had to back up for a while until we came to a place where both vehicles could pass. This was particularly frightening experience since one side of the road always dropped off into nothingness and the prospect of falling off the mountain did not make me happy. When we were hiking the Inca Trail there were plenty of sections of the hike that were like this, but I wasn´t as worried, knowing I held my fate in my own hands as I put one foot in front of the other. Here, I had turned my life over to some unknown Peruvian man with who knows how much experience on these roads. Chris acknowledged my fears but told me, “I just keep telling myself that the driver doesn´t want to die either.” So I just settled in and had to have faith that we didn´t somehow get saddled with some sort of kamikaze suicidal bus driver.

We stopped along the way and got out and walked and our guide pointed out different species of birds and plants. If I was into bird watching, this would have been my dream. There were tons of exotic birds everywhere. I was just happy to be hiking and not riding in that van. We also stopped at a lookout to try to spot the Cock of the Rock, a black and red bird that frequents the area early in the morning and at dusk. This is the Peruvian national bird. We did see one eventually but he was high up in the trees and the light was fading so we decided to check it out in the morning.

The second day we did manage to spot the Cock of the Rock after an early morning wake up and trek down to the lookout. Then we headed further down the mountain out of the cloud forest into the hot and humid rainforest and into a town called Pillcopata Town where we hopped into a waiting raft. We rafted for an hour over Class II and III rapids on the Pillcopata River. It was my heaven. Then we took a river boat to our second lodge where we were to stay for two nights.

In the evening, our guide took us on a walk through the rainforest in search of more birds and plants and possibly some animals. We didn´t see any mammals. I am attributing that to the fact that I am still battling that infernal cold and was coughing and probably scaring all of the mammals away. I was hoping to see some monkeys or tapirs or possibly an ocelot. Even though, admittedly, I wouldn´t know an ocelot if it walked up and invited me to play pinochle. The night hike was cool anyway. Chris thought she heard something large breathing and stalking her. I was just trying not to get bitten by the killer ants the size of grasshoppers. Okay, they don´t really kill, but they inflict great pain and long lasting fever. We did see more birds and some really cool plants, including a plant whose leaves were producing some sort of foam.

On the third day we woke up early and headed to a part of the river where parrots flocked to a big clay wall early every morning. They eat the clay which is rich in mineral and nutrients and helps them digest seeds they eat in the jungle. It was cool to see so many parrots and macaws in one place.

After breakfast, we hiked up to a high spot and did a canopy tour, which meant we hooked into harnesses and took zip lines from platform to platform through the rain forest. One of the girls in our group was afraid of heights so she bailed but her husband joined the rest of us. It was a blast but it went way too fast. On the hike back, we saw some monkeys sleeping in the treetops.

That night we also visited a lake where our guide paddled us around on a very rudimentary raft made of logs so we could see yet more birds. It was actually pretty fun on that tiny raft. When Chris and I were kids, we used to climb into a laundry basket together. She would sit in front and I would sit in back. She would wear a banana leaf pith helmet she had won at school and read a “map” that was printed in the front of our big Peter Pan picture book and I would sit in back and steer. We would “navigate” down the Amazon River for hours on end. That tiny river raft brought back memories of our youthful jungle expeditions. Funny how life circles back around sometimes.  

That evening, a great big tour group who had spent 7 days deeper in the jungle and who were on their way out, joined us. On the morning of the fourth day we all headed out together. We had to get our river rafts back upstream. This turned out to be an adventure which involved all of us getting out at a shallow spot and watching the guides push and pull the boat over rocks and rapids. We were split into three boats. The tourists in the other boats were actually helping the guides push and pull and I felt a little like a worthless lump standing there watching our guides struggle so I passed my stuff to Chris and said, “Hold this.” And she said, “What the hell are you doing?” And I said, “I´m gonna help” and she quickly said, “Oh no you are not. You will get hurt or pulled under. Forget it.” So I stood there watching, feeling slightly stupid, until they managed to get the boat unstuck.

We made it out of the river and then we all boarded a bus and ambled along until we once again reached Pillcopata Town. Here we got out while the guides went to buy fuel in big buckets, which they would siphon into the gas tank with lengths of rubber hose. While we waited for them to come back with the fuel, we all milled around the streets of this tiny jungle town.

In Pillcopata town, ramshackle wood-board houses lined wide dusty lanes where kids played in a garbage can with plastic bags wrapped around their hands. Several half-lame dogs limped by, ribs visible beneath shaggy, dusty pelts.  We all view the world through ethnocentric spectacles, even when we try to immerse ourselves and understand other cultures; we are still approaching the world with all our own life experiences under our belt. And so I am standing there, looking at this little jungle town through my American white girl lenses and I see “Third World” and “poverty” and “sadness.” I wonder if these women who peddle puffed rice and inflatable volleyballs watch their children play with the longing and hope for a better life for their young like all parents everywhere do. I look on for a moment feeling sorry, feeling sad. Watching as one of the kids playing near me runs by and I notice he is wearing a t-shirt from some family reunion in Durham, N.C., clearly plucked from a charity drive box. He seems happy but I feel sad that he lives in a breezy wooden shack.

But that is so incredibly presumptuous of me. I have no idea what they are thinking or feeling.  Perhaps they think they are wealthy, that life is bountiful and good. After all they are close to the land, they are making a living, they are subsistence farmers and tour guides and shop owners and restaurant managers. They aren´t busy plowing down forests and erecting glass and steel castles and concrete sidewalks, paved byways. Perhaps they are truly content and look at my world as sad. But this view is naïve too. How can I possibly know anything about these people? Perhaps the truth of their lives lies somewhere in the middle of these two scenarios or maybe the truth lies 100 miles away from both of them. I can´t pretend to know anything because my ethnocentric specs are permanently attached.

What must we look like to them?  Hoards  of white people clamoring off of coach buses and jungle safari vans painted with exotic animals and expedition company logos, waving Nikons and Canons, speaking unintelligible languages--English, German, French, Israeli. We must all look the same to them with our North Face backpacks and our Patagonia sportswear, our Tevas and Keens and designer sunglasses. A herd of white cattle that with a little bit of prodding will readily open up fat Peruvian Sole-stuffed pockets in exchange for empanadas, seed necklaces, Inca Kola, woven string bracelets. And we must look like this to everyone on the Gringo Trail, not just the people in this woodshack jungle town, but also in Chivay in the Colca Valley to the kids in traditional dress who offer themselves up for photos in exchange for tips, or to the women at Km 85 on the Inca Trail who gather around us with baskets of coca leaves and rubber tips for walking sticks and sun hats. We are, after all, an industry. A great white tourist industry. And as much as I like to posture and pose and reject that proverbial image of the Bermuda shorts and Hawaiian shirt-wearing, zinc on the nose and black socks to the knees image of a tourist (“No, I am a Traveler!”) I am still part of that industry. I am a tourist just the same. It doesn´t bother me at all. But these are the things I was thinking about as our bus wound its way out of the jungle reserve.

It took fifteen hours to get back yesterday. A long and draining trip but the view from the bus window was spectacular. I was so incredibly happy that Chris and I got to visit the jungle together.

Back in Cusco, I can see the end of my trip already four days away. It is coming fast. We are taking it easy but will do some site seeing in Cusco and then head back to Lima before home. Between now and then I am sure I will open my big fat pockets and break down and buy some more handicrafts. I am after all most definitely a tourist.

From cusco we flew into a little town close to the brazilian border in the amazon, where we transfered into a boat to be taken up the river, where we had a 2 mile trek through the jungle to where the dug out canoes were waiting to take us to the eco lodge. This lodge is set on a huge lake, home to cayman, giant otters, and anacondas amongst others. This in mind the canoe trip through the little channels out into the lake in no more than hollowed out trees was exciting, just never really knowing what we were going to see. The lodge is set just off the banks of the lake, surrounded by trees full of all kinds of monkeys, and insects, such as tarantulas, huge ants in many different species, lizards, and birds. There was nothing much to do here in between the guided walks into the jungle, and trips out on the lake to look for the wildlife, so we just unwound with a cold drink and a book or investigating near the lodge. On our trips out into the lake we only really spotted the giant otters who go around in large packs, and we were told will attack the cayman and anacondas if they get in the way. We saw the otters catching fish most days, but it wasn't until we returned to the lodge and shined our torches towards the jetty that we actually saw that the banks of the lake were lit up with little red lights-cayman eyes! and they were everywhere, as a storm was coming in quickly we had a chance to get up fairly close to these animals, whilst in our dug out canoe, which was pretty cool even though they were only small ones. Between the jetty and the lodge i spotted a nest of tarantuala in a hole besides the path, about 20m from the lodge, with the mother and about 8 cute babies. This didn't please everybody, and they were even less pleased when a guide pointed out another tarantula nest in a tree about 3-4m from the lodge. I spent the last evening in the bar hoping we'd get a visit from 1 of the cayman but alas it wasn't to be, and i had to start my 48hr journey back to the uk.

Today, we arrived in the Amazon Rain Forest, aka "the Yungle."  Spanish speakers often confuse the "y" and the "j" sound, which is why we ended up spending 6 days in the "Yungle" and I graduated from "Jale," aka the prison. 

Getting to the Yungle did very little to quell my growing paranoia of flying.  The plane flight was literally hair-raising and left my palms substantially moisturized (better than elsewhere).  As we were making our final descent with the landing gear extended, we broke through the incredibly dense clouds very near to the ground and suddenly accelerated upwards.  During our 20-min. "scenic flight" through very rainy rain clouds, I rediscovered my religion.

We finally landed and I felt like I needed to take a shower and curl up into the fetal position.  After a 45 minute bus ride on what can only generously be called a dirt road, we got to the Tambopata River, one of the many tributaries of the Amazon River.  From there, our lodge for the first three days, Posadas Amazonas, was a 1.5hr boat ride away.  On the way there, we saw saddlebacked tamarind monkeys scampering across the road, a few green and red macaws (large, colorful parrots) at a clay lick on the river, a capybara hanging out on the banks, and a greynecked wood-rail.  We saw a huge family of capybaras a few days later on the river bank.  They were best described by Caroline, the Irish lass on our trip, as "rat pigs."  Very cute rat pigs.

The lodge was absolutely gorgeous.  Our rooms opened up to the rain forest so you can watch the wildlife and our beds had very necessary mosquito nets.  Over the course of the trip, I graduated from sweet smelling 25% DEET Off! repellent to the 98.5% REI Bug Juice, aka battery acid.  My watch has never quite been the same, but I needed the full chemical power to ward off the voracious mosquitos from my sweet Asian blood.

The next day, we woke up at 4:30 am--they really love that early rising thing--to take the boat and hike to Oxbow Lake where we did a bit of wildlife spotting.  There we saw a wattled jacana, yellow breasted flycatchers, hoatzins (a prehistoric bird considered the missing link between reptiles and birds), anhinga (a waterbird with a snake-like neck, cormorants drying their wings, scarlet macaws flying overhead, long-nosed bats, blue ringed kingfishers, and smoothbilled ani.  We tried a plant that had ice-cream tasting flesh around the beans.

We also spent some time fishing (and releasing) piranhas with a hook and raw beef.  The one I caught was small but I would like to think, vicious!  Piranhas can live up to 10 minutes out of water and the guide showed us how they will "hole-punch" leaves if you put it in front of them.  Butterflies would also land on us frequently in true Cinderella fashion. 

On the way back, risking love bites from piranhas and the fish that is known to swim upstream into your urethra and hook there if you are peeing, I jumped into the cloudily brown river to drift downstream.  It's a bit unnerving when you can't see anything in the water.  I was nervous that I would exit the water with an uninvited parasite up my pee pipe and only relaxed after my first post-river pee.  Happy to say that my urethra appears to be fish-free.

After the lake, we returned to the lodge for breakfast (it's amazing how much you can do when you wake up at 4:30!) and then went on a short hike to a canopy tower.  I thought I would meet my end on that rickety canopy tower which shook as you ascended the stairs, especially with 15 people going up on it.  From the canopy tower, we saw macaws flying overhead and later saw the ubiquitous dusky titi monkeys in the trees on the hike back.

After a lovely lunch, we had a much needed relax time, where I learned to speak Irish slang.  Caroline taught me to say "dirty, dirty whore," which apparently is very versatile, and count (but only with numbers with "3"): "tchree tousand, tchree hundred and tcherty tchree."  Then, I learned a truly ethnic Gaelic phrase: "Pog mo hon," which translates into "Kiss my ass."  Stringing these new learnings together should get me around Ireland!  I plan to visit Caroline in July and perhaps infiltrate the IRA.

Later that afternoon, we went to visit a local shaman and his garden.  In transit, we saw an orange rufous-capped motmot and a beautiful capped heron.  At the shaman's place, we learned about the different medicinal uses of native plants and got to try some.  One of the things we were told to put in our mouth, which of course I did without question, was a very strong pepper with analgesic effects.  Not fun.  Most of the prepared medicines were distilled with alcohol and sugar which gave it an added bonus.  I tried "una de gato" (cat's claw) for cancer prevention (which tasted like sherry), while some of the men drank "para para" for impotence. 

The next day, I woke up at 4 am with my roommate Marta to hike to the canopy tower for sunrise.  I obvious like self-torture as it 1) early and 2) a very shaky canopy tower.  Unfortunately, before we left the lodge, I was stung or bitten by something fierce.  I never did see my assailant.  It hurt like a mother for a long time and I had to turn back from the canopy tower soon after I reached there.  Upon my return at 5:30, I went into the kitchen to let them know what happened and they took me a cupboard with container of many plastic drawers like a jewelry case.  He then opened one of the labeled drawers to get me medicine but there was none left.  So he checked 4 other drawers, all likewise empty, and gave me pills from the first drawer that was filled.  It seemed a bit sketchy, but I took my pill and went back to sleep.  No worries.

After breakfast, five of us (me, Avi, Caroline, Camille, and Sophie) headed on to the next lodge, the one deepest in the Amazon, while the rest of the crew headed back to Lima.  It was sad to see them go.

We did very little on New Year's Day as we were all too tired, hungover, and unmotivated.  We played bilingual bingo and lay in hammocks most of that afternoon and evening.

That night, we went caiman (same family as alligators) spotting.  It was absolutely wonderful to be out on the river at night with the warm wind blowing your hair and the sky lit up with thousands of constellations, unpolluted by city lights.  In the distance, you can see flashes in the sky from a faraway thunderstorm...it is the rain forest after all.  You can only think..."this is what life should be about..."

We were able to spot a juvenile caiman with a half-eaten fish dangling out of its mouth.  It was a little surprised by our bright light but not unnerved.  We also saw a capybara swimming, also more annoyed than frightened by our light. 

The next day, we left the Amazon, back for Lima.  It was a tiring day of travel, but we finally got back to the hotel where it all started. 

On the 7-hour marathon boat ride upstream and deeper into the Amazon to the Tambopata Research Center (TRC), we saw a family of capybaras.  I hate to be a ditz about nature but these rat pigs are really cute.  They have these little ears that kind of flutter like wings and they look kind of like big beavers.  There was a mom and dad and about 4 kids walking / sinking in the muddy river bank.  They were snacking on grasses and not afraid of our motorized canoe at all.  I wanted to take one home or eat one, because apparently there are quite tasty! 

During the rather uneventful boat ride, we also saw flying ospreys and orinoco geese, which are normally found in Venezuela.  It was pretty cool to be zooming about the river and it was so isolated that I felt like I was in a Discovery channel nature program.   

It was definitely good times.  The next day, we did very little and headed to the third lodge, the one in the middle: Rios Amazonas.

So after a quick 35min flight from Cusco to Puerto Maldonado we are met by our guide and taken to a reptile park where we see a few different kind of snakes. The park takes captured or injured reptiles and looks after them before releasing them again. We then jump in a boat and head down river to Tambo Jungle Lodge. We get a bungalows sorted and relax before heading in to the jungle for a walk. We see a Giant Anteater about 100m from our bungalow, also see some Tucans and a few other birds  before heading back. Also see a couple of Tarantulas, now there a big spider.

The next day we jump in the boat and head a cross the river and go for a 2 hour walk to a lake. On the way a big group of monkeys go overhead in the trees. Pretty cool watching them swing and jump from tree to tree. We jump in canoe and go for a paddle round the lake. We are  real licky and see a familyof Giant Otters feeding and playing. They were actually eating Pirahnas. We also see turtles sun bathing on logs.

We head back to the lodge and have lunch and then head to Monkey Island where we head in to see some.....monkeys. These ones are quite aggressive and we actually have to get sticks to scare them away from us. One actually jumps from about 6m and lands about 1m from the guide who then ended up waist deep in mud. Quite scary at the time but funny now. That night we went Caiman spotting along the river, we saw a couple of baby ones and also a family of Capybaras, pretty cool we pig type thing.

The next day the weathers pretty shite but we head over to an animal sanctaury which does the same as the reptile park in trying to put animals back into the jungle. There´s quite a few there including Jaguars, monkeys, parrots and wild pigs. We also head in to the jungle for a canopy walk, followed most of the way by a Tapir, big pig like thing about waist high. Cool. The canopy walk isn´t flash as it´s raining but it´s pretty cool, it´s about 40m in the air and puts you at the top of a tree where you can see all the jungle.

We head back the next day, the boat ride is real interesting because of all the rain the rivers risen and there´s heaps of logs floating down the river, was like playing dodgems. But we make it back and fly to Cusco.

Just back from my jungle trip it was really good. I landed in Puerto Maldonado which was really hot and humid, I got through the hoards of people at the airport trying to sell tours etc and found my guide. I was staying in a lodge on Lake Sandoval, which is a 45 minute slow boat ride down the Rio Madre de Dios, followed by a 45 minute walk through the forest and then a canoe trip of about 20 minutes. There were a few other lodges on the lake but really it was fairly isolated.

I ended up in a true eco lodge, no electricity or running water unlike the others staying at the nearby lodges who had superior everything! Very few people were staying at this lodge probably because the thought of washing in a trickle of running fresh water and an outdoor loo wasn´t appealing! It was very basic to say the least, I think we had more comfort on the Inca Trail! Still I liked it.

On the way to the lodge the guide paddled round the lake so that we could see the birds etc but generally you have to go out in early in the morning and the evening to see anything, although I had my first sighting of monkeys. The first full day I was up at 5.30am to take the boat out for a few hours to see the otters feeding, we saw quite a few. We then did a walk after breakfast into the forest for a couple of hours, so many butterflies, my favourite was a giant blue one which is impossible to photograph. We also saw a tucan and a rainbow snake, but just as we were heading back for lunch we saw the monkeys in the trees above us just near the lodge. We watched them for ages, even though they tried to spit food at us, it was excellent to watch them, especially the ones with babies. I had the afternoon free, its too hot to do anything anyway and then I went out on the boat again with my torch so that we could see the Caimen (not sure if thats the right spelling), reptiles that live in the water, it was good fun trying to spot their eyes reflecting in the torch light. The guide caught one for us to look at properly. (Photos on new camera, I didn´t want to bring both out with me). We had dinner overlooked by a tarantula on the roof of the dining area, I kept my eye on it but it didn´t move thankfully.

The following day I was supposed to get up early and see the Macaws but it had thundered in the night and the weather wasn´t clear, so I had a later breakfast of egg and chips, quite odd, and then went on another walk. This walk wasn´t as interesting although the guide did point out a slow bear. I don´t know how he spots these things, especially on the boat when he has to paddle and watch where he´s going. It rained most of the afternoon, so there wasn´t a great deal to do until it was time to get on the boat again. Fortunately it cleared and we were able to go to the look out tower to get a good view of the lake a sunset. Afterwards we went Piranha fishing, the guide caught several and then we spotted Caimens again. 

We left to early to see the monkeys and the otters again today, but I would definately like to go back to the jungle again, although I might not go as eco friendly next time. I would prefer a loo and room without cockroaches and the luxury of a pool to cool off in the afternoon!! 

After a brief stop in Cusco, we flew to Puerto Maldonado in southeast Peru to spend four days at a jungle lodge, Posada Amazona - needless to say, Cindy was happy to head to the warmth of the jungle.  The flight from Cusco was short and our guide Willian met us at the airport and drove us to the “office” which was just a bungalow in the middle of nowhere where we waited while he explained a bit about the next four days.  Eventually we hopped in a truck and took an hour drive over a bumpy, dusty road to the “port” which had one tiny store, an outhouse and a rickety looking dock.  We hung there waiting for a while and eventually a tour group of young teenage kids from the mid-west showed up all wearing Ribbit green t-shirts and basically acting like teenagers.  We were going to accompany them on the boat ride down the Tambopata river - luckily they were continuing on.  Actually they seemed like nice kids and we talked to one of the adult leaders who was a nice enough guy and had been to Peru several times.  Saw a bit of wildlife on the river including birds, a small Cayman (kind of like an alligator) and several Capabara which are the world’s largest rodents before we were dropped off on the mud banks of the river and climbed the rickety steps in the photo and hiked the twenty minutes to the resort.

Posada Amazona is a pretty nice place, hidden in the jungle with bamboo bungalow rooms with only three walls so you can see/hear the wildlife and no doors or electricity - only kerosene lamps to see by at night and cold showers.  Luckily, they did have mosquito nets!  Our guide Willian was a really funny guy about 25 years old and one of 21 kids (so everywhere we went, he would say “that’s one of my brothers” or “that’s my sister”).  He was from “the village” where the indigenous people live - supposedly Posada Amazona gives 40% of their revenues to the locals from the village and only employs guides from the village but Willian said that was questionable and that a rich guy from Lima actually owns it.  Since we were the only people to arrive that day, it ended up that Willian would be our private guide for the next four days which was pretty nice.

Every day, you do several jungle tours/events - the first afternoon was to hike through the jungle and climb the Canopy tower which is the 120 foot green tower in the picture.  You get a great view of the jungle and the Tambopata river from 120 feet up and it was only semi-rickety and wobbly.  We stayed up there for sunset and then hiked back in the dark and took a cold shower, much more welcome than the one at Machu Picchu.  Dinner was buffet style with the rest of the groups staying at the lodge (only a few) and, lucky for me, there was a happy hour and plenty of cold beer.

I mentioned earlier that waking up early seems to be par for the course which proved to be the case at Posada Amazona -  we awoke between 4:00 and 5:00 each day.  The next day, we started off with a hike and boat ride in the dark wearing the lovely rubber boots that you see in the picture of me on the boat, followed by another hike to Ox Bow Lake which was very pretty at dawn and filled with tons of different kinds of birds.  Willian had great fun taking pictures of the birds using Cindy’s camera pointed through a telescope which has questionable results.  We took what he called a catamaran out -  it was actually two wooden canoes with some boards lashed to it and a big rudder/oar that was really difficult to control (well at least for me…) and we cruised around the lake looking at the wildlife and hearing all of the sounds of dawn in the jungle.  We managed to stop for a bit and fished for piranha using raw beef, each catching one.  Willian grabbed one and held a leaf out towards its mouth and it repeatedly bit a perfect little half circle out of the leaf.  That along with the questionable looking stuff floating in the water kept me from taking a dip…

That afternoon, after lunch and a rest, we hiked to the Macaw Clay Lick (more on what a clay lick is later) and that is where you see me bored out of my mind in the red shirt, waiting for the very noisy but very cautious Macaws to show up.  They eventually did show up, although there was a Turkey and a Capabara at the lick so it scared them off and we only saw them from a distance.  Willian was really knowledgeable about all kinds of stuff in the jungle and showed us a lot of cool things like “walking” palm trees that have these long roots and actually slowly “walk” through the jungle and belly palms that suck all the water up and store it like a camel.

Next, we hiked down to the river and hopped in a long boat to go visit the local Shaman’s medicinal garden.  Willian’s brother was our guide there and we walked around the jungle with Willian translating his brother’s precise descriptions of each plant and tree and how to prepare various medicines and treatments.  The first one was some kind of natural Viagra which Willian and his brother found pretty funny - he made a point of folding up a leave from the plant and showing us how it springs back to full attention.  Another tree he showed us was part of a cure for some nasty mosquito larvae infection thing that, at first, Willian told us didn’t occur in this part of Peru.  Thirty seconds later, his brother showed us a scar on his back from when he got this disease and we had Willian ask him where he got it.  He told us he got it here • break out the DEET!  They also showed us the Ayahuasca plant which is some kind of hallucinogen used in rituals where you see your animal spirit.  Willian neglected to offer us any as the Shaman was out of town (although I am not sure Cindy was ready to toss lunch anymore anyways • apparently, it gets you pretty ill before your visions start…).  Instead we opted for Pisco Sours at happy hour back at the bar.

The next day, we woke up really early and headed out to the Parakeet clay lick.  Willian told us that the birds go to these big walls of clay to lick and eat the clay probably to protect them from some of the poisonous seeds that they eat.  We got there and they were making a huge racket and eventually zillions of green, blue and orange headed parakeets flew in to eat clay. Just as we were leaving the hut at the lick, Willian heard howler monkeys which make a really bizarre sound.  We tromped back to the lodge with our rubber boots on, stopping along the way to watch Willian tease tarantula’s out of their nests for photo opportunities.  When we got back for lunch, we heard a bizarre racket which ended up being these huge birds that build hanging, teardrop shaped nests and dive in and out of them.  I have a video for anyone who stops by.  Also, there was a family of red monkeys whooping it up right by the entrance.

That afternoon, we took a long hike through the jungle (with my infamous Blair Witch video…) seeing a variety of wildlife including a Puma print in the mud which got Willian very excited. We ended up at the giant Kapok Tree which was this immense tree about 150 feet high before heading back for our last night in the jungle.  One long, bumpy bus ride later (including having to get everyone off the bus so it could pass over a collapsing bridge) and a short flight and we were back in Cusco.