Peru, Bolivia, Brazil 31 Aug - 3 Sept 08

Peru, Bolivia, Brazil 31 Aug - 3 Sept 08

31 Aug
All day flying via Madrid, arrived Lima 5pm, 6 hrs behind UK. Met by Omar, a student of languages, now learning italian to add to spanish, english and french.
Long drive thru Lima then only time for short walk around hotel in evening.

1 Sept
Good breakfast, joined group of 15 in lobby then early departure for flight over Andes to Cusco then Puerto Maldonado where met by our jungle guides, Fernando (from Cusco) and Lennie (a member of one of the local native communities).
From Maldonado, a long drive on dry earth roads through areas cleared of jungle, some cropping and livestock but mostly sparse wild new vegetation where earlier crops had used up most of the nutrients in the soil.
Then a long river trip (a tributory of the Amazon) (lunch on the boat was rice and veg in rolled up bannana tree leaves) followed by a trek through dense ancient jungle to The Lodge. Stopped to admire white caymen, side-neck turtles, hawks high up in the sky, macaws in the trees, many types of birds and butterflies on the way.
The Lodge is all timber, thatch and bamboo with many rooms for visitors. Very basic, but with an en-suite bathroom and running (cold only) water. The shower is very refreshing. Bedroom and bathroom each have one end wholly open to the dense jungle 2 meters away. Oil lamps and a candle for light. Mosquito net over the very comfortable bed.
Afternoon straight out for trek in the jungle, introduced to a brazil nut tree - coconut type shells containing 10 - 25 nuts fall in Dec - march when whole families are licensed to collect and sell them. Then dusky monkeys darting through the trees quite close to us. Fascinating.
Back to lodge for dinner (excellent) then jungle trek to 37 meter/120ft tower to admire the canopy. (I reluctantly agreed to forgo this pleasure to look after the bags at the bottom)
Back to Lodge, good nights sleep, woken by something falling onto the net over bed, pitch black, continual din from the open jungle a few meters away great stuff.

2 Sept
Wake up call 4am, breakfast 4.30, depart 5am for Chimbadas Lake. Herons, other lakeside birds, more macaws, tookans high in the trees hoping around and making a lot of noise, splashing in the water of giant otters further up the lake. Fishing for pirannah, caught 2, beautiful fish, put them back in the lake. Back tto Lodge.
Another trek to a hide to watch macaws licking salt. They stayed high up in the trees due to a hawk circling nearby, but Fernando got an excellent photo for me through his telescope.
Back to Lodge, free time, I lay in hammock in room only to be treated to a bunch of saddle back tamarins passing through the jungle right outside my open-ended room. What a great place this is to be.
Another excellent lunch then off to visit the local Shaman = doctor. He is an expert in preparing medicines and potions for the local people who cannot afford the town doctors and hospitals. He had some very potentially useful sounding potions. We all had our faces painted to encourage the good spirits to watch over us. On the way back, crossing a narrow bridge over a shallow water course, interrupted a opossum wrestling with a cane toad in its mouth just feet away from me. Wow. More monkeys in the trees, got some decent photos. Evening with Lennie in the jungle, only 5 of us volunteered to join her with torches searching for spiders and other various night-time creatures.
Stood on a line of ants, thousands of them carrying bits of leaf to their nest. They seemed quite angry. Managed to shake most of them off my boots. Lennie not happy.

3 Sept
7am breakfast, 8am departure, trek to river, disturbed copyu next to path, it froze then made a crashing noise as it ran from us. Back to Maladonado and sad goodbyes to Fernando and Lennie. Flew to Cusco where I am entering this blog in internet cafe. Have walked aroun the city a bit and like it much more than Lima. New guide Claudia here. 3000 meters plus so much cooler at night. Hotel very nice, friendly. Every one here very friendly, professional, efficient. All very impressive. Meal in restaurant, local food, starter especially enjoyable, a new taste to me. Back to bed now.

A great first few days, the jungle is an amazing place, lovely people. All the Best, John