Ah ah ah ah ah (imagine chest beating and jungle vine swinging)
We have been to the JUNGLE and got bugged out, drenched and
fairly sweaty!
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| Food on the boat |
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| The main port |
After the wonderful guest blog of Sarah Gawthorpe it would
be the role of Miss Lindsey Bell to complete her guest blog…..but due to too
much fun being had on their last day thanks to our very well informed tour
guide (Sarah with a lonely planet) and quite frankly the choice of ice cream or
blogging the lovely ladies have departed back to the UK to provide you all with
first hand stories and I am afraid you have the early return of the very witty
and interesting me!!!!
Yet again it sees in this part of our travelling we have
done so much in such a short space of time that it is hard to tell you about
all of it…..that and I may have slept through some of it!
Our group diminished from 6 to 5 (bye bye Andrew- though I
may cross paths with him in Galapagos) as we left Cusco for the ‘jungle’ but we collected two more at Puerto Maldonado
which is not far off the border with Bolivia. A couple in their 60s originally
from Germany/Austria called Alfred and Ermelda ( or something along those
lines, no one could say her name!). These two were a lifetime of stories and
quite possibly two of the most incredible people I have ever met travelling-
there is not enough time for me to even begin to tell you about them. Besides
this meant to be about me!!!!
Having landed at Puerto Maldonado we traversed some
interesting terrain ( along the way we saw three vehicles in ditches at the
side of the road)which did wonders for keeping my collar bone in place as we
went to the main port to catch our boat to the lodge.
Over the almost 3 days, 2 nights we were out in the jungle we
got to use many different types of water transport – a catamaran and a variety
of motorised canoes of sorts! But our first trip included some bright orange
old school lifejackets somehow a warm and rather yummy lunch as we made a 2+
hour journey on a tributary of the Amazon, still part of the Amazon Basin and
got our first experience of the south American tropical rainforest.
The river is brown and
wider than you might imagine and flows pretty quickly with whirlpools
and logs abundant. The depth of the river in rainy season (now) is up to 17M
where we were and can go as low as 4 M so you can imagine the changes in flow
rates and river size. On the way you could see people having baths in the
river- doing their washing or boats moored up where they live.
We acquired our gum boots (wellies) and went in hunt of some
night time creepy crawlys – believe me when I say it is dark in the jungle . We
saw tree frogs, stick insects, tarantulas and night monkeys- apparently the
only nocturnal monkey in the world (though I could be wrong!) Having creeped
ourselves out we returned to our bungalows armed with a trusty whistle for any
serious animal issues and cocooned ourselves away in our mosquito nets
The next day with long trousers (or in my case ever the
style guru- ¾ lengths with Ben Ainslie Red and Green socks pulled up), gum
boots and armed with insect repellent we took a short boat ride and then machete’d our way through the forest
(possibly an exaggeration) to an oxbow lake for ride on a catamaran and some
awesome views of a variety of birds and
apparently piranhas but I didn't see any.
The jungle is incredible and some of the coolest things are
at the extremes- the killer trees that grow round other trees and live off
them, the telephone tree that when hit makes an incredible drum like sound and
can be used to communicate, the walking tree (yes lord of the rings fans –
there is indeed a tree that walks) it moves at such rapid pace that it is easy to miss (1 M in
about 8 year I think!), the tree leaf ants that you see in massive lines
carrying eaves back to their nests to grow mushrooms to eat, the several
different types of monkeys, an owl and finally the rain. I can fully understand
why it is called the Rainforest!!
I may have slept through the afternoon trip so the following
details are very much second hand. But the ladies departed along the river to a
fruit farm to try a variety of fruits. The farm was run by one lonely man and
his monkey (very friendly I believe – though Sarah thought it had Rabies!) his
wife apparently ran another farm somewhere else and his kids were in the city
and he had no boat! Sounds very isolated.
One of the final things we did was go Caiman spotting and we
were very fortunate t see a couple and even one fairly close up. If you want to
spook Sarah when she is home say ‘caiman finger’ and move your finger towards
her face!
It has been brilliant to have some companionship for this
part of my trip and I can only hope that they have enjoyed my company as much
as I theirs. What we have experienced has been incredible, the achievement of climbing
to 4600 M with snow, the beauty and isolation of the Lares Trek,the local
people stood in barefoot and sandals waterproof clothing made by creating a
really tight weave with wool, the team building within our group of building a
bridge and helping each other, the awe inspiring site that is Machu Picchu
(having been there I still think my pictures look fake), the complete change to
the amazon humid, isolated yet noisy and nature at its best. I am truly lucky to have those memories to
share with two very dear friends (fortunately they grew on me!!!) and look
forward to recalling the lack of brain to my oxygen on my journey with them to
Machu Picchu when I am 100 years old (though Sarah’s memory might not last that
long!) Love you both lots xx
I feel finally I
should thank Sarah for being our tour guide today and taking us to an
underground cemetery to see 70 000 burials and visible of bones and skulls and
breathe in the air of a catacombs. That will teach me to be so inquisitive!
Safe journey ladies….I am off to get some weird shit on a
stick from some dude on the corner!
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