Where are Caroline + Neil?: Jungle Fever

10 March 2006

Today we left cuzco for the Amazon Jungle. Our first stop was Puerto Maldonado which is considered the capital of the Amazon in these parts. The airport in Puerto Maldonardo was fairly basic - where you get off the plane onto the tarmac and the terminal was just a big shed. When we walked off the plane we were hit by this wave of heat - it was about 33 degrees with very very high humidity. We took a bus ride into town to take a one and a half hour boat up the Madre Del Dios river to our jungle lodge - which looked pretty impressive amongst the trees. Our Cabins are pretty basic with flyscrees instead of windows and only cold showers - which wasn´t so bad considering the heat.

Our first excusion was a short boat ride across the river to Monkey Island which has five different kinds of monkeys living peacefully together. We walked around abit and the guide guide started calling out to the monkeys telling them he had bananas. Soon a whole bunch of monkeys came from everywhere. I got to have a small tamarind monkey sit on my shoulder and fed aother. It was great fun.

After dinner we went for a boat ride in the dark along the river trying to spot caimains. (which are like alligators) We didnt have much luck and only managed to see a few. When we went back to our cabins the jungle starting to come alive with noise. Whilist on the boat we could see lightning off in the disance but didnt get any rain.

11 March 2006

We were up early this morning for a four hour trek through the jungle. Our guide took us through the jungle near our cabins and explaining bits of pieces about local trees and wildlife. I got to swing on a vine like Tarzan and Caroline got to wear a skirt made out of palm leaves. We made it to a bird watching tower that overlooked a lake on which we travelled by boat. Before we could travel on the boat alot of water had to be bailed out.

The trek was good - just being part of the Amazon jungle - the only problem bein the heat and the humidity that increased as the trek wore on and we were both pretty tired hen we arrived back. I had a quick dip in the swimming pool on the lodge where the water was an unnatural green colour.

In the afternoon we went and paid a visit to a local family who live about 20 minutes down the river. Here we got to see how they lived an got to have a firing a bow and arrow. The heat and humity here is amazing with your clothes feeling damp after you have been walking for only a few steps.
Neil