The Jungle

After the amazing journey to Machu Picchu a journey of a different kind - after a short flight from Cusco we travelled up the river from the bustling town of Puerto Maldonado (not somewhere you would want to spend much time) to the Inkaterra lodge. A beautiful lodge right in the rainforest and on the muddy river, the bandas complete with mosquito nets and hammocks on the veranda where you could (and we did) swing to the sounds of the jungle, the birdsong in the mornings being particularly memorable. The first afternoon we had a short walk in the jungle with our guide Jesus (!) and two Americans. Much as we enjoy the company of other people, this guy was the equivalent of a 6 year old let loose in a sweet shop. He was obsessed with the life and death aspect of the jungle, and when our guide was showing us how grubs live in seeds he then proceeded to eat the unfortunate creature (like in I'm a Celebrity if you have ever watched this) at which point S turned her back although his wife insisted on videoing it! Each to his own but every question seemed to be about snakes, spiders, etc. and the following morning when we did the canopy walk with the same couple S muttered darkly to R that there might be an accident up there!

We spent time in the afternoon relaxing in our room, the other thing of note that day was the arrival of the obviously "resident" tapir to eat the brazil nut shells prepared for him near the main house and there were several agouti in the grounds (large rodents) who apparently stay near the lodge as it is safer than in the jungle. This enabled R to finish “The White Rock” – Hugh Thompson’s impressive account of his travels in the early 80s to various remote Inca sites in Peru. This nicely complemented “The Last Days of the Incas” by Kim Macquarrie, which records in a very readable way the generally accepted version of events after the Spanish invaded Peru as well as Bingham’s “discovery” of Machu Picchu and the dismantling of Bingham’s theory that MP was where the Incas’ last stand against the Spanish took place. The WR had been bought in Cusco – S having been unsuccessful in finding it in the UK. Unfortunately S was not able to act on R’s strong recommendation to read it because R managed to spill water over it, so it had to abandoned in the jungle. Annoying but perhaps an appropriate end………..

That evening we went out on the river after dark where we saw several caiman (related to crocodiles) on the river banks and a bat flying near the boat plus some amazing lightning on the other side of the river.

On the second full day we arose before 5 to undertake a trip to Lake Sandoval, during the night the lightning we had witnessed developed into a fearful storm right overhead including one clap of thunder like nothing on earth so not much sleep was had. The heavy rain continued during our 1 hour walk to the creek to get into the rowing boat so we were very grateful for our waterproofs. A good 10 minutes were spent clearing out the canoe of the excess water (using a sponge and a cut off water bottle – curiously the hotel had provided no proper means of emptying their canoe of rainwater). Then we headed up the creek to join the calm water of Lago Sandoval. In spite of the fact that we didn’t see the elusive anaconda or have our fingers bitten by piranhas (all of which are apparently in the lake) we did see a whole family of river otters (which are endangered and a rare sight), feasting on fish. We were then chased by the mummy who took exception to our observing her family at close quarters. We also saw a huge group of squirrel monkeys and several beautiful birds including the amazing snake fish which S actually though was a snake! A productive morning and after another fantastic meal back at the lodge we relaxed in the afternoon, S indulging in a cold stone massage and R in some much needed sleep in the hammock!

Although we were promised a lie-in until 6.45 the following day we were unfortunately woken up before 6 as the security guard obviously got the wrong room number – luckily S had checked her watch before jumping in the shower and came back to bed. We were finally off at 8am back up river to the airport of Puerto Maldonado and our onward flights to Lima and then Chiclayo.