Amazon Jungle

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Greetings,

We have just returned from our trip to the Amazon Jungle. On Tuesday morning we headed to the airport for our quick 30 minute flight. Due to technical difficulties, i.e. archaic air traffic control, we hung around the airport for four and a half hours before taking off. Anna really enjoyed playing with the two available toys at the duty free shop. If we had been delayed any longer, we probably would have bought the toys to save chasing her back and forth to play with them!

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Once arriving in Puerto Maldenado, we were taken by boat to our jungle lodge, Eco Amazonia.

After a late lunch, we headed off to Monkey Island. We had a short walk around, and were able to see five different types of monkeys. They would come out as the guide would yell, platanas, platanas, (bananas, bananas). Half way through Anna felt slighted by the monkeys getting the attention, and she decided she wanted some bananas too.

The lodge was very nice. We had our own bungalow, with hammocks on the porch. Heading back to the bungalow for the night, we almost litteraly ran into a tapir on our path. A tapir is a big boar like animal with a nose of an anteater. The lodge had a varitey of tropical birds; parrots, parakeets, toucans, and wild turkeys. Unforetunately for Anna, these birds seem to love her. They would wait on our front porch until we came out, then follow us around the grounds. Truthfully, we were just as scared of them as Anna.

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The next morning we got a knock on our door at 5am. Soon after, we set off on our jungle trek. We had lovely weather, but it had rained the previous day, so most of our trek involved walking through mud. We did a series of hiking and canoeing to our destination, Cocha Perdida (lost lake). Along the way, we climbed up a large tree to get a view above the canopy. Because it was a sunny day, we were able to see a lot of wildlife, including two 8m anaconda snakes. They weigh over a tonne, and eat large animals once a year. We were hoping it wasn't dinner time! We also saw caimens, turtles, more monkeys, birds, and purple butterflies (which were Anna's favourites). All in all, the trek was about 7 hours, and Anna did great.

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Thursday morning, we set off for the airport in the boat at 7am. It was just starting to rain when we got to the boat, so we pulled out our coats. Let me tell you, they don't call it the rainforest for nothing. The rain came down and we got drenched. It was a two hour boat ride back to the town, and by the time we got to the bus, there wasn't a dry patch left on anybody. Once at the airport, Angelica changed back into her very muddy clothes from the trek, and Mark changed into his bathing suit. It was funny to see our whole tour group unpacking and changing right in the middle of the airport.

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Well, we are back in Cusco now, and going to spend tomorrow relaxing before our big Inca trail trek on Saturday.

Lots of love,

Mark, Angelica, and Anna