Hey guys, sorry it´s been a while since my last entry but I´ve been in and out of civilization for the last week or so. The tour has been full-on but I´m finally starting to enjoy myself OS - Peru is magical. Also, I´ve been very lucky with the tour group: there´s only 10 people of all different ages and backgrounds. There´s a family of 3 Norweigens (Hilton 61, Arthur 17 and Ingrid 21), a family of 3 from Hobart (Chris 52, Ann 51 and Claire 23), a few from SW Queensland (Craig 24 and Clare 27) and a bloke from London with Sri Lankan heritage (Aneurin 35).
Our tour began with a walk around central Lima. I hadn´t been around that area, so was happy to visit a few musuems. Our tour guide said that certain areas of Lima can be dangerous, especially at night so I was glad to be with a group now. Most of the group went for dinner on the first night to get aqainted. Craig and I kicked on at bar until 3am and were due to get up at 4:30am for a flight to the Amazon. I slept through my alarm but Aneurin managed to wake me up for the mad pack in the dark. Needless to say, the next day was a struggle.
We arrived at a small community where we met our tour guide for the Amazon, Raphael. Raphael was raised in the jungle and only recently learnt English to show others how his people live. He showed us around Peurto Maladone markets for a few hours before we caught a motorised canoe bound for a remote lodge called Eco Amazon. As soon as we jumped off the boat and into the wooden reception area, it felt like we were on the reality TV show 'Surviver'. The manager explained the rules just like we were at tribal council. After settling in and grabbing some lunch, Rachael took us to ´Monkey Island´- so called for obvious reasons. It didn´t take long to find some wild monkeys, which we fed with bread and bananas... surprisingly they liked the bread more. The lodge had been sprayed to kill mosquitos but the island had not - very happy I took my yellow fever jab and malaria tablets. I´m fairly sure I was bitten since I used the tropical strength insect repellent but you should see the size of their mosquitos... huge. Arthur got bitten on the arse twice through two pieces of clothing. After the sweltering heat on Monkey Island, we relaxed in the resorts pool with a few beers.
The next day was another early one - we were woken when it was still dark so that we could catch the motorised canoe to another section of the Amazon. The walk was about 4 hours in which we saw more monkeys, Kymans (look like small crocodiles), turtles and all sorts of other little insects. Halfway was a tree that they had built stairs around, so we could climb and admire the view from above the tree line. When we were all exhausted at the end of the walk, we needed to row a different canoe down a stream. On the way, we stopped to see about 150 monkeys jumping through the trees to cross the stream in front of us. After another hours walk through the muddy Amazon (in sweaty gum boots), we finally reached the motorised canoe and returned to the lodge. The pool was refreshing after our long day treking through the Amazon. Later that afternoon, Raphael took us to meet a local family. Only the wife and few kids were home as the father was out hunting. They didn´t even speak Spanish but Raphael could translate for us. The family had a pet boa constrictor, which we took out of the cage and handled. It was harmless as it was well fed and domesticated. The interesting thing is that they had it as a pet so that they could eat it if times got tough and there wasn´t enough food around.
It was time to leave the lodge and say goodbye to Raphael, the heat and humidity.
Return rating: 1 (not the lifestyle I'm accustomed to but a brilliant experience and something I would recommend to others)
Cusco was the next leg and we met our next tour guide, Patricia. There was a brief tour of Cusco. Even though Lima is the capital, Cusco is almost the unofficial spiritual capital of Peru. People have described it as being ´lost in time´. I can certainly now see why but it does lose some of it's charm when we´re still hassled on the streets to buy things.
Well, the internet cafe is closing so I´ll have to explain the next leg of our tour another time... a great experience on the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu.
Monday, April 2, 2007
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