Early on Tuesday we caught a 35 minute flight which took us from the arid, bustling city of cusco to the vibrant, humid air of the Amazon rainforest. It's amazing what a contrast can be seen over such a short distance.
From the plane we peered out at the carpet of green with orangey-brown rivers lacing through; just like in all the documentaries.
The red bricks of cusco had been replaced by lush greenery and the peeps and blasts of car horns exchanged for the chirp of crickets and bird calls.
The real adventure began when we reached the tributary to the Amazon we were staying on. We whizzed along the river, pausing as the guides spotted a range of interesting flora and fauna on the way. Within the 2 hour ride to our lodge we had already been lucky enough to see red howler monkeys, scarlet macaws, a Cayman, many river turtles, a capybara (the largest rodent in the Amazon) and the elusive PUMA!! (All the other guides were very jealous of this siting).
The lodge was pure luxury for us backpacking folk. Our private en-suite room was in a little wooden hut with a hammock outside to relax in the afternoons.
Right behind was the start of a trail down to the water hole where we went to cool down after a long hike through the 35C heat. The main bar and dining room had a constant supply of tea coffee and hot chocolate (of which we made good use) and outside hung a bunch of tiny lady finger bananas which we could help ourselves to.
Not that we needed any snacks; our craving for fresh food was certainly satisfied by our buffet breakfast of fresh watermelon, pineapple and papaya along with cheese, ham, bacon, eggs, fried plantain, toast, yoghurt and cereal, all washed down with a range of fresh juices. Libby added an extra plate to her breakfast selection each day (certainly got her monies worth!)
Lunch was similarly large, lots of chicken and rice with salad and various forms of yucca, plantain or potatoes. On days when we were out on a hike it was all packed up in a banana leaf (very authentic).
Dinner wasn't a small affair either. After a bowl of soup we piled our plates high with a range of meats, noodles, rice, potatoes and plenty of fresh veg followed by something sweet to finish off the evening.
Anyway, enough about food! What we were really there to experience was the diverse flora and fauna of the Amazon; we certainly weren't disappointed.
Each morning our guide, Delford (very friendly and informative) took us and our group for a hike and boat ride. Our group started with 11 people and slowly reduced down to just the 2 of us by the last day.
On our first night we set off down the river in the dark to go Cayman spotting. We managed to get fantastic photos of about 6 different white Cayman (the more common variety) then turned out all the lights in order to gaze at the mass of stars, visible in the clear nights sky; amazing.
The first full day we went for a 2 hour hike, winding between the dense tangle of trees and vines and over typically Amazonian bridges, to a large lake. Whilst rowing around the lake we were bombarded by hundreds of brightly coloured butterflies, exotic birds squawked overhead and we spotted a family of large black Cayman in the shallows.
Wanting to make the most of our time in the Amazon we joined another group in the afternoon to visit the fruit farm that supplies the lodge with many of its delicious goods. Here we sampled a range of tropical fruits including papaya, Lima (a bland citrus fruit), star fruit and a green orange (green due to the lack of chemicals). We politely declined the offer of nonny due to its vomit like aroma. Once we'd had our full we took a walk around the farm to see the vast array of fruits and vegetables grown by this single man.
That night we went for a night walk with our group to see the nocturnal creepy crawlies. It was both unnerving and exciting when we were made to turn off our torches and stand alone with the creeks and buzzes if the jungle all around.
In the morning we had another early start, and today was the clay lick. We ventured on the 20min journey upstream by boat before we headed back into the journey for the hours walk to the clay lick. The walk passed very quickly and we soon arrived to our hide. We all sat quietly watching and it wasn't long before we spotted macaws, scarlet macaws to be precise, we sat for around 2 hours, watching them come and go from the tree tops around us, unfortunately none came down to the lick, as Delfort explained that there must be a hawk nearby which was scaring them. However we did get close glimpses of them which was nice. We then made the hour trek back, once we reached the river front there were around 20 blue and gold macaws perched in the nearby trees which we all got a look at through a powerful microscope. We then headed back to the lodge for lunch. After lunch we explored some trials around the lodge. Delford met up with us in the afternoon and we went on a short hike around the lodge to see if we could spot anything, however the trees were very quiet. That evening after dinner the girls and us played a charades type game which was very fun! Our team won!!
The final day of hiking was great, the girls had left so it was just is and Delford, we caught the boat down to the start of the trail for the small river. The hike was around an hour long, half way through Delford spotted some saddle back tamarins in the tree tops, we watched them for a while, then they began to move close to us, in fact they even crossed our path, no more than 15m away, it was incredible to be so close to a family of wild monkeys!
Suddenly from nowhere something large crossed out path, we jumped, thinking it was a large cat, Delford laughed at us, as it was 2 seers chasing each other! But it was still incredible to see the deer so close. We continued to the lake, where we rowed across to the otherwise, spotting various species of birds as we went. At the other side we went to see 2 trees, 1 was a huge strangelling tree, which we could get inside of, incredible, the other the tallest species of tree the Amazon houses. We made our way back to the boat and Delford gave us snacks of crackers and passionfruit- it was delicious! We shared our snacks with some of the fish, we spotted many species but the two which stood out the most were the pretty green angel fish and the aggressive tiger fish, eating the smaller fish as we fed them! We headed back across the lake and then hiked the remained of the way to the boat. After lunch at the lodge we met a polish lady who was travelling on her own and so the 3 of us went on an adventure through the trials close to the lodge. We were acting as the guides attempting to spot anything exciting, then suddenly we did! Monkeys! Incredible! Delford had taught us well! As we were coming to the end of the trail we heard a large mammal, being the Amazon novices we were we got scared and quickly left, explaining to Delford later we found out that we had been very close to a family of wild boar! Which was exciting!! That night we had an early night, ready to leave the Amazon in the morning.
The trip was incredible! A holiday in a holiday, out of this world!
We are now at our hostel in Cusco, with our flight being on time without a hitch.
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