Trevor's South America Trip: 110% Humidity

Day 14 - 12 de Junio: Cuzco to the Amazon

It's amazing how fast Peru is going by! Today, I woke up to eat my last breakfast at the Cuzco. I haven't actually bought a whole lot during this trip, however my bag is definitely getting harder to pack. I hear that the best place to mail stuff home is the Lima airport so if it's reasonable, i'll send home my souvenirs there. Leaving the city, I had no idea what to expect in the amazon. But when I stepped foot onto the tarmac after the 40 minute flight, it was like I got shot in the face with a humidity gun! Even more so since it felt like 0 degrees in Cuzco the night before. It was amazing how fast the climate changed. My bag successfully arrived with me so I quickly changed into flip flops, shorts and muscle shirt, then joined the group on our jungle bus (one of the ones where you load all the luggage on the roof). We met our new guides and after a quick stop to drop our unneeded luggage in storage, we took the hot bus into a muddy road in the jungle. (Because we had to go on a small boat, we could only take a certain bag weight with us). Our first taste of the jungle was a basket containing a (yellow) jungle orange, banana chips and brazil nuts (which we renamed Peru nuts). A tasty start, however I think we definitely take for granted the luxury of seedless oranges back home. We took this slippery, muddy road all the way to the port, where a thin, river boat awaited us. We got in and made our way down the beautiful Tambopata river. It's one of the rivers that feed into the amazon, apparently originating in Puno. Our guide pointed out a couple creatures on the shore, but both my camera and I were unable to get a clear shot of much. A few people had cameras with amazing zoom, so I'll try and get those photos off them. After a boat ride with a great rice/egg hash on a banana leaf, we made it to a small dock on the edge of the river. I shouldn't even call it a dock - more like the last step of a staircase (which is dangerous since I've been twice as accident prone since I arrived here). We hiked about 10 mins into the jungle before finding an amazing jungle lodge. This lodge runs as natural as possible; everything nature friendly, only electricity and wifi for a couple hours a day (hence my late post) and rooms with only 3 walls (the fourth was the jungle). For light in our rooms we were provided candles and I even had a hammock in my room! We didn't have too long to admire it though - after about 5 minutes of gentle hammock swinging, we made our way to a canopy tower (a set of stairs that took us to a platform in the sky!) On the way over, the guide showed us a Brazil nut tree. Apparently, they're a pretty dangerous tree that can't be farmed or harvested. In high wind and rain, softball sized, 2kg pods rain from the sky-high tree! That's prob why they're so expensive back home. When we arrived and climbed the countless stairs, the views were amazing! Over the treetops, we could see all the way to the mountains we just came from! By the time we were down, it was nearly dark. We relied on flashlight to make our way through jungle trails back home. Dinner was a delicious buffet. We've developed quite a liking for buffets - mainly since we don't have to wait to eat at them. Our last activity of the day was Cayman spotting. It was pitch black, but we still jumped on the river boat and were taken down the river. And here starts my bout of jungle klutziness - I bumped my head on the boat roof. Caymans are like little alligators, and it didn't take long for our guide to spot a few. We got to see them right up close which was a really neat experience. We came back afterwards, and even though it was only about 9:30, everyone was heading to bed. It was a long, eventful day and we're waking up before sunrise to go fishing! It should be a full day, but I can't believe it will be our last full day on tour together!