Welcome to the jungle

From Puno we caught an eight hour bus to Cuzco where we would then fly to Puerto Maldonado, which is in the South East of Peru in the Amazon jungle.

It was a short 50 minute flight to Puerto Maldonado and after being at altitude in the highlands of Bolivia and Peru for almost a month it was nice to be back down almost at sea level again.

Most people visiting the town are going on to jungle lodges further down the Madre de Dios river, which is exactly what we did. From what I saw of Puerto Maldonado there isn't really that much there, which also became apparent on our quick tour of the town when the guide pointed out a water tower as something of interest!

We all piled in to a motor boat for the 1.5 hour trip downriver to the Eco Amazonia Lodge where we would be staying. This place has to be the closest I've been to staying in a resort and after months of hostels it felt quite fancy - there was even a swimming pool.

The rooms didn't have glass in the windows just mosquito netting so at night I could hear the sounds of the jungle, which was a lot louder than I thought it would be.

On our first day we went on a trek and as it was coming to the end of the main rainy season we wore wellies as the trail was very muddy. I don't know what has happened to my feet as I'm usually a size three or four but I ended up having to wear a size 1.5 on one foot and a two on the other!

We walked until we reached a clearing called 'Caiman Lagoon', we could just see the head of an adult female and lots of juveniles in the water, it was great being able to observe them in the water.

When the guide of another group arrived he had a bag of chicken, which he proceeded to chop up with a machete on the side of the bank to get the animals out of the water. He only just managed to get to safe ground when the mother appeared. I don't particularly like this method to entice the animals just for our benefit and would have been perfectly happy just seeing them as they were in the water.

The walk back to the lodge was particularly humid and oppressive so I took the opportunity to cool off in the pool, which by all accounts was pretty cold but fine if you kept moving.

Overnight and into the morning it rained quite heavily. We were due to go on another jungle walk, which got pushed back an hour in the hope it would ease, to no avail. In the end only six out of our group of 11 went. I'm glad I chose to because once we were under the main jungle canopy we were fairly well sheltered from the rain.

Despite the weather we still saw some wildlife including a huge snail and fire ants, which will give you a nasty nip if you get too close. We also saw and smelt several garlic trees and the bark is often used to add flavour in cooking. We finished up at a lagoon where we went out in a canoe and did some birdwatching..  

Back at the lodge and after a quick hammock siesta it was back on the boat across to monkey island, which is home to spider monkeys and capuchins. We were lucky enough to see both kinds and I loved watching them climbing and jumping through the treetops.