7/9/08 "I arrived yesterday in Puerto Maldonado where the presence of the national strike was already apparent. At the airport, police kept all passengers from all flights on the airport grounds until all flights came in. The last flight in was mine at around 1230pm and after situating which luggage would stay in the town (as we could only carry...

After stomping around Machu Picchu for a couple days and a seemingly interminable train ride back to Cusco from Aguas Caliente, we caught a great nightīs sleep at this great guesthouse in Cusco called Recolata Turistico before departing for Puerto Maldonado and the Peruvian jungle. We stayed at Ecoamazonia, which was a pretty killer place. Just ...

We've been spending the last week in the Peruvian Amazon jungle looking for tracks. We are working with Renata, a woman researching Short-eared Dogs, on making a tracking guide for the region. It's quite difficult as they have so many species. So far we've found: giant armadillo, paca, brown aguti, puma, ocelot, tapir, capibara, white-lipped pec...

Wow, this trip has been so cool up to this point... it honestly feels like we've been away for 2 months already, not 2 weeks and makes us even more excited about the next 9 months. So much planned... we couldn't be more excited about it all. Anyway, back to today and there's no time to rest as we head off on a flight to Puerto Maldonado and a to...

Some pictures from around town. All the people that I met are very friendly and want to know about America. Unfortunately this was my first attempt at speaking Spanish and no one there spoke English. Most tourists arive in town and are boated out to their jungle lodge then spend a few hours in town before heading to the airport so the locals don...

After a week or so of climbing up the endless stairs of the Incan ruins, we left Cusco and Machu Picchu for the Amazon. We took a 28 minute flight to the town of Puerto Maldonado (it would have been a 15 hour bus ride down from the Andes and along dusty roads through the jungle) and drove down to the banks of the Rio Tambopata at the border of t...

I know that all I seem to be doing on this elective is jetting off on exciting trips but hey I will go to the hospital manana, after all its the Peruvian way! Well I decided that a real jungle trip was required since Ive always always wanted to go to the Amazon rainforest, so last saturday me and Rich flew to Puerto Maldonado (apparently its a c...

Hey everyone! We had just finished our Inca trail in our last entry. After traveling back to Cusco that evening we had some trouble checking in to our hostel (i.e.. they messed up!) and missed our briefing meeting for our Manu trip. But we have already been told that if we didnīt make it back in time we would be picked up at 8am the next day fro...

We were wakened by William and trudged down to the boat in the dark to head off to the clay lick and get into position before the birds arrived. I tried to set up a tripod but the bushes in front of the viewing area got in the way. Soon the birds began to show up. Macaws flew languidly over our heads, Pionus, Parrotlets and Mealy Amazons were fl...

On the tenth, we flew from Cusco to Puerto Maldonado. Puerto Maldonado is a bit of a frontier town in the rain forest. With cars almost obsolete here, most people choose to zip around on motorcycles. There are hundreds of them. I am amazed I didnīt see a crash. Apparently seat belt and helmet laws do not exist as the entire family can be seen ri...