Bello Horizonte Lodge Puerto Maldonado

... br>Our guide,Jackson,(a lot of people have English type names here) is a local boy. His grandfather was a medicine man who lived in a tribe. His family live on a farm one and a half days upstream. He is one of the youngest of 7, so his parents decided he should go to university. He studied conservation in Puerto Maldonado for 5 years, and is incredibly knowledgeable about all aspects of the rainforest. He´s not long finished his degree, and he tells us about his ...

... besser und lebendiger. Ganz in der Nähe unserer Zelte befand sich ein beliebter Sammelplatz unter Papageien. Diese kommen hierher um das Salz aus der Erde, zu picken und um so ihre von unreifen Früchten geblähten Mägen zu kurieren. Früh morgens sind die kleinen grünen Pagageien und Sittiche dran, etwas später kann man die grossen Aras beobachten. Über unseren Köpfen tummelten sich derweil Klammeraffen und Braunrückentamarine ...

... Everything else we shared with mosquitoes or other flying insects but we quickly learnt to slap on Deet (insect repellent) and ignore things buzzing around us. If you don't, you spend the whole day imitating a helicopter.

The routine had us up before dawn and after a quick breakfast, the morning trek begins and lasts about 4 or 5 hours until we would return about 1130. After lunch, we would be out again around 3.00pm, returning as it got dark at 6.00pm. There was usually ...

... grass roof, lighting is by kerosene lamp and our outdoor shower is a drum of water and a jug.
Milan is extremely knowledgeable about the plants and their medicinal uses, he also knows where to find all the scariest looking insects for photos. After dark on our first evening he took us tarantula spotting and from then on everything that happens to brush against us in the night is surely a hairy tarantula...
During daylight, we also saw ...

... into the Amazon, seeing extraordinary flora and fauna, which the guide gave a fine explanation of. Amongst others, we saw a tarantula, fire ants, a black caimen, loads of various birds, turtles, medicinal plants / trees etc. We went to a caiman lake after lunch seeing several white and black caiman chomping down the fish we fed them. Although the information given on the things pointed out was first class, i remember little of it - hence little details noted here. Was told ...

... It felt like something they would put on in an expensive spa!

The lodge had a great game room, with ping pong, pool table, fus ball. Ping Pong was what Nikolas wanted to play all the time, which we played morning, noon and evening! We were usually the last ones to leave the game room and bar.

The third day we want on a 7 hour day walk through the jungle. This was a hard day but very enjoyable with all the different animals we ...

... warm in a banana leaf. I was on the edge of my seat for the whole ride. The jungle of Tombopata was more tropical than the areas I have been camping in the past. There was space to move, and it made more sense to me how this environment could serve as a habitat for a pletheura of life. We camped in the jungle, and took trips hikes through the jungle daily. On our excursions we saw tons of beautiful Parrots and Macaws conversing over a breakfast of ...

... Neither of them spoke english, and it was great to be forced to continue practicing my spanish, getting down the past tense and expanding the vocab. Meeting Francisco was a definite necessity. He was a guide and has been all throughout S. America in his 15 years of traveling. He schooled me on the haps around Puerto and Brazil and Peru in general. Leaving him I felt more knowledgeable than some natives.

Mae is gonna come down to check this place out. I ...

... A huge spotlight on the boat illuminated them just enough to take pictures. As exciting as this sounds, it wasn't really. Later on in the Pantanal of Brazil, we saw hundreds of Cayman mid-day piled on top of one another. So really the best part about going out on the river, was the boat ride itself. On this particular night, there were no moon and clouds. The night sky was amazing. I had never seen so many stars! There were so many stars that ...

... the Amazon river to the Tambopata Reserve and the
Wasai Lodge. Along the way as we see the smoke in the horizon, we
confirm the sad truth that the Amazon is being burned by humans,
hundreds of acres per hour, for the purpose of building cattle ranches
for the meat being later shipped to the US (think about this when you
eat your next hamburger).
If we don't do something about it now, sadly it's only a matter of time
before the ...