Becs 6/5:
Well this is one of the parts of the trips I was so much looking forward to, not only were we heading into the Amazon but also as a joint birthday present to each other we decided to splash out on 5 star luxury and head to Inkaterra Reserva Amazonica http://www.inkaterra.com/en/reserva-amazonica. It was off to a bit of a nervous start with our flight being cancelled but we got on the next one and our friendly Inkaterra staff were there to meet us along with about another 6 or so others that were also on our flight. We were taken to their offices in Puerto Maldonaldo and given lovely cool towels and a fantastic welcome drink of some type of passionfruit drink to cool down and this is where they check you into the lodge. Then it was off to the port to catch our little boat 45 mins up the river to our lodge. On arrival we found that they had upgraded us to the superior rio room which was the same as the superior only that we now had a view of the river, perfect. We tucked into a fantastic 3 course lunch then off to our first tour of the jungle which was just a 1 hour walk around a trail not far from from the lodge where our guide Ivan told us about various trees, flowers and insects. Marks favourite tree was the ´Prostitute Tree which is where the fire ants (they give a nasty bite) live and protect the tree and is also what the local men would tie their unfaithful wives/girlfriends to!!! There was also the Erotic Tree which had very amusing shaped roots which produced a lot of sap from the ends when squeezed.....felt like we were back in high school sex ed again as we all giggled like little school kids! And thankfully got through the walk without seeing any spiders or snakes!
Mark 6/5:
So after Becs counting down the days for the past 7 days, we finally have made it to the Amazon. Could hardly wipe the smile off her face, until the flight was cancelled. But we made it in the end and it was all very nice on the first day. Whilst we are in the Amazon jungle, we are not on the Amazon river which the river that we were on joins up with several thousand k´s downstream on the way to the Atlantic.
On the first day in addition to the trail walk we also went out on a night boat ride to try and spot caimans (Crocodile like things that can get to 6m) using a spot light to search the river bank, but we only saw 3 of them and they were all about 1m long maximum. This set the tempo for the wildlife spotting.
We did however see a 2m Caiman hanging out in the trees about 20m away from our hut though, we had to climb into bushes and around trees but got to about 8 feet of him. They are pretty docile creatures and attacks on humans are pretty rare. Happily.
Becs 7/5:
An early morning 5 am wake-up call (well banging on the side of our cabana from one of the staff) saw us up and on the boat heading out to the Tambopata National Reserve to Lake Sandoval for some more wildlife and fauna spotting. After about a 10 min boat ride up the river we had about a 25 min walk to the canoes then a 5 mins canoe down a little narrow stream amongst the jungle (this is what we imagined it to be like) this we arrived out on the lake. On the paddle down this narrow stream Mark and I were luck enough to score the seats up by one of the guides so we got a few extra strories and were the first to be pointed out the wildlife. His first story was from 3 years ago about the guy whose job it is to collect all the boats each night and put them away. One night he was paddling down this same stream we were paddling, just him and his dog when he was attacked by a 6m anaconda which was probably going for the dog but missed. The guy survived basically by holding on with the hand that wasn´t in the anaconda´s mouth until he gave up and let go. Now acocondas are not venomous but contain a lot of bacteria and he was in the hospital for a week. The family avenged his death and went back to find the anaconda and sure enough he was in the exact same spot waiting for his next victim (apparently when they are hungry they are very patient hunters) and killed him. So as you can imagine I went from one very excited girl to one very nervous girl keeping a look out for anacondas preying that we wouldn´t see one. Look at the turtles on the log said one of the guides and thankfully my mind was off the anocondas and back on the better wildlife of the jungle. Unfortunately our trip on the Lake didn´t produce much wildlife for us and it was mainly birds, although we did see the rare Bolivian Macaw and a couple of baby black caimans and then it was back to the lodge to eat and sleep away the midday heat.
In the afternoon we headed to the tree canopy which is about 500m of suspension bridges about 30m about ground and 2 big lookout tours......and once again we saw a few birds and that was it, disappointing but still quite cool to be amongst the jungle canopy.
Then it was happy hour and cheap drinks to be drunk back at the lodge. Mark was tossing up with the idea of going on the night excursion to search for tarantulas and other creepy crawlies but chickened out in the end and didn´t go! At least I never pretended I wanted to go in the first place. Another good meal for dinner and Mr Piggy here had 2.5 desserts but complains he is putting on weight!!!!
Mark 7/5:
Becs mostly covered this. Except for a couple of important points. On the way to the lake we spotted Wild Turkey! Calm down Glenn, there was no coke to be seen & as it was 6.30am we decided to let it be.
Also, the hammocks that they had in the rooms required a delicate act akin to hanging on to a tight rope to stay on them. It was kind of like relaxing on a swiss ball.
Still, it would be fair to say that we were well off the backpacking/hostal circuit that we had been on of late, for example, there was no kitchen to cook our food, no place to do our laundary and no dorm rooms (not that we have stayed in any so far bar Uyuni). As such the clientale were a little different to what we have come to expect and there were alot more Americans than we had seen in the past, which meant that the "Oh, My God" statements per day had gone up a whole heap. We did meet a nice couple from Adelaide that have left there 18/20 boys behind and were doing a 3 week trip through Peru / Bolivia and we got on well with them.
Becs: 8/5
Unfortunately our little trip to the Amazon ended all too quickly and after a big breakkie it was time to go. While we were waiting for our boat I asked Mark if he had everything, passport, etc, to which he scarcastically replied 'you´re not my mother', but I had the last laugh when he did check there was no passport, no money and he had left them back in our room.....and he wonders why I ask! So then we were on the boat passports and all heading back to Puerto Maldonaldo. Before our flight we had a chance to check out the Butterfly House, not all the exciting unless you´re into butterflies but took a couple of pics and then off to the airport and back to Cusco for our last night.
Mark 8/5:
Yeah, passport, money, all that other handy stuff for travelling with.....oh....and I lost my sunnies (second pair) today too somehow. Bugger.
It was an early wakeup on the Amazon as the goldminers kickstart their generators at sunrise (6ish) which meant an early rise for all people with the rio cabana "upgrades". After battling out of the mosquito net it was plain sailing back to Puerto Maldonado and then on to aiport and into Cusco where cab negotiations commenced again. Some cheeky chap tried to charge 20Soles for a ride when it only cost 6 to get to the airport, we laughed, he sulked and we got a different cab. That night we headed to the Real McCoy, an English Pub in Cusco, hoping for a Pub Quiz that was advertised. It didnt happen but they compensated by opening happy hour earlier for us & we had a fine tradtional pie and mash, couple of Pisco Sours and some Wine while working our way through a couple of games of Monopoly (Accountants go Wild). It ended up 1 all, but as a result of the wine when we eventually made it back to our accommodation (Hostal Loreto is almost becoming a second home for us, the staff dont even ask for our room number just hand over the key) and Becs decided that Kareoke to MTV was called for. It wasnt. But she carried on merrily.
15 votes 
