Okay, have lots to catch up with...

After doing the Inca Trail, I went to Puerto Maldonado, a starting point for the jungle. How did that last night of the Inca Trail end? Well, needless to say, I got no sleep, had to make it back to SAS for my tickets, and had to fly out.

I was in the Cusco airport, waiting, waiting, waiting. I ran into Doug from the other SAS group, and we chatted for a while. Finally made it out to Puerto Maldonado, a painless 30 minute flight :)

I stayed at the Corto Maltes lodge. It is such a nice place, just 30 minutes down the Madre de Dios river from Puerto Maldonado. I felt really spoiled there, because it was so nice.

Anyways, gotta sum up 4 days..so..first day, we had lunch, hiked around the jungle behind the lodge...caiman spotting at 7pm, which I missed because I felt ill. I ended up puking black sludge again, and just felt like crap! So I was going to go to dinner, but slept through it. John, the guide, came and checked on me and brought me some food. I crashed really hard that night!

The second day, we went to the clay lick to see the birds. Later, we took the boat down the river, went to Monkey Island, where we saw small monkeys. Unfortunately, the guides were feeding the monkeys, just encouraging them to come out..not very natural. Then we went over to another shore and hiked for 5 kms to Lake Sandoval. Had a picnic lunch there, then John paddled us in a boat around the lake to look at the wildlife.

I went caiman spotting on the 2nd night, as I felt much better. When we were making our way back to the lodge, the motor in the boat went out. So Tito, the guide, started paddling with the plank. He fell in the water, busted his chin. Two guys helped him back on the boat..with blood spewing from his chin. The boat rocked back and forth..all you could hear was..ooooohhh...aaaaahhh! As we thought we might tip over! Needless to say, the motor eventually started and we were able to recover the plank as well.

Day 3 was more of a relaxing day. We went fishing on a leaky boat. Well, it was only 5 of us. We took turns scooping the water out of the boat. I caught a really small fish. Later, we went to a farmer´s place and a fruit plantation as well.

Day 4 was just breakfast and the flight out.

It was a nice, relaxing, beautiful place to be.