Off the Couch and On the Road

The flight home wasn’t any less painful or long, but I had a thousand scenic views and funny moments in my head to keep me company. Peru is an amazing country, each town and village had a personality all of it’s own. It reminded me of Australia, the way the landscape changed so dramatically – blink and you’d miss the transformation – from desert to jungle, tropical islands to giant sand dunes and coral, modern cities and heritage towns. I mean, how could I not love a country that eats potatoes for breakfast? It was beyond amazing, and the best damn use of annual leave I’ve ever had.

– Sarah

I woke the next morning very late, very hungover. After a brief recount of the night’s adventures with the rest of the group at breakfast, I walked into Miraflores for some serious junk food with Glenda and Bec. They continued on to do some shopping, and I walked to Mr Wong’s supermarket to buy coke and chips before settling in back at the hotel for a long afternoon nap and some trashy TV. It was an early night for all of us, and I slept well after a quiet meal of dodgy Chinese food across the road for dinner. Almost hometime.

– Sarah

We had a sleep in on our last day, relatively speaking, not having to leave for the airport until 6.30am. After a quick breakfast, we farewelled our guides and took the 1.5hr boat ride back to head office where we grabbed our bags and drove to the airport in Puerto Maldonados.

We were early this time, thank goodness, and had time to farewell our tour guide who would be leaving us to fly back to his hometown. And then it was all over. The rest of the group wouldn’t leave until the next day, so once we arrived at our hotel in Lima and freshened up, we decided to have our final dinner in Barranco as it seemed like such a pretty spot last time we visited. This time though, we walked straight to a glamorous bar for tapas and cocktails. Lots and lots of cocktails. Far too many cocktails, in fact. But God those cosmopolitans were great. I don’t think the DJ had ever had any group pay him that much attention, or dance in the restaurant for that matter. But soon enough, lots of others were up dancing, and although we were only supposed to have our table until 10pm, we were spending so much on the many, many cocktails we were drinking they let us stay.

Once we finally paid the bill and left, a few others and myself continued on to a jazz club with a band and entertained the crowd. By which I mean we were the only non-locals in the place and got up and danced to almost every song. The locals showed us their Latino moves and we tried to keep up. It was great fun and a real culture experience. I’m not sure how we managed to get a cab back home, but we made it in the end. It was a great night.

– Sarah

The 4am wake-up call wasn’t too bad, at least it wasn’t cold and we didn’t have to trek up and down mountains all day. When you look at things from that perspective most things in life seem quite easy. After a quick breakfast, my gumboots and I took a very muddy walk back to the port, before taking a boat to the Ox-Bow Lake for a morning wildlife cruise. We spotted mostly birds, including a Toucan, but also saw a couple of Giant River Otters, which are the biggest in the world at 2m long. Everyone took turns at fishing for yellow-belly Piranha’s (which were tiny but looked vicious) and I dozed in the early morning sun.

Back to the port, another hike through mud, another boat ride down the river, and another hike through mud later, we arrived back at our lodge, welcomed with fresh juice and fried bread before a quick rest in the lobby. Then we were off again on a walk through the jungle to a wooden bird-watching hut, where we sat inside, looking out small holes to spot the Macaws. We sat silently for what seemed like hours, and managed to spot one or two, but didn’t see very much at all which was disappointing (though I’m sure we were the noisiest bunch of silent bird-watchers ever. I don’t blame the birds).

After lunch and an afternoon siesta, we walked back to the port in our gumboots and caught the boat upstream to a shaman’s medicinal garden. The shaman himself wasn’t there but his gardener showed us around the jungle of a garden, explaining each plants properties and uses. We chewed leaves which left our tongues numb and saw vines which, according to the gardener, were not hallucinogenic or addictive, but that would make you feel drunk and have ‘visions’. I have my doubts. We tried some syrup of one of the plants – red bull of the jungle they called it, due to its energetic properties. It tasted like Benadryl to me, pretty gross but better than corn beer and Guinea Pig by a long shot.

By the time we arrived back at our port, it was pitch black, and we used our torches to guide us back via a longer trail to see if we could spot some nocturnal wildlife along the way. Unfortunately all we saw were big, hairy spiders, a small gecko, and some small insects. And my torch decided to die, so I was standing about 2mm from Birgitte’s back the whole time, in case the Puma decided to jump out at me while I stood in the dark. Man, was I looking forward to a good cocktail by the end. We had dinner, official farewell’s to our guide Wilfredo and a few cocktails. Then a wonderful night’s sleep. Truly wonderful.

– Sarah

I sat, amazed, at 3pm the following day, when I realised this time yesterday I was strolling the European-style streets of Cusco, and now I was in a jungle lodge in the Amazon, listening to monkeys and wildlife in my open lodge.

That morning, we had left Cusco airport to fly to Puerto Maldonados (after a very late start, only just making the plane) and arrived to the sunny, heavy, tropical heat and humidity of the jungle. Arriving at the Rainforest Expeditions head office, we packed a small daypack for the next two nights, and drove down to the port where we took a longboat ride 1.5hrs down the river. Our lunch pack was made by local communities and contained juice, local Brazil nuts, banana chips and fruit, as well as delicious rice and vegetables wrapped in a banana leaf. It was so, so good, and as we ate we watched men gold panning in the river, and women doing the washing, and I smiled, breathing in the sunshine and warmth. This was nice.

After arriving at our lodge, we were welcomed with cold hand towels and fresh passionfruit juice, and listened (or not, in my case) to a briefing by the assistant manager about the lodge. We were each given a pair of gumboots to wear in the jungle, so our hiking shoes would stay clean, and allocated our rooms so we could settle in. The rooms were lovely, filled with wooden carved furniture and a bathroom with a porcelain toilet and basin, with no roof or outdoor walls. The room was dotted with candles instead of electricity, and the large double bed draped with white mosquito nets. So beautiful. Except, I wondered, what exactly stopped the jaguar, or bear, or some other wild jungle animal just hopping into my room? Nothing, the rainforest guide told me. But they won’t. Which sounded very reassuring but a bit of a vague statement to me. They won’t? They just…won’t? I hoped not.

That afternoon, we donned our gumboots and walked for 15mins through the jungle to a lookout tower 120m high, which had spectacular views through the jungle and over the river. We spotted a sloth, Macaws, other birds and butterflies and tried to spot the ‘Puma’ jaguar but didn’t see one. Which I for one was very grateful for, because we then had to walk back through that jungle to get back, which would have been a bit scary.

That evening, I discovered the best part of the jungle lodge – the cocktail bar. What other jungle lodge has a cocktail bar! Brilliant. The ‘Banana Monkey’ was my favourite, and we sat back after our buffet dinner to settle in for a fun night. Until our guide came and told us we would have a 4am wake up call. Damn. Bedtime.

– Sarah