The Amazing Amazonian Jungle

The Adventure begins, Mesmerising Peru

The ‘bucket list’. It’s not until the later years that I have given any thought to bucket lists. Buckets always equalled work in my eyes……….. mops and buckets. Well, Peru was probably the first tour to enter into my empty bucket, but now, needless to say, it is overflowing with other places I’d like to visit.

So, Peru was to be our special trip for 2018, and having limited time to visit, due to work commitments, we decided to go with a travel company. After getting square eyes looking at numerous websites, we came across Llama Travel who specialise in South American travel. The tours were adaptable, you had choices on your hotel preferences, true ‘pick & mix’ options.

Having watched the Master Chef semi finals, which took place in Lima, Peru, we just had to try out the amazing Central Restaurant. Who wouldn’t want to have food delivered on Piranha heads. Lunch booked for our final day, prior to flying back to the UK.

Back to Llama travel. The consultants were most helpful in assisting us plan our personal bucket list adventure.

We flew into Lima for the start of our trip and were pleasantly surprised to find this friendly city situated by a beautiful beach. Jet lag over, a long walk by the beach, a hello to the Paddington Statue, donated by UK, and a visit to a few shops, we were truly ready to start our adventure.

Representatives from Llama travel collected us from our hotel, and off we went to the airport to get our flight to Puerto Maldonado, where we then hopped onto the boat which took us to our Amazonian jungle lodge on the Reservation Amazonica. All excited but also a little nervous, the adventure begins; three nights in a jungle lodge.

Well; luxury on stilts comes to mind; what a quaint lodge. The next three days were never to be forgotten, as we took a dugout canoe ride down the river looking out for cayman alligators and the Capybara, the largest rodent in the world. Not to be disappointed, we spotted both both………… were we lucky?

The canopy walk that links 8 observation platforms certainly wasn’t what I expected. Ricketier and so much higher than I’d anticipated, ‘wow’, the swinging high amongst tall trees turned the stomach, but ‘eh’, we made it thanks to the amazing rangers.

Now, a trek through the jungle, from afternoon through to evening, was a little unnerving. During the afternoon it was intriguing seeing the wildlife and flora. The beautiful parakeets and macaws were breath taking, and with the shrill shrieks from the monkeys in the background, all thoughts of nasty creatures and snakes were gone. However, we were to trek back through the jungle at night – hold that thought!

We arrived at the river to find our next mode of transport, a dug-out canoe. Clambering in, we were all ready to watch the sunset. Mind you, we hadn’t prepared ourselves for a lake full of piranhas. Now, I’d always been led to believe that these were quite dangerous fish, but as our guide was happy to drag his hand into the water maybe they are not so nasty. I wasn’t going to test this for myself though…………. I’d only just started my adventure and didn’t fancy losing any digits. The sunset was stunning and the birds flying around seemed to be teasing us, but now it was time to leave the canoe and start the trek back. Where did that dark sky come from? Heart beating, as I have a phobia regarding snakes, I was dreading coming face to face with one.

As we slid along the muddy rainforest path with a torch that was not reliable, we were warned not to touch anything as some of the small spiders were extremely poisonous. We fumbled our way through the jungle. Of course, we had a passionate and enthusiastic ranger who was thrilled to show us our first tarantula; Mmmmm, did we really want to be so close to this spider? maybe not, but what a story we had to tell once we arrived home.

Back safely at the lodge we sat on the veranda in the hammock. What a laugh. It was a good job no one could see how many attempts we made at getting into this contraption. Now, time to reminisce on the day’s adventure before going to sleep.

4am and a knock on the door. We were up and ready for our early morning boat ride to see the parrots and macaws feeding off the clay banks on the cliff side? We arrived at our destination, all was quiet, no signs of birds, or anything else for that matter. Our ranger called us back into the boat. Only four of us were sad enough to get up at 4am while on holiday. Was this it?

As the captain of the boat manoeuvred it closer to the cliff face, I was politely asked to remove my bright yellow coat. I thought it looked cool, but no, it was going to scare away the birds. It was surely not my fault we hadn’t seen any, I decided.

All of a sudden, we heard noises and then saw a few macaws investigating the cliff face. Then, like magic, it was swamped with hundreds of these stunning birds pecking at the clay, a nutritional part of their diet. The cliff was now a colourful wall, an amazing sight. Suddenly, something spooked these little fellows and they all flew away. After a few minutes, a couple of brave macaws came back. They were staking out the area and once they were happy it was safe they gave the word, and, once again, the cliff was covered in a sea of green and blues.

Yes, it was worth getting up at that unearthly hour. After this wonderful viewing, we had worked up an appetite ready for our breakfast on the boat. What a way to finish off this part of our journey.

We made our way safely back to the lodge spotting cayman and other wildlife en route. What a day.