Peru - Back to Lima for our last night of the tour!

SATURDAY NIGHT - OUR LAST NIGHT OF OUR PERU ENCOMPASSED 21 DAY TOUR!

We took an early morning flight back to Lima. We were all sad that our adventures were nearly over. From the lodge we had to take the boat back up the river, then a private bus along a dirt track to the Airport in Puerto Maldonado. It was two short flights to Lima via Cusco! (I still don't like flying)

Our last drink in Lima!


We all went out in Lima for our last meal, was great and had a good few drinks to wash it all down. It was sad to say our farewells. Everyone was lovely in the group and our tour guide Cecila was brilliant!

Sophie had a very early Sunday morning flight home to Guildford. Colette and Dairmaid had an early Sunday morning flight to Ireland.

CECILIA - Thanks again for making the Peru Encompassed tour so good! Have a good rest and good luck with your next tour! You may even get to do the Lares Trek this time!

It was a great trip organised through Intrepid. I would recommend the trip, for more details of this trip and similar ones go to the Intrepid website.

SUNDAY

I did not set my alarm! Was great! After a nice longer than normal sleep we meet Rowan and Jani for breakfast then said our goodbyes. Rowan and Jani were off to celebrate their engagement in a 5 start hotel in Mexico then were then heading off on another Intrepid tour around Mexico, Guatemala and Belize before heading home to Oz.

I then meet up with Peter for lunch.

Peter for lunch


Cebiche mixto


I had Cebiche mixto again, which is a typical Peruvian dish. It is raw fish marinated in lime juice, served with onions, chillies, corn and sweet potato. Was very tasty! Then headed to the Huaca Pucllana pyramid to check it out as Peter had to do some work.

Huaca Pucllana


Huaca Pucllana pyramid


Well I was expecting something similar to the pyramids in Egypt, but was different!

Did you know?
Indigenous people started building Huaca Pucllana in 400 A.D. — nine centuries before the Incas. They gathered, traded, made community decisions, worshiped and sacrificed women and children at Huaca Pucllana for 300 years. They then abandoned the site when the Wari empire conquered the area in 700 A.D. Parts are still being excavated today.

I think I was a bit cultured out so Kirsty and I headed for a well earned glass of wine or even a glass of Champagne! :-)

Cheers!


We found a swanky bar and asked for Champagne! We celebrated finishing the Lares Trek and me climbing up and safely down Waynapicchu mountain! Tasted good!

DO YOU KNOW?
A question that I asked on our tour but none of us knew ... "When does a hill become a mountain?" no it is not a joke, do you know? As I saw lots of hills and mountains but not sure at what height a hill stops being a hill and is classified as a mountain. Ohh or am I am being a bit sad? and should I just get on with being on holiday? Is it about 3000m?

Kirsty went off to get her flight home to the UK. She was stopping in Miami to shop!

KIRSTY - Was great meeting you and am very pleased we both finished the Lares Trek, you were great company! Don´t work too hard back in the UK and save up to do some more travelling! Look forward to catching up for more drinks when I get home in November / December!

MONDAY MORNING

All my friends on the tour had gone home or onto other countries so I chilled in Lima for a couple odays before my flight to Argentina.

Peter working at his desk


Peter was great! he lives and works in Lima, has for the last 10 years! He works on the oil rigs, manages a rock band, manages events and is now setting up a company to export coffee to the UK. He was my next door neighbour when I used to live in Eltham when I was at Secondary School.

MONDAY EVENING

Peter was meeting some friends from the Airport so we shared a cab. The Peruivans in Lima are really mad drivers! mader than the Italians!. At crossroads it is the biggest and more aggressive car that gets across first! You can imagine that there are a lot of accidents! It was a pretty hairy 40mins drive to the airport! But made it in one piece ... now for check-in.

I arrived 2hrs before my flight and was surprized that there were not more people in the queue. Then was told on check-in that the flight was delayed by 1.5hours ... hmm that is why there were not many people in the queue ... a right pain. Was actually 2hours delayed ... but still ... I am on holiday and will get there eventually. I managed to phone the hostel in Buenos Aires to say my flight was delayed and to tell the taxi that I will be later than planned.

I took flight AR1365 leaving at 2.30am (instead of 12.30am) from Lima in Peru to the capital of Argentina - Buenos Aires, arrived about 9am. Argentina is two hours ahead of Peru which is 4 hour behind the UK.

Peru - Pirana fishing in the Amazon Jungle!

LATE FRIDAY AFTERNOON

Our fishing boat!


We were off again .. but this time off to the Ox-Bow lake to see Black Caiman, birds and fish for Piranas. Yes just your normal day out.

So who in their right minds fish for Piranas? 'Loco' was coming with us so should be an interesting trip! (The crazy man who picks up snakes!)

Bunches


It was a nice late afternoon, the lake was very pleasant. Daniel steered us in the direction of seeing Caiman and a good place to fish.

For some reason I had decided to wear my hair in bunches. Not a big thing you may say. But have not worn bunches probably since I was at School, but felt it was good in the heat! My sister Julia wears bunches and looks very good!

So back to fishing!

The sun went down and it was dark!


They were very basic rods with a bit of beef on the end.

I caught a Pirana!

Silly grin on my face and a Pirana


I caught it and it jumped onto the boat! Daniel picked it up and we took a photo. It had bitten through the leaf above - you may just see the teeth marks in the leaf below the fin. We throw it back! That being the Royal we, Daniel throw it back!

Dairmaid fishing


A Black Caiman


We saw a few Caiman, but I think more saw us!. Luckily no one fell in the water! We then headed back to shore in the pitch black! Then went on a 30mins night walk again. This time we walked pretty fast in order to get back for supper! I was walking in the middle, not last. But we still were not home, in our small motorboat in the pitch black we headed back up the river and arrived home safely.

They had very nice Cuba Libre´s in the bar!

I felt a bit less scared sleeping that night, but only a bit.

Peru - Day walk through the Amazon Jungle!

FRIDAY MORNING

The Jungle is great! We can hear lots of weird and funny animal and bird noises.

It has cooled off a bit and unfortunately started to rain so we the planned 9.30am Jungle walk has been delayed. Oh well ...

Back to the hammock!


When the rain cleared we put on our special 'Jungle boots' (Also known as Wellington boots in Britain and I think Gum boots in Oz?

ROWAN and JANI - What do you call Wellington boots in Oz?

We had a great walk, saw loads of weird and wonderful trees, plants, flowers, animals and insects ...

A butterfly


A rather large snail!


Parrotnose flower


Big lemons


Photographing ants


I had to take this photo as it was us all photographing ants, and we all liked taking photos! thourght it was funny, but maybe you had to be there.

The ants were cool ants! Not to be confused with ANts P2P. they were leafcutter ants. They were crossing our path. Was amazing to see the ants carrying a big leaf on their backs.

Watch my video of ants ... ?

Not ants in your pants!


Fungi


Rowan craking the Brazil Nut in one go!


Jubilation!


There are about 8 Brazil nuts in one big nut


I tried to break open the Brazil nut shell but did not manage to. Rowan did it in one go!

Cutting down sugar cane


We tried some sugarcane. Tasted nice!

Cotton


There was a tree called 'The Garlic Tree' (I think was its name) that was massive and was hollow. I had a quick look inside, while the other much braver members of our group actually stood up inside the tree. After one of them saw a spider above their head I was rather pleased I had not ventured in. Some strange things in the Jungle.


Termite nests


The pineapple family


I had forgotten what tree looks like but there was a large tree we saw called a 'Lupuna' that if you sleep under you get nightmares. Or did I make that up?

Was an amazing walk ... next stop lunch then fishing for Pirana´s!

Peru - Twitching for parrots!

EARLY FRIDAY MORNING

I am not a morning person!


Well I am trying to smile and wake up in this picture. The colour of the sky, water and my t-shirt I thought looked good. I had just had a pretty scary night's sleep. Woke up in my bed with the white net around me and was not sure if I had been buried alive in a white marble coffin.

But alas was okay, I was only waking up in the dark at 5am in the Jungle! So couldn't have felt better!*

So with bats sleeping above me in the bathroom, no light except my torch which decided to not work (was a new torch as well) and a candle I managed to put some eyeliner on, clean my teeth and hoped that I would not find a spider down the toilet.

Kirsty had a good idea of putting our boots in a bag so no creepy crawlies could get in. So I unbaged my boots in the dark. Still hit them a few times upsidedown on the floor incase there were spiders that had managed to get in them during the night and headed at 5.30am to the main area to start our adventure.

* Not sure if my sarcasim is coming through stongly enough here?

By boat we went along the Imameari River to the lookout post to see parrots. And we saw loads...

Yellow-crowned parrots


Blue-headed parrots


Ohh and we saw a Capybara on the shore. Is a funny looking thing!

Capybara


Back to the lodge for breakfast and a shower. I had left my socks scrunched up on the floor in my room and had a fright as for a split second I thought they were spiders! (So glad they were´nt) I checked out the shower, no creep-crawlies. Water was working okay which was good. Was nice (coldish water, but not freezing) and as it was humid was refreshing. There were now 3 bats above me in the roof, but they looked asleep.

Peru - Night walk through the Amazon Jungle!

Putting the paint on to ward of evil spirits


So who´s scared of spiders, snakes and walking through the Jungle st night?

Me!!!!!!!!!

Hmmm ... do I feel less scared with my paint on?


We had only walked a few steps and our guide Daniel started hacking some brown seeds called Achiote from a tree. He opened them up and started applying the orange / brown juice to our faces. It is suppose to ward off the evil spirits in the Jungle. I asked for some paint on my arms aswell.

Right! I am not going last on this trek ... in Scobby Doo it is always the one who is last that gets kidnapped ... attacked by monsters etc.

So off we trek ... we saw ...

Spiders - yellow feet spider


This was just on a log as we walked past it ... this is a Tarantula ... body was about 2 fingers wide.

Trees that walk


Did you know?
'The Walking Tree' of the Amazon Jungle has the unusual ability to
'walk' on aerial roots, which serve as 'legs.' Inspired by a need for
more light, the tree lets roots on one side die off and grows new ones
in the direction it wants to go. In this manner, the Walking Tree
moves up to seven feet a year."

Heard killer black bees humming in their nest (black hornet shaped nest on the left)


Well Rowan did ... apparently they only attack during the day so we were safe.

Stick insects


It is the insect that looks like a stick on the leaf ... good?

Oh and did I mention spiders ... these are not your normal British spiders these were Tarantulas ...

Here is a video ....

Not for the screamish!



TIM, AMETHYST, GREGORY, JAKE, TABITHA and IZZY!
You should be very proud that your Aunty Karen survived a night walk in the Jungle seeing all kinds of creepy crawlies like Tarantulas!

Back safely to the Lodge for a rest in the hammock and a nice big dinner!


Oh and here is a pic of where we had our dinner ... the other guide Giancarlo did not mind finding snakes for us. This is a small Boa Constrictor. I nick named him 'loco' which means crazy in Spanish! There were bats and a really big Tarantulas up in the eves of the roof!

Giancarlo holding a snake


Hmmm ... so it takes me all of 3mins to walk along the wooden path to my room from the eating area / bar so how lomg would it take a snake ... or a Tarantulas ... or a bat to get to my room!

To say I was a tad scared of sleeping by myself in my white cotton sheeted net over me head was a true understatement!

It really is times like this that I wish I had a man to tell me that all will be okay and if a Tarantula decided to creep in my bed he would be there to save me or to at least run away down the corridor with me and alert someone to help! :-(

Hmmm ... wonder what is in store tomorrow? (That´s if I survive the night!)

Peru - The Amazon Jungle! Tambopata National Park

The amazon!


In our boat!


The climates within Peru are so diverse! Have been to the coast the mountains and we are now on our way to the jungle! It is going to be hot and humid! And I will be using the 'LifeSystems Expedition 50 mossy spray' for the first time! It is strong stuff! Has 50% DEET (diethyl-meta-toluamide) which should stop the mosquitos biting me. My blood is sweet so I normally get biten. It is that strong that it melted my star guide plastic cover and I have to keep it in 3 bags. The paint on the metal canister has all disolved and you don´t want to use it for along period of time!

We caught an early flight from Cusco to Puerto Maldonado a large town (picked up supplies ... water ... batteries ... torches ... chocolate), then jumped on a bus and a boat to our Jungle Lodge in the Tambopata National Park in the Madre de Dios area near the border with Brazil.

Stopping in the market for Brazil Nut sweets


Did you know?
Brazil nuts grow in a round brown shell similar size to a coconut! I never knew that! We bought some Brazil Nuts sweets which were very tasty!

Treking to our lodge ...


We jumped off the boat and walked through dense jungle to our lodge. The trees were big!

The chilling area ...


The corridor ...


Interesting skulls...


The lodge is great! Humid and basic! I mentioned before that there were 3 single girls on the trek, Kirsty, Sophie and myself. Kirsty and Sophie had meet on the day before the Peru trek started and bonded so they paired up in the twin rooms for most of the trip leaving me a room to myself!

The eco-friendly lodge is wooden, has no electric lights, and we have to use candles, kerosene lamps and torches to see by!

My bedroom ...


Hmmm ... now I checked out my room ... well it is a group of rooms sharing the same roof and only have curtains as doors. So noise carries, and really you are not exactly alone. I was next to Jani and Rowan so if I needed any help could call through or over the wall. The bathroom was dark, had a nice shower but a bat did fly out as I opened the door! I really don´t like bats but lets hope it has gone for the evening.

I looked up and saw a firefly, was really magical as it flew above me! I had seen loads in Thailand a few years ago and they are great! Then at chest level a black, rather large bug thing started flying towards me. It was not nice! it had 2 bright red or maybe green bright eyes and looked horrible. So I ran out to check out the rest of the lodge.

On mentioning I had a bat in my bathroom to Rowan he said he had three so I did not feel that bad until he smiled and said he was only joking. We both had a repoire of very silly jokes and sometimes we would fool each other into believeing the silly thing we had said ... well for at least a few minutes.

After chilling for a while and having a swing in the hammocks we were off on a night walk through the jungle ... :-)

Peru - Celebrating in Cusco!

Celebrating in Cusco with a nice pudding!


Celebrating in Cusco!


Celebrating in Cusco!


The train and bus journey from Machu Picchu back to Cusco was amazing but I was still on cloud nine and was really looking forward to a glass of Champagne after a hot shower to celebrate completing the 3 day Lares trek and climbing Waynapicchu.
Rowan and Jani got engaged at the top of Machu Picchu so we were triple celebrating!

We went to a funky resturant the fallen angel and had great food! They did not have champagne so we had very sweet cocktails instead! And great chocolate strawberry desert for pudding!

WEDNESDAY

We had a free day to shop in Cusco, chill, see a few sites and relax. The others tried Guinea Pig but I really could not eat a Guinea Pig as I used to have one as a pet. Also my neice Amethyst would not approve as she has a pet rabbit. They are a delicacy in Peru but I stuck to my steak!

I had my cut and hair coloured in Cusco. After a good few weeks being on holiday it needed a cut and the white bits coloured. Not as many white bits as I thourght. Cecilia our guide is from Cusco so we went to her hairdressers. Was not sure whether to go red, a darker brown or copper. Ended up chosing a redish colour than I usually have and it turned out all okay which was a bit of a relief! :-)

Anyone for Guinea Pig?


Next stop an early start to the jungle.

When you travel on long bus journeys there is time to think about things. I was going to try and practice some Spanish as my Spanish is still very basic. But looked more at the views, slept and chatted.

So I am on this great trip with lovely people. But at the end of the day I am still alone. I have not found that special man that I want to marry and settle down with and have children. I hope I do this year as am getting on a bit. If you know anyone that you think would be good for me, then I am open for dates when I get back sometime in November. :-) x