We finally boarded our rescheduled flight to Puerto Maldonado and landed in the jungle at 8.45am with much excitement. We were met by our guide Lucho and transferred by tuk tuk to their office down the road where we were informed we needed to wait for the other guests who would be arriving in 4hrs. We were aware that only one boat transferred out to the lodge per day but there had been a little hope as we were arriving so early and had already missed a night they would make a plan but this was not to be. Off to the little town we went where we were given a short tour - there's not much to Puerto Maldonado - and then deposited at a restaurant. The next guests arrived at 11.35am and Lucho tried to get a transfer sorted as the outstanding guests flight had now been delayed. But this was not to be. Eventually at about 2pm we were informed they had arranged a boat transfer and we headed to the little port. En route the mini bus picked up a woman and her child who proceeded to throw up making the minibus reek and setting off my motion sickness. Luckily I now permanently keep some Kwells in my day pack. I'm not sure if my motion sickness is getting worse or it's the South American driving that's bringing it on.
We arrived at the little port only to be told that we had missed the transfer boat by 5 minutes and would now be waiting for the other delayed guests.
At 4pm we were told their flight had been delayed again and we couldn't wait anymore so off we set at the same time as another boat which had a guide and two guests. I mention this as a out 10mins into the boat transfer the other boat started waving at us so we slowed down, and they transferred their guide and guests into our boat. Turns out this is the neighbouring lodge and they also have guests on the delayed flight and thought it would make sense for one boat to take all of us up to the lodges and the other boat to wait for the delayed guests. Now this did make sense and surely it made sense at 11.30am when the rest of us arrived and the remaining guests flight was delayed. I have now realised there is Africa Time, there is Peruvian Time and then there is Amazon Logistics.
The boat ride was great, speeding up the river and heading into the jungle. We arrived at Explorer's Inn where the accommodation was better than we had expected, and the jungle was hot and sweaty. So humid and I'm from Durban! The local macaw even flew over to greet us.
It's very rustic with no electricity or hot water and there is a charging hour before dinner every night when they run the generator for cooking and you can get your camera battery charged. It's also the first place in South America we've been with no mobile service or wifi which was great, it all felt very remote.
The first night was quite something with the jungle symphony. The birds until sunset and then the insects take over after dark. We had dinner and climbed into bed to read by candlelight and head torches - also having to check the room for creepy crawlies with the limited light!
The next morning we awoke with the dawn chorus - the sounds of the jungle are incredible. After breakfast we set off for a night of camping in the jungle, also realising exactly what we had signed up for with it being wet season. Joining us was a Peruvian couple from Lima, Manuel and Elizabeth.
A 4hr boat ride up the Tambopata river with some great capybara spots (I am in love with these large rodents, they are adorable!), lots of birds of prey, squirrel monkeys and a great howler monkey sighting and we arrived at the camp site only to discover the massive rains that had cancelled our flight has also taken out the island entrance to our camp. Lucho and the boat driver come cook landed the boat on what was left of the beach and proceeded to dig out a staircase from the mud bank so that we could enter the camp. We were given a Tupperware box each containing lunch. Cold piece of need left over from the night before an cold rice. We were quickly realising food is not the Amazon's forte.
Tents were pitched and the heavens opened. We waited out the rain before a quick trip to the clay lick to see some macaws and then headed to another island to go for a late afternoon walk. We headed on to the island only to realise it was flooded and Wassie's gumboot had a big hole. But the hole was not that much of a problem as soon the water level was past our knees anyway!
We carried on walking until Lucho started getting nervous. Elizabeth was the keenest to keep going, Manuel informed us she couldn't swim!
We returned to the campsite for dinner where Lucho heated up some, you guessed it, beef and rice informing us the boat driver/cook had gone on strike. Wassie and I surmised a number of reasons for this. The top two being that Lucho had bought his English conservation student girlfriend Jo on the trip and now cook/driver didn't get a tent and had to sleep in the boat or secondly, the campsite was left in mess by whoever had last used it and he had been tasked to clean it.
We shared a bottle of wine between the six of us after dinner an then headed in for an early night as we had to be up before sunrise to see the macaws.
We were up and ready early, with Was and I having got a fairly good nights sleep for being in the amazon jungle in rainy season. Our tent had leaked a little but it seemed our clothes had absorbed this and since they were already damp and probably shortly to be wet again we decided this was not much of a problem an just put them back on. Nothing dries in the amazon anyway as it is so humid. We discovered four exhausted camp mates whose tents had also leaked but there bedding had got wet and they had had a wet night with not much sleep.
We headed off in the boat to see the macaws feeding on the clay lick was an amazing site. There are hundreds of macaws in the trees above the clay licks and they make a beautiful racket! A few will intermittently come down to the clay lick to peck at it absorbing minerals. We were hidden under a tree watching them and when they would fly together it was incredible! Definitely a highlight from the amazon!
