Jungle

I went to the Jungle in southern Peru. Took an 18 hour bus ride on an unpaved mountian road to get from Cuzco to Puerto Maldonado. Really did kind of feel like being in the middle of nowhere. The town was dusty and full of motorbikes and surrounded by cleared out jungle. Timber and gold and cattle support the population. We spent a day recuperating from the bus ride and arranged for a 3 day trek into the jungle.

A fair bit of the sightseeing was by means of a boat tour around an oxbow lake. Saw lots of birds, a few different types of monkey, some caiman, turtles, fish, etc.


We also went on a bunch of walks through the jungle. It was secondary growth jungle, so not quite as overwhelmingly jungly as I had imagined, but still very cool. Saw more monkeys, a macaw palm lick (see photo below) big trees, learned about different medicinal plants, ate some brazil nuts, and saw a tarantula on a night hike. Tarantulas are really big. Also howler monkeys are really loud. Then we took the same 18 hour bus ride back to Cuzco.