Cuyabeno. Part 1/3

Our Amazon trip was absolutely incredible; it completely lived up to all my expectations. I won't be able to describe how beautiful/exciting/surreal it was, but I'm going to give it a go - hopefully my photos will do most of the work.

The trip to Guacamayo lodge takes eight hours in a coach, two hours in a mini bus then two hours in a motorised canoe to the lodge. The bus trips are as uncomfortable, bumpy and noisy as usual, but the boat was more than just transport from A to B.

As we get into the canoe it starts to pour with rain... tropical rain with droplets the size of coins (and hurt about as much if coins were to fall from the sky). We're handed huge ponchos which as more effective than any waterproof I've ever owned. As quickly as it started the downfall stops and I get a chance to look at the passing scenery - huge trees with roots stretching into the water, hanging weaver bird nests, blue butterflies the size of saucers, squirrel monkeys leaping across the river and even a baby anaconda.

Above: Weaver bird nests

Above: Baby anaconda

At the lodge we are shown our room - a little hut with mosquito nets over the beds, a porch with a hammock and a bathroom with walls only up to neck height, so I could look at the jungle while I showered in boiling hot solar water. Its the best shower I've had in months.

Above: Shower window

The lodge had been sold to us as basic, but to me its perfect. Every afternoon I have a siesta in one of the many hammocks and at night I fall asleep to the sounds of the jungle. We get three meals a day - huge breakfasts with fresh fruit, eggs and pancakes - and three courses for lunch and dinner. There was always at least one tarantula in the dining room. 

In the mornings I get up at 6:00 to go up the bird tower where our guide Jairo (pronounced 'Hiro') spots toucans, vultures and parrots. When I'm not sleeping, eating or bird watching we go on jungle walks and boat trips.

Above: Some of the waterways our boat has to navigate

We were incredibly lucky to have such a good guide. Jairo speaks perfect English and endless knowledge about the jungle and its inhabitants - explains all about adaptation, symbiosis and the diets, habitats and behaviors of all the animals we spot.

Above: Emerald tree frog

Above: Squirel monkey and baby

One afternoon during our siesta he comes running to tell us that another group has spotted a huge, seven meter long anaconda. Even though its his break time he takes us out on the boat to have a look at it - "Quick, to the boat, just grab your cameras.... QUICK". As excited as we are, he is even more so. Of all the beautiful animals in the rainforest anacondas are his favourite and I have to admit that this one is just that - beautiful.

Jairo manages to spot wildlife from miles off. Many of our exchanges involve a lot of:

- "Look look a sloth!"

- "Ooh where where!?"

- "There, in the tree"

- “Where? I can't see it!"

- "In the tree, right in front of you.... that sloth shaped thing!"

- "Oh yes I see it!"

- "Really?"

- "…No"

Above: The eventually spotted two toed sloth

Due to the amount of water in the park boat is by far the best way to see wildlife. Every evening our group goes on a boat ride to look for nocturnal creatures. As the sun starts to set (and they're the best sunsets I've ever seen) we head to the mangrove surrounded lagoon to swim..... and then go looking for caiman.

Jairo assures us that the caiman don't come into the middle of the lake where we are swimming, but I still wait for everyone else to jump I first, just to reduce the odds of a caiman eating me. 

Above: A baby caiman... still big enough to nibble a toe I think

Once I've mastered clambering back into the canoe I leap into the refreshing waters over and over again, not quite able to believe where I am. To be swimming in the peaty water, the sun setting in the back ground, surrounded by jungle, with parrots flying overhead and the odd pink river dolphin is completely surreal and something I wouldn't dream of skipping - even if there are a few caiman, piranhas and leeches in the water.

Andes to Amazon

Having conqured Machu Picchu and aware that we're rapidly running out of time Alex and I are eager to get started on our next excursion - the Amazon rainforest. This has been on my bucket list for longer than Machu Picchu has - an absolute must do, my entire reason for wanting to come to South America. We have several options as the rainforest stretches across nine countries in total.

After lots of research we settle on Cuyabeno National Park in Ecuador for the quality of wildlife and excellent prices... then we learn that several tourists have been kidnapped by Colombian gurillas in previous years. Then we learn that the Peruvian rainforest is only by plane or boat (Iquitos is the largest city in the world with no road access), thus spending more time and money. As we have to be in the capital, Quito, in ten days time for a flight to Colombia, we opt for Ecuador but decide to visit Yasuni National Park - away from the troublesome border.

With a decision made Alex and I still have to work out how to get there. We're still fairly far south and flights within South America are very expensive. I have met travellers who have found it cheaper to fly to Mexico, the States or even Canada and then back rathet than get a direct flight between two South American countries. It takes us six days to get to Quito from Cusco, alternating between a night on a bus and a night hostels along the way. The best of these stops is in Huacachina, an oasis town surrounded by miles and miles of rolling, golden sand dunes. Alex and I celebrate an evening not being on a bus with a dune buggy ride more vomit inducing than any roller coaster.

Above: Dune buggy/ death trap

Above: Huacahina

Above: Huacachina as featued on the fifty soles note

With seven days left before out flight and five days wanted in the jungle, Alex and I head straight to a travel agents upon arriving in Quito. Despite our reluctance to get kidnapped it turns out that Cuyabeno National Park offers better prices, more wildlife and more water. Our travel agent seems slightly cofused that we should be concerned - 'I wouldn't send you there of it was dangerous', 'I've sending tourists there for years and never had any problems' etcetera etcetera. Only slightly convinced but aware that I'm probably being overly paranoid I push my concerns aside, unable to ignore the poster of the beautiul jungle lodge in front of me and the chance to be there tomorrow. At least getting kidnapped would fulfill my dream to live in the Amazon and practice my newly researched hostage negotiation skills.

Above: Most recent picture... just incase

Machu Picchu!

A 4:00 start, 1870 steps up and patiently waiting in line with hundreds of other tourists and I finally get to Machu Picchu. I've wanted to come here ever since I read 'The Incredible Incas' at the age of eight. I'm surpised to find out that I'm more impressed by the loction of the ruins than the ruins themselves - they look like a natual part of the landscape, as though they have grown out of the mountain. The ruins are also, of course, amazing.

Wedged between Machu Picchu (old mountain) and Wayna Picchu (young mountain), no one actually knows the original name of the ruins themselves, nor their purpose or function. Thought to have been abandoned when the Spanish invaded, local people kept the city's existence a secret until it was 'discovered' by American historian Hiram Bingham whilst looking for the 'last city of the Incas'. He thought he had found it when a local boy took him to the ruins, although it was later discoved that Vilcabama, in what is now Ecuador, was the Inca's last stronghold against the Spanish.

Above: Wayna Picchu

Some historians claim that the city was a holiday destination or an attempt to showcase and preserve Incan culture. Our guide Abi subscribes to the theory that it was a religious center - based on its location, the high quality of stone work and ornamentation and the number of temples within the city , particularly the Temple of the Condor.

Above: Amazing stonework 

In the Incan belief system Pacha Mamma, Mother Earth, is divided into three levels, each represented by an animal. The condor represents the sky, the upper level of the gods. The puma represents the middle level of humans and the snake represents the underworld. It is thought that the reason for Machu Picchu's spectacular, if precarious, location is in order to be as close to the sky as possible.

Above: Sacrifice table in the Temple of the Condor

Abi dispels lots of myths surrounding Machu Picchu - for example when it was 'discovered' and by whom. She shows us a date and two names carved on a rock which were altered by Hiram Bingham when he realised that people had been there before him but after the Incas. Although revered by archaeologists and historians, Peruvians see Hiram Bingham as another invader of their land, history and treasures. Thousands of relics were taken from Machu Picchu to American museums as a 'loan' and have yet to be returned. The first Machu Picchu guide, the local boy who took Bigham to the site, was paid just one Soles.

Lots of other mistakes were made by the first people to study Machu Picchu, who had little knowledge of Incan history. The Sun Temple was mistaken for a royal tomb, despite the fact that no human remains were ever found there and the perfect alignment of the sun through its windows during the solstice. What was originally recorded as a sun dial is actually connected to the passing of the seasons, not a day.

Above: 'Sundial'

After our tour with Abi we are free to explore the site ourselves. I had originally planned to climb to the Sun Gate, the main entrance to the city, with views over the whole of Machu Picchu. As soon as I set off mist comes rolling in from the valley and completely obscuring the ruins for minutes at a time, before blowing away again.

Not willing to trek for another hour to look at fog (I can do that in England) I walk to the Inca bridge. The narrow path hugs the sheer cliff face before arriving at an equally narrow wooden bridge. Although not made of the carefully cut stones as the rest of the city, the path is an equally incredible piece of engineering.

As the day wears on late comers fill the site, making exploring feel less and less like exploring so, having spent a good five hours there our group begins the climb down to Aguas Calientes in time for lunch and our train back to Cusco.

Jungle Trek. Day 3

On the morning of day three our group, and several other groups with different companies, go zip lining in the valley leading up to Machu Picchu. Althoug I'm excited, I'm more excited that it is already day three and I'm going to Machu Picchu tommorrow! The whole operation is very professional and it seeems to be the bigest and busiest business in the small town. There is good equiptment and clear information from the instructors, all of whom speak really good English - my Spanish is getting a bit better, but not that much!

We will be going on five zip lines including the longest and the fastest in South America. The only bit I don't like is that we have to put our hand on the wire (behind the running block) to slow down. Even with heavy gloves on this seems stupid. The zip lines go back and forth across the valley and there are even opportunities to hang upside down in our harnesses. Despite the number of people we are all processed fairly quickly, and it takes just an hour and a half to make the five crossings over the river which, when suspended from a wire, seems very far down.

Another two course lunch - avacados and spag nol - then we begin the final trek to Aguas Calientes, the town at the base of Machu Picchu. The walk is beautiful. It goes all along the train tracks, and I don't even envy the people passing in the airc conditioned 'Peru Rail' carriages. Every now and then we get a glimpse of Machu Picchu high above us. However, other than a few buildjng shapes, there is little hint as to the amazing ruins above us.

Three hours later we arrive in Aguas Calientes, a town that exists solely as a base for visiting the ruins. The town in hemmed in by the fast flowing river on one side and mountians on the other - the train tracks running right through the middle. For those who are walking instead of catching the bus tomorrow morning (i.e. me) its a 4:00 start in the morning. 'Luckily' (I tell myself) there is no hot water in our hostel, so I don't have to waste any valuable sleeping time on showering - which would be pointless anyway as tomorrow I will be climbing 1870 or so steps to the ruins.