Late updates - The Jungle

It´s been a while, but now I´m ready with more udpates!

The last thing I told you about, was our trip to Machu Picchu. A funny and very surprising thing happened that afternoon on the train (or was it a bus, Gav..?) on our way from Aguas Calientes back to Ollantaytambo. After we had our very delicious sandwiches, traditional music began playing on the speakers, and suddenly a man was dancing down the aisle. He was wearing a white mask (like the ones I told you about; those who are a joke of the Spanish conquistadors) and traditional clothing and had a lama-doll that he was dancing with.. It was VERY strange..!

<--LOOK!!

After that, the steward and stewardess transformed into super models, and did a fashion show with different alpaca-woll clothing that we could buy... Also VERY strange!

When we got to Ollantaytambo, we went on our GAP-minibus, and on our way back to Cusco, we stopped at a local brewery to taste the local cornbeer and play a peruvian beer-game. The beer tastes like... well.. corn.. The corn/strawberry-beer was good, a bit strawberry daiquiri-like, but not so sweet.

Lasse shows us how to play the beer-game. You have to get your gold-coins into the frog's mouth - it is VERY difficult!

That night, we all went out for our last dinner together. It felt a bit strange that not everybody were going to the jungle.
On the 10th, we had a "day off" in Cusco, but Lasse and I couldn´t get enough of wild experiences, so we went river rafting on a river 1 1/2 hours away from Cusco. I have never tried river rafting before, but fortunately, it had rained just a couple of days before, so the river was high (otherwise, it would have been lower and more calm)! After some safety-instructions, we got into the 6-pers. boat, and apparently went rafting for 2 hours - it felt like 20 min.s! It was SO much fun! We passed some level 3 and 3,5, but also 4 and 4+, the instructor said! (I have no clue what that means, but maybe some of you guys do? I only know that I liked the 4+ the most:-D)

We were on a boat with 4 israeli guys, who had tried a bit of river rafting before, but we were all almost beginners. So the syncronic rowing didn´t go too well, but it was still fun! And you couldn´t see anything anyway when the waves were high:-)

THE JUNGLE

On the 11th, we went to the jungle!! After 1 1/2 hours on the plane, we (Dan, Lisa, Gav, Lasse and I) landed in Puerto Maldonado in the region of Madre de Dios (in case you want to look it up on a map). After that and a short busride, we went on a small boat and sailed up the river for 3 hours. They gave us lunch, which was some sort of rice dish and the plate was a leaf, so we could throw it in the river when we had finished.

Around 3:30 pm, we arrived to the lodge and had a short breafing about the facilities. Basically, the rooms were very "eau naturale", that is, there were no windows, ceiling or doors. Just nearly see-through walls and 1/2 a wall to one side, so we had the trees almost INSIDE the room. We had curtains for doors and bats in the very high ceiling.

Around 4 pm, we went on our first guided tour in the jungle. It was VERY hot and VERY humid (around 80-100%!!), so we were all sweating a lot all the time (seriously, ALL the time! Even when we didn´t move at all..). We saw bullet ants (gigantic ants that are very dangerous. They are black, 2-3 cm.s long and if they bite you, you will get very sick with a fever) and the most exciting thing was seeing (and hearing!) red howling monkeys (paa dansk: broeleaber)! There was apparently 2 groups, and they started "fighting" = howling! It basically sounds like a very loud and very long burp! And we were just underneath them! That was impressing! They kept going for a long time (I would say around 15-20 minutes), so we went on. But we could hear them far away!

We also saw wild turkeys on our way to a 38 meters high watch tower. We went up there and had a great view of the jungle from higher than the trees! In the horisont we saw the sun setting and big clouds. You could see an area with rain, then sun, and then again heavy rain. It was beatiful!

When we got back to the lodge, Gav, Lasse and I relaxed in the hammocks with a cold beer before dinner - great! When I went to have a shower at around 21:30 pm all of the oil lamps were out, so our only light was 2 candles and the flash lights that Gav had lend to us. When I went to the bathroom, I first heard a flickering noise and was a bit scared - you never know if it´s just a bug or a bigger animal.. It was nothing, but when I came out of the (COLD - we only had cold water, but that was actually nice in the hot jungle) shower and was getting ready for bed, I turned around and on the curtain "door" I saw a BIG, black spider..!:-S I am, to be honest, not fond of spiders, and especially not the big ones that have hair between their front teeth!!! I panicked and jumped to the toilet as I screamed for Lasse to come and help me. He calmly said "yeah yeah, relax, what's going on?", but when he saw it, he said that HE was not grabbing that! So I prepared to spend the night at the bathroom, ´cus I was NOT touching that spider either, and it was just not moving! Which, come to think of it, would have been worse... Because the you wouldn't know where it went, and you couldn't see anything in the dark... Well, Gav, who was staying in the room next door heard us and came over to the rescue (luckily, he loves spiders). He took it, so I could finally leave the toilet and go to bed - only to find a cricket INSIDE the mosquitonet...! I didn´t sleep well that night - I don't mind watching animals and bugs, but I DON'T like sharing room and bed with them...!

(It was bigger in real life than it looks in the picture - I promise you!!)

The next day (thursday the 12th) we were up at 4 am for breakfast, and around 5:15am we ent on a short boat ride to get to a lake (Cocha Tres Chimbadas, which means "3 jumps", apparently because the locals say that you can cross the lake with 3 jumps when the waters are low). There, we saw many different birds, a family of 5 otters and we fished for piranhas (paa dansk: piratfisk)! We had beef as baid, and they are some cheeky little bastards - they are very fast, and they got a LOT of meat from us. I only caught 1, but it got away before I got it on the boat..:-(

(I had to borrow that one for the picture....)
The otter family

After that, we went on a trip to see birds. ON our way to the bird-watching spot, we saw different little monkeys - we saw cappuchino monkeys and (I think) squirrel monkeys. They were curious, and it was funny to see how we watched them, but they indeed also watched us. When we reached the bird-watching spot, we saw 2 red/yellow and green (or blue, I don't remember) macaws (en slags papegoeje). But we had to be completely quiet, or they would be scared and leave. After a while, somebody must have made a sound, because we saw around 10 macaws flying away across the river - that was beautiful!
We also had to lift a tree off of Gav's foot......... ;-)
After that, we went back for lunch (which was delicious! All of the meals at the lodge were very delicious!) and after that we relaxed for a coulpe of hours with a game of cards. We also played domino with a nice peruvian around 8-year old boy who was on vacation, and was bored.

At 3:30 pm we went to see a medicinal garden. The shaman wasn't there, so we got a guided tour by his assistant and our 3 guides. There were so many different plants, with different purposes. One of them was good against cancer and kidney problems, and actually, a German company took the patent for the genetic composure and is now selling nature medicin. The garden was also a sort of "hospital" for the locals who don't have money to go to a "real" doctor. We tried different things: we squeezed a moist leaf and got a red/purple colour out of it. We chewed a small stick that made your mouth and tounge numb (good if you are going to the dentist!) and smelled some leaves that could be used to seduce someone. After the tour around the garden, we tasted some of the "elixirs" that they make: a sort of natural "Red Bull" for energy, the one against cancer and a natural "Viagra".

After dinner that night we went for a guided "night trip" around the jungle, to see it with no light. We didn't see a lot of animals, to be honest, but when we turned off the flash lights and stood still to listen, the sounds were overwhemling, and you realize that the majority of the animals are active during the night.

It was very exciting to see the jungle! It is definitely an experience to have seen animals in their natural habitat, and to see how the symbiosis of the jungle works. You also realize that it is very fragile, and it's a good thing that some people look after the nature.