Last day on the river
Topic: Peru
Breakfast was unusually leisurely. Cristian, the cooker, proudly brought out a panetone, a kind of fruit bread that they have around Christmastime. It was horribly dry but we ate it so we didn't upset him. It was ok with drinking yogurt poured over it.

Nicolas, ever the optimist, told us that despite last night's thunder and rain storm, the river levels were low and we might have to pull the boat during part of the day's trip.

After breakfast, everyone came into our room to see the monster from the pits of hell which sat next to David's bed. Mark said it was like a land-langostine. It even beat the six cockroaches that they had in their tent the previous night. After the freak show, we motored off for the final river section, much slower than usual, up river. It was a cool, hazy day which we were all grateful for. We never even had to pull the boat.

Lunch was watery potatoes covered with bland yellow sauce eaten on the move. Cris was back to his previous standards. I looked back at one point during the afternoon as the cooker and the two boat guys had a water fight. This turned into a food fight. They were having great fun. I remember laughing at a pair of pants hanging from the ceiling drying, splattered with yellow peanut sauce.

We reached the end of our boat journey and after forming a human chain to empty the boat, we said goodbye to the lads and hello to our driver proudly polishing the new truck. We drove for a short while and then were dropped off to walk the remaining hour. The locals going past in the back of trucks (local transport) thought we were mad to be walking in such heat and they'd be right. I'm not sure we were even consulted. Nicolas did his usual. "Get out". "Walk". Then stomped on ahead of us. Finally we arrived at the town of Pilcopata and the lodge we had stayed at on the very first night. We remembered how primitive it had seemed at the time and how luxurious it seemed now - indoor bathrooms and electricity! We spent the next few hours chatting ad drinking cold beer. Very relaxing.

The jungle is wonderful, but....
Topic: Peru
The jungle really is wonderful, but there are a number of annoyances that I couldn't't wait to be rid of.

1. Mosquito bites. I had bites all over my ankles which wasn't helped by the wellies rubbing against them.

2. The outside showers where your newly washed flesh (free of deet) gets ravaged immediately. The wet floor means your stuff gets wet and the cold water makes you shriek.

3. Ditto outside toilets. You wouldn't believe where I got bites!

4. The fact that you are always covered in chemicals - sunblock and deet and then (a new thing and a godsend) after bite to stop the stinging!

5. The fact that your towel never dries properly.

6. Holding a torch and trying to find things in your backpack inside the tent especially when you are in a hurry and Nicolas is outside barking you us to "come on!"

7. Walking to the bathroom in the dark through the woods.

8. Having to use your clothes (clean or dirty) for a pillow

9. Always losing the torch/deet/socks/contact lense pot

10. Trying to take contact lenses in and out by torchlight while you are being bombarded by mozzies and the ledge is crawling with ants.

11. Being too hot and sticky to get inside the damp sleeping bag and not knowing who used them last!

12. Having to pack every morning in a hurry

13. The mud that gets everywhere

14. The deet that gets everywhere. It melts plastic, stinks and stings existing bites and flavours all your food.

Sounds like I had a horrible time doesn't it? I actually, I really enjoyed it but it was a very full on jungle experience and the only way you can appreciate it. Very few tourists visit this particular part and I'm glad as it means it is still very unspoiled.

Creepy Crawlies
Topic: Peru
We woke early to the eerie sounds of the howler monkeys. We showered in the dark which has its advantages: you can't see what monsters lurk in the corners (it's all open to the jungle).

Everyone was lively at breakfast. Mark and Ann found a Blair Witch like voodoo construction outside their tent - a stick with twigs tied around one end. What could this mean? It wasn't there the previous day.

We compared ankle bites. The cunning critters are biting through socks and trousers!

We spent the morning powering back by boat to Boca Manu, Fitzcarald (yes, like the film): to semi-civilisation and the airstrip where we would leave Nora and Alejandro. Alejandro is a mystery man from the jungle. He was introduced to us in Cusco simply as "an engineer coming to examine the campsites and lodges" but we generated alternative theories about his identity during the trip. What was funny was that we left Katherine to find her own way to the airstrip but we delivered Nora and Alejandro and even put them on the plane!

The airstrip was very amusing. We moored the boat and walked through the woods, past a house with washing out to a grass clearing with a basic shelter. Two men were mowing the grass with hand mowers. Mark and Ann told us that they had been doing the same thing when they had arrived. The shelter (4 poles and thatched roof) was in fact the terminal building, waiting room, check in desk and control tower. There was a weighing scales which weighed the baggage AND the passengers. A wheel barrow was available to take the bags to the plane. A military plane landed and people got off, including a charismatic gringo who knew Alejandro. We added further conspiracy theories to our growing plot. There is a novel in there somewhere. And a film. The trailer voice over would start: "A secret airstrip in the heart of the Amazon rain forest".

After putting Nora and Alejandro on the plane, the rest of us went back to Boca Manu for a lunch of rice and beans. A scabby, skinny dog patiently waited for leftovers, probably the best meal he had had in months. Well fed children pestered us with requests for coke and sweets. One boy said to me "Gringa, comprame gaseosa". I told him it would rot his teeth. He glared at me. I glared back. He knew I had won.

Before leaving, I went to the loo - it was a corner of the room behind blue plastic sheeting. To my surprise there was a real toilet (and a real bucket to flush it with brown river water).

After 3 more hours of boat travel (the reason why I have such a complete diary for this section!) we arrived at the lodge. We were very excited. It was beautiful - all wooden walkways nestled in tropical jungle. Clean towels and our own bathroom - luxury indeed! There were fewer mozzies but the candle light revealed the most enormous flying cockroaches up in the rafters. I hoped the flimsy mosquito net would keep them out.

After a brief rest, we put or wellies and went on a walk through the sludge to spot tapirs. I still don't actually know what a tapir is! Nicolas was in a foul mood. We think we was missing Nora. He stormed on ahead and shouted instructions back at us. It was really mucky, hot and sticky. The ground that wasn't flooded was covered with fungi, damp leaves and frogs. David kept walking into giant spider webs. We thought Shelob would get him. After about an hour, we reached a lookout tower and were told to sit still not moving or talking or looking out in an attempt to spot tapirs. No looking. No standing. No moving. No photographs. No talking. No breathing. Poor Vaila sneezed and received a dirty look from Nicolas. We sat there for about an hours and a half as it turned dark listening to the symphony of noises of birds and insects from the forest. We have serious doubts of the existence of tapirs. Nicolas had never even seen one! We walked back by torch light which was scary and exciting. I slipped in the sludge at one point and almost went in. I wonder how many creatures perished under 6 pairs of welly boots that night.

We could't wait to shower as we were hot, sticky and absolutely dripping. I loved taking a shower that I didn't share with 200 mosquitoes!

We had bought a bottle of warm Chilean wine in Boca Manu and we had it in out steel beakers to accompany the rubber chicken. Only Vaila would eat it (as a challenge) as she prides herself o being able to eat anything. She's not kidding. It would have been easier to eat rubber ball. We were laughing until we cried as we speculated as to the origin of the chicken. Even the "cooker" was laughing at it.

Monkey business
Topic: Peru
We were up early in order to get to the ox-bow lake and claim the floating platform by 8am. The sun beat down ye we spent a pleasant 3 hours drifting slowly around the lake spotting birds and animals - including the endangered giant otter, bats, turtles and a black caiman.

On the walk back we looked for woolly monkeys. When we found some, Nicolas decided to provoke them by shaking trees so that they would get angry and throw stuff down on us. I asked him to stop. He must have thought I was a right misery guts. I told him that we were there just to observe nature not interfere. A biologist should be giving us that speech not the other way around.

Deepest Darkest Peru
Topic: Peru
Ann, Mark and Vaila completed our party on Friday night, but on Saturday morning we had to say goodbye to Katherine. She was going to be taken to Boca Manu airport by another group and so we got in our boat to head down river towards the reserve zone. We had chosen this agency because they are among the few ones which have permits to visit the zone where there are no towns, just virgin rain forest. We had to stop to check in at the ranger's station and once inside the area, we really noticed a difference. We saw numerous white caiman (like a crocodile), turtles and different exotic birds much closer than before. There are sandy beaches on the river banks caused from natural erosion on the other side of the bank - sand deposits on the other bank. It's not unusual to see huge trees falling into the river. Men in Boca Manu collect them and make them into boats.

The weather was perfect - warm and dry, and after a few hours of pleasant travel on the river - moving air and no insects - we arrived at our campsite nestled deep in the forest.

We went on a walk to an ox-bow lake and up to a lookout post. We saw all sorts of horrors on the way. Nicolas thought it was really funny to pretend to throw critters at me. Not funny. Not even slightly. I told him so and he laughed and fake-threw a millipede at me. At least he didn't go near the Caterpillar pile. It's what caterpillars do for protection so that they look like a larger animal and deter birds from eating them. They make a pile of about 200 caterpillars and move together as one organism. Fascinating but disgusting.

Nicolas had just got a new camera and thought it a good opportunity to disturb wildlife with the flash. The poor little tree frog was stunned. I don't think the leaf-cutter ants were too pleased at having a camera in their path either. Nicolas had just told us that we shouldn't touch anything in their path as it disturbs them!

From the lookout tower we were able to see some lovely hoitsin birds up close. In the rafters of the tower was a sleeping boa constrictor. Of course, our fearless guide wanted to wake him up (to impress Nora no doubt who had taken a real shine to him). We talked him out of it.

We were in very full-on jungle. It was dense, green and smelled of rotting fruit and leaves. There was fungi everywhere, thousands of mosquitoes, beautiful butterflies in all shades and other unidentifiable flying critters. On the ground there were ant colonies, frog eggs surrounded by poisonous foam, unidentified gooey stuff, trees wrapped around tress wrapped around trees, vines and bright tropical flowers. There is of course the background sound of cicadas, howler monkeys, alien calls of exotic birds and idiotic whistles of infantile guide.

There was a strange ritual of tea at 6 followed by dinner at 7. We eat stale bread and sauco (funny berry) jam with cinnamon and clove tea. Then we have a delicious home made soup and 2 more courses. The "Cooker" (sic) really got his act together finally.

Macaw clay lick
The 5 o'clock starts were becoming the norm but fiddling around in a tent in the dark is no fun. We had no breakfast and had to be ready to leave by 5.30 in order to catch the parrots who visit the clay lick early each morning.

It was slinging it down with rain (it is a rain forest after all) and after taking the boat down river for a bit, we trudged through the mud and lashing rain for 20 minutes carrying our breakfast in tupperwares and flasks until we reached the lookout hut. Nicolas told us that we wouldn't see anything as it was raining so hard we settled down to breakfast and a lot of waiting around. It was warm and dry inside and I had brought a Thomas Hardy novel with me so I didn't mind too much. I was lost in Wessex and would occasionally look up and remember where I really was!

After 4 hours (really, I am not making this up), the rain eased and stopped and a flock of about 40 colourful macaws descended to feed on nutrients from the clay wall. It was really amazing to see them. They made loads of noise as if they were fighting, and stayed for almost an hour. We watched with fascination and couldn't leave until they did as we would frighten them.

After the parrot show, it was back to the boat and an hour trip to the lodge we were staying at. It was again, very basic but really beautifully situated. The weather really brightened up and we spent the afternoon on the wooden balcony drinking warm beer, reading and watching the wildlife all around us.

The last three people in our party, Vaila, Ann and Mark, arrived later that day. They had (perhaps sensibly) decided to fly in. Their arrival marked a sudden change in the food. The quality improved enormously and we even started to get puddings! We wondered which of them was from head office or writing for a travel magazine.

Rain forest, day 2
Topic: Peru
I felt a lot better and was able to start eating solids again. The transport on day 2 was by boat as there were no more roads. The boat was long with comfortable seats and a roof. When it rained, we covered ourselves with plastic sheets. We motored down the chocolate coloured river for most of the day with a few stops for walks to spot birds, monkeys and plants. It was mozzie hell. After just 10 minutes of the second hike, I could hear David going SLAP-OUCH all the time. I looked round to find him with a fat lip and a face that looked like bubble-wrap. Yes, he had been bitten to pieces. We borrowed some of Katherine's killer deet which seemed to do the trick.

Nicolas thinks he can talk to the animals. He whistled at them all the time in various tunes, it was really annoying plus they take no notice!

We got to the campsite just before dark and found that the lads had put our tents up for us on raised wooden platforms. The campsite is very rustic, i.e. rainwater shower and no electricity but it's very charming.

After dinner, we went out for a walk to look for tarantulas and found one! Yuck. Those things are huge and scary. It wasn't too far away from the campsite either! We just hoped that they were no good at zips.

Cusco Scenes
Topic: Peru
Narrow cobbled streets. Colonial buildings built on the foundations of Inca structures. Ladies leading sheep and llamas on ropes through the streets. Kids selling postcards and knitted finger puppets. Old ladies selling handmade dolls. School aged "musicians" playing sketchy pan pipe versions of El Condor Pasa (Think of the Simon and Garfunkel version - "I'd rather be a hammer than a nail...". Old med selling cigarettes. Street stands full of alpaca jumpers, woven rugs and stone carvings. Gangs of kids in school uniform marching and carrying the school banner. Shoe shine boys glaring at all the trainer-wearers. Gold shops. Colonial houses and palaces converted into hotels. Beautiful plazas and fountains. Internet cafes on every corner. Trendy coffee bars and cocktail lounges. Restaurants specialising in Novoandean cuisine - imaginative dishes with local ingredients. Ladies in white top hats selling huge round loaves of bread. Jewellery shops. Backpackers walking round with open copies of Lonely Planet South America. Some wearing only local woven clothes. Hounds. Women carrying babies on their backs in multi-coloured blankets. Tour agencies. Magnificent churches.

We'll be back on the 22nd to spent Christmas. Off to the jungle tomorrow. I hope we have a good tent, the creepy crawlies look vicious.

Amazon rainforest trip, day 1
Topic: Peru
The jungle trip started out pretty badly. The night before the trip I was suffering the effects of food poisoning from a local dish called "sufle de rocoto", a kind of stuffed pepper dish. I can't think about it without cringing. That night I emptied the contents of my stomach throughout the course of the night and then had to be up at 5am to begin the 9 hour bus journey though windy Andean roads down through the cloud forest.

We were (of course!) going with a tour company and had to be at the office at ten to six to be picked up. We got there in the pouring rain and met the two other girls who were coming with us: Nora from Germany and Katherine from England. No sign of any bus however.... sooner or later, Nicolas (our guide, a biologist) turned up and we got taxis to the other office for breakfast. The office turned out to be a house on an estate on the outskirts of Cusco. A lady answered the door in her dressing gown and I thought there must be some sort of mistake, but, no, breakfast was ready (for those not too sick to tuck in to a cheese omelet).

The driver was late so while we waited, Nicolas showed us a video in Japanese about the section of the Amazon rain forest we were going to visit: Manu Biosphere Reserve. Time dragged on and we wondered whether watching the video would be the closest we would get to the forest!

Finally, the driver and truck arrived and we filled it with our bags, water bottles, tents etc and got on board. After about 5 minutes of driving through Cusco, the brakes failed, the driver lost control of the truck and piled into the back of a taxi. Fortunately, no one was hurt but it took an hour of angry negotiations to sort things out. We wouldn't be using the bus with no brakes for the trip we were pleased to learn.

We squeezed ourselves and minimum baggage into a Mitsubishi jeep instead and were off again.
After 10 minutes of driving, the driver started to have problems with the gears and the car filled with black smoke so we pulled over. We were beginning to think the trip was doomed. Food poisoning, late driver, a crash and now gearbox trouble! Would we ever get there?

The car was fine, we just think that the driver was trying to change gear in 4X4 mode being unused to it. After a few minutes of fiddling, we were off and there was no more trouble for the next 8 days.

The road was scarily narrow with steep drops down into the valley below but our driver was very careful which is more than can be said for the local buses! We drove through many small villages seemingly full of women in strange hats toiling. Where were the men?

We had a brief stop for lunch (which I couldn't eat) and a few quick walks, but we had lost so much time, we drove most of the day and reached the lodge well after dark. After a quick dinner (which I couldn't eat), we crashed out until our 5am wakeup call the next day.

Machu Picchu
Topic: Peru
I am writing this in a little tourist town full of pizza restaurants and postcard shops called Aguas Calientes. What am I doing here? It's the town nearest to Machu Picchu. We did it. We finished the Inca Trail and had a really wonderful time.

Here are some highlights:

- The beautiful trails through cloud forests and rain forests, up high peaks and into fertile valleys.

- The food. A team of staff carried tents, cooking equipment and food and created the most amazing meals three times a day. It really was posh camping.

- Morning tea delivered to our tent as a wake up call each morning at 6am along with a bowl of hot water for washing!

- Our fellow trekkers. A really nice, fun and supportive group all around our age. It helped that we all had a similar hiking ability and we never had to wait more than 5 minutes for everyone to finish a stretch.

- Our guide Aly. Very relaxed yet encouraging and professional.

- Our crew of cooks and porters. We wouldn't have been able to do it without them.

- The weather. Even though it was the wet season, we had very little rain.

- The birds, butterflies and flowers. Beautiful beautiful, beautiful!

- The single beer we each carried for 8 hours, 12km and up to over 4000m high and down to the camp so that we could celebrate our success of day 2 - the most difficult day. We were very restrained and chilled the bottles in the river first!

- The first glimpse of Machu Picchu at sunrise as the mist cleared. Breath-taking.

- Wandering around the ruins on day 5 and climbing up to the mountain overlooking the city in search of the perfect photograph.

So what's next? Back to Cusco for a couple of days and then into the Amazon forest for 8 days. See you when we get back!