Return to mosquito country

Back from Machu Picchu, tired of big crowds, we returned to the agency from which we had booked our tickets. There we talked to a guy who did tours to the rainforest. We were so amazed by the beauty of Madidi national park in Bolivia and we absolutely loved spending time in the jungle, that it didn't need too much thinking to book a 4-day tour to Manu national park with a company called Wild Watch Peru. We had one day in Cusco to stock up with insect repellent and off we were again.

Compared to Madidi, Manu is not as easily accessible. From Rurrenabaque in Bolivia it is only a 30 min boat ride into the park and another hour to the lodge. To get to Manu, you have to drive for hours and hours to get to the park. The tour left early in the morning. After picking up all the people, we drove off stopping in a small village, some pre-Inca ruins and did walks in the cloudforest. Cloudforest is the cloudy, still a bit chilly, high-altitude part of the jungle, which has different flora and fauna than the rainforest below it. The first day we saw the national bird of Peru, the Peruvian cock of the rock. It's not only the name that is funny, the poor creature looks quite silly, too...

We arrived at the lodge just after the sunset and were happy to relax after most of the day spent in the car on the bumpy road and with the amazing 80's & 90's music they seem to love in this part of the world. So after dinner we planned the tour with the guide, Hebert, and then crawled under the blankets.

We were supposed to wake up at six to go for a morning walk, but the heavy rain kept everyone in their rooms until breakfast. After that the rain stopped and we went for a walk around the garden of the lodge, where we were told about rainforest plants and how they can be used as medicine, for recreational purposes or for food. While walking, we also saw a friendly toucan who posed for our photos for a long time!

After the walk we hopped back in the minibus to be taken to a wildlife sanctuary, a rescue place for wounded animals. The animals were walking around free and they were quite friendly with the people. There we saw a black spider monkey who was excited to climb all over us, a capybara, a sloth, two wild pigs, two macaws, a baby ocelot and coatis. It was a fun experience to get so close to these animals, but it's never the same than to actually spot them in their natural habitat.

After the sanctuary we drove to the river and took the boat towards the second lodge. After settling down in our bungalows, we left for a walk around the area. We walked down the path towards the river, and the turned uphill. From there we could spot three types of monkeys: red howler monkeys, squirrel monkeys jumping from tree to tree, followed by capuchin monkeys! We had never seen this many monkeys in one place. We kept walking to a giant tree, where we found a fat liana and some of the group tried hanging from it, or more like smashing into the tree and falling down into the bushes. We also spotted many different birds, including a toucan and oropendolas. After this we returned to the lodge, where we just watched colibris feeding from the flowers and butterflies flying everywhere.

After the sunset we left for a night walk. We like nightwalks, because you can spot all the creepy crawlies that hide somewhere during the day. We saw huge sc. orpion spiders, grasshoppers, mice in the trees and a green tree frog.

The next day we woke up early to get on the boat which took us downstream the river. We did a little walk to a lake, where little rafts were waiting and we could watch the birds that gather around the lake. We saw hoatzins, vultures, oropendolas and many other birds. After crossing the lake, we did a little walk to spot more animals. We mostly spotted termites and butterflies. Then we walked back to the rafts, but someone had taken them so we had to walk back through a little swamp. We got back to the boat and decided to jump in the river on he way back to the lodge. We spent a long time playing in the river, building little dams, until we got too hungry and took off again for lunch. After lunch we took the boat again towards the same direction and went for a short hike before the sunset. We spotted different birds and a huge tree, big enough for the six of us to hide behind the roots. After the walk we went back to the lodge for dinner.

To celebrate our last night in the rainforest we made a fire on the beach and sat there until we couldn't keep our eyes open anymore. Early the next morning we took the boat to town and then the bus back to Cusco, where we slept for one night before taking off to the next destination. On the way back we stopped for a walk, and were lucky to spot a common woolly monkey, a new species for us!

 

Highlight after highlight after highlight

After spending the night in Cobacabana it was time to hop on the bus. Jungle had been an absolute highlight and yet we were heading towards the next. It did not take long until we were at the Peruvian border, queueing to get another stamp in the passport. Border crossing turned out to be fairly easy, whole bus stayed together because of pickpockets and the short walk we had to take from Bolivian immigration office to the Peruvian one. Well organised and easy, and we had time to exchange the few pesitos we had into nuevo soles. When border formalities were over and done with, we hopped back into bus for an hour or so to switch buses in Puno. Puno is the main city from which to explore Lake Titicaca from the Peruvian side, but because we had already seen the lake, we kept going directly to Cusco.  

What was supposed to be a nine hour drive turned out to be twelve hours. Our plan to arrive during daylight failed, as usual. Not many times buses have been on schedule yet... Happy to arrive, we took our heavy backpacks loaded with jumpers, blankets and warm clothes and took a taxi to the hostel. Quick dinner and straight to bed.

Cusco is a nice city absolutely full of Inca ruins. There is a lot to do if you are interested in that sort of thing. We spent days just exploring he city, impressed by the architechture and skills of the Incas. We also visited a chocolate museum and spent time just sitting at the main plaza.

Like everyone else who comes to Cusco, we wanted to visit Machu Picchu, which has been a dream of mine since I heard of its existence. So we booked a bunch of tickets. First we took a bus to Ollantaytambo, about one and a half hours from Cusco, and stayed there for one night. Ollantaytambo is a cute little village on the way to Machu Picchu. We decided to go there, because we wanted to see as many ruins as we could fit in our budget and schedule without doing a tour. The ruins there were quite impressive, and we had a fun day climbing up and down the stairs and terraces, trying to guess the purpose of the buildings.

From Ollantaytambo we kept going to Aguas Calientes, the gateway town to Machu Picchu. We heard that most tourists take the train from Cusco and arrive to Machu Picchu around 10am. We wanted to avoid the crowds the best we could, so we stayed in Aguas Calientes instead, planning to take the first bus at 5:30 am going up the hill to the ruins. When we woke up and got out of the hostel at 5:20, we noticed that about five hundred other tourists and backpackers had the same idea. The queue from the bus station was a few hundred metres already, and the end of it was right outside our hostel door! Luckily there are lots of buses, and they leave as soon as they are full, so it took us 20 minutes the most to get to the bus and the same time to reach the gates of Machu Picchu, so we got there well before sunrise like we planned.

We entered the gates inside the area, and first thing we did was climb up a hill to enjoy the view of the first rays of morning light hitting the ruins while having breakfast. Food at Machu Picchu is so expensive that we had decided to bring sandwiches and water despite all the forbidden-signs around the place. Good decision, since we planned to have a full day there. So we sat there a while and then headed for a guided tour that was included in the tickets. We spent almost two hours following the tour guide around the lost city until we got sick of the amount of other people and decided to get away from the crowds to have lunch and to climb up an Inca road to the Sun Gate, located up the hill providing another great view of the ruins. A nice walk, although the constant sunshine made it a bit harder than expected... We decided to relax at the much less crowded Sun Gate and wait for the biggest crowds to return back to the train before walking back to the main site. When we got back, we had glowing red sunburns all over, but still we decided to keep exploring the ruins in peace and quiet. So we walked around until the last buses started to leave towards Aguas Calientes, where we spent another night before heading back to Cusco.

Happy to have seen Machu Picchu but a bit bored of the altitude and the cold we still had almost a week in Cusco. We then decided to book another tour. Being sick of carrying full backpacks we decided to send some of our stuff home. After all, we were heading towards the warmer temperatures now.

 

A puma shaped lake

Here we are, back in the bloody altitude. We're waiting for the bus to pick us up in front of the migration office on the bolivian - peruvian border. Without problems we got our 90 days in Peru, passports stamped, ready to discover a new country. A lot of Bolivians don't find many kind words for its neighbours, it's them stealing and causing troubles in Copacabana, Bolivia... We'll see.

We left the mentioned place this morning after we spent 2 nights there and the one between on Isla del sol, the island where, for many native people around here, the sun was born. You get the idea of the neighbouring island Isla de la luna.

Copacabana is quite pretty, not too big but very touristy, i found that about half of them are locals, Peruvians and Bolivians. One morning we jumped aboard a boat that carries tourists between the mainland and the islands. It took over two hours and was pretty cold, especially the wind until we reached Yumani, a town on the sun island. A very basic hostel was our shelter for tonight for 3€ per person with a stunning view over the lake to distant snowcapped mountains (those around 6000m high mountains didn't look that high as we were on almost 4000m ourselves).

After lunch we decided to explore the island and over the inca stairs we crossed the island over a hill, walked around the hill to the ruins of the temple of the sun out of the inca times. The panoramic views were breathtaking, especially the deep blue coloured lake (probably from its depht of over 450m), making a nice contrast to the grey/brown islands. The name of the lake refers to a puma and apparently it has the shape of the animal, you'll need a good portion of fantasy to come to the same result.

After all it was a very nice place but we just want to leave the high plateau, the cold, and enjoy sun and warmth somewhere on a beach! Soon! First it's Cusco and Machu Picchu to come!

 

Pampas

Before we flew back to La Paz we were in the Pampas, the swamps, with the same company we did the jungle trip with. We didn't know what to expect from this area and the 3 days we wanted to stay there, could it be so different from the rainforest? It's only about 3 hours away by car, but we were told to show up in flip flops, as we won't need proper shoes, everything happens in or from the boats they said. Sounded good!

Ready in front of the office in Rurrenabaque, our packpack (we took the same stuff as for the jungle) on the roof and together with an english couple we set off in a taxi. We were told that the road will be pretty bad, so why the taxi? 'It'll work fine' i told myself, this is Bolivia, everything works out somehow. As we drove around the corner, not in sight of the office anymore, the driver stopped and started to work under the open hood of the car, all the tools already prepared. Did he plan to fix his car now, not the night before? It looked like it... He wasn't satisfied with the result and called a friend who showed up with a new battery. Good. We were off again. For 5 minutes, then he stopped again, saying he's sorry and "solo 15 minutes!" After he fixed the car 'properly' we kept going and broke down only two times on the way.

The road started okay, after an hour it got worse and worse and we were shaked, feeling those 3 hours in our bums. On the way we stopped two times for sloths, the driver knew exactly in which tree they live, our first sloths in the wild! Good animals to take pictures of, as they move slower than snails... The nature was absolutely different now, very flat, endless grasslands and pretty dry apart from some small streams and lagoons.

After another half an hour at the gas station (there were roadblocks further up the road and everyone wanted to get his car filled by the first truck who got through) we arrived at our lodge. The organisation here wasn't as good as in the rainforest and we almost missed lunch because no one told us. Afterwards we jumped on the back of a pick up truck with some camping chairs and a boat engine and we drove through some villages to a lake nearby to go piraña fishing and bird watching. At the place where our boat was were many local families doing laundry, standing in the lake and beating their clothes over the wooden tables they made inside the lake.

There wasn't a single boat on the lake apart from ours. The locals, we were told, are afraid of it as the legends tell that there's a huge anakonda in these waters, being responsible for several casualties in the past. Maybe that's why we were alone? After some time along the shore we found a narrow passage into the dense vegetation surrounding the lake. The water was really shallow now and we could see pirañas jumping, catching flies and mosquitoes propably. In the trees and bushes were countless different species of birds sitting, toucans, herons, hoatzins, kingfishers and the usual vultures making circles high up in the sky, we didn't know where to look! We also tried fishing again, i caught several branches, leaves and water lillies, no fish though. Anni managed to catch two, both two small (and i still think it was the same fish) and this saved their lifes. After the fish being fed we headed slowly back, enjoying the sunset, drifting along in the middle of the lake. Perfect finish for today!

The next days we went up- and downstream the river next to the lodge, the water level was absolutely low and therefor all the animals gathered together in less water, the river less wide therefore the animals closer to the boat. Perfect! The excitement of caiman sightings grew smaller after the first 30, we were only looking for especially large animals from now on, as there were so many in the water and on the shore on the sunny side of the river bank. One highlight were the pink river dolphins! First we only saw their clouds of water they produced when taking a breath on the surface, later we saw them playing around and jumping a bit, never more than a head out of water or the fins though. A small lake where 3 rivers meet is their favorite hang out place and if it wasn't too chilly we would've gone in to have a swim with them, despite the pirañas and the caimans (another group went for a swim and they told us they were pretty scared, especially when they saw caimans disappearing in the muddy water, not knowing where it might swim around now). On one occasion we were so lucky to come across a group of squirrel monkeys on a tree overhanging the river. We got so close to them, they could've jumped into the boat if they've wanted to, a real change to their behaving for us as we only saw them high up in the trees before, trying to get out of our sight. Capybaras were also around, drying on the shore after a swim. They're very calm and we could go pretty close without them running away.

Two times we went to look for anacondas by foot. The first try started behind the lodge on a farm's fields. To cut the story short, the biggest animals we saw were pigs, a furious farmer made us take another way back where we had to build (kind of) a bridge out of wood to cross a pond and, sure, we didn't find any snakes. The second go was more successful. First by boat and then by foot in the heat of noon we found a small anaconda (well, the guide did) about one meter long. Before we could get our cameras ready it disappeared in the water. Anakondas are crazy fast! On the boatride before we also had a little accident. We drove quite fast downstream around a tree lying in the river. Just as we turned around we saw another boat heading towards us, full speed. None of drivers made any attempt to avoid a crash, so we crashed. The other boat hit the tip of our boat and we almost fell overboard. Just as i looked up again i saw the tip of the other boat, half across ours, sliding towards me an before i could react it hit me full in my side and my right arm. I flew onto Anni, she got hit by my chair which was absolutely shredded after that. It hurt pretty bad but i could still move everything, so nothing was broken. The tourists on the other boat seemed to be pretty sorry for us by their looks. The only guy that should've been sorry, the other driver, wasn't, and after a few harsh words from our driver he took off. This was a Bala Tours boat. Don't book there, apparently they have quite a lot of accidents and the average age on their boats is around 90 years...

We saw so much more wildlife than in the jungle but if we had to decide, we'd still go to the jungle. All day in a boat, either up- or downstream is a bit boring after 3 days, and after 100 caimans no one's really excited anymore. But don't get us wrong, we were happy that we did see the pampas, too.