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!
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