Peru - Amazon Jungle

We were woken early this morning in order to go for a walk into the jungle to see The Lost Lagoon. We first boarded a little wooden boat and travelled to the start site of the walk. The walk was along a well trodden path which had been built from leaves and mud but the jungle on each side was thick, and even though the heat was oppressive (even at 7am) and the mosquitoes dense, it was great to be in a jungle again.

During our walk we saw lots of awesome trees including one that was over 500yrs old with a base that was about 7m wide and some cool crawling critters, including a large Tarantula. Apparently Tarantulas can grow to be approximately 10cm across in the body, the one we saw was only about 4cm but was big enough! We also took a 3km boat ride in a wooden row boat which a little concerning as by the time we reached the end we had a fair amount of water at our feet. During the boat ride we saw a number of birds including a Woodpecker and a Vulture.

Our first stop was a lookout which was 30m in height and allowed us to see a 360º panorama across the jungle. This was interesting because on one side was all palm trees and the other side had a more common jungle appearance. While we were up at the top of the lookout we were lucky enough to see a family of Howler Monkeys come into the nearby trees for some playtime. It was gorgeous to see. From the lookout we walked into the Lost Lagoon where we took another boat similar to our first one but thankfully a little drier, especially because during this boat ride we saw a 5m Anaconda! We also saw some very cute Turtles sunning themselves on old dead logs.

After the Lost Lagoon we had a 5km walk back to the river, Madre de Dios, where we boarded a boat to return to our lodge. The walk was really nice, well, again except for the humidity and heat. Around halfway we crossed a beautiful lagoon that was full of water lilies and also had a small Caiman that popped his head up to say hi. 

After a few hours rest, lunch, and a cold shower, we went out again down one of the tributaries of Madre De Dios for some Piranha fishing! We spent an hour or so relaxing in the boat with fresh meat on our hooks but didn’t manage to catch anything! A little disappointing but still a fun afternoon.