On the 9th in the morning we flew to Amazonas. It was funny that they had a security check before boarding the flight. It didn't really matter though. We could have everything in our hand luggage, liquids, fruits, I even think I could have brought a monkey with me. I, of course, prepared myself and changed into shorts in cold Cusco. We took off and saw the beautiful Cusco from above, with all the surrounding mountain ranges. We quickly went above the clouds and at some point, we lost altitude again. We had our first look at the Amazonas. From where we were, we could see trees, everything green.
After 35 minutes, we were already back on the ground. We quickly got off the plane and I thought, "It's not that hot, there's actually a relatively cool wind coming in." Until I stepped out of the plane. It felt like running into a wall. The air hit me like a knife. I think I sweated for the first time when I walked down the stairs from the plane. 85% humidity and around 33 degrees Celsius. For others, it was nothing new because they had been to Thailand a few times already. For me, it was noticeably more uncomfortable. But soon we got into our air-conditioned shuttle. We drove to the office of our agency and had to wait there for a few other guests from the lodge. Our guide took us to a butterfly house, which was quite beautiful.
After about 1 hour, we were all together and we set off for the port. We arrived after a 1-hour drive and saw two small docks, that's the port. They unloaded our luggage onto the boat and we got on board.As soon as we had a roof over our heads, the first tropical rain came. It poured like crazy. We drove with the boat for about 2 hours to the lodge, a pleasant cool breeze blowing over us. It was already noon when we arrived, very nice.No, just kidding, that was at night :-P. It was breakfast time.On our way upstream, we made several stops to observe animals. Among others, we saw tapirs, caimans, parrots, and many other birds, really impressive. Then we stopped at a pier and walked to the lodge. Poor Muriel was overtaken by snails on both sides because she had such bad muscle soreness. But eventually, we arrived and we had a fantastic lodge in the rainforest. All around us was the jungle and in the middle was a beautiful wooden building.We were greeted with an ice-cold papaya juice and a piece of cake (or two). Everything was open, no windows in the entire area. We settled into our room, applied a ton of mosquito repellent, and went on our first tour. With rubber boots, we walked along a swamp path to an observation tower.Fresh jaguar tracks.Everything was sticky, my t-shirt was wet, and the thick air almost didn't let me breathe through my nose. Finally, we reached the tower and after climbing 9000 steps, we were allowed to climb another 40 meters.At the top, we had an amazing view of the Amazon rainforest, including the sunset. There were slight mists at some places and we heard parrots and howler monkeys screaming around.But during the first night, I was woken up by Muriel screaming. She saw a spider in the bathroom. When she tried to dry her hands with the towel, a small friend was sitting on it:Yes, it was special. Wherever you touched, you first looked if there was an animal. Then, 3 days later, I had a much closer encounter with a spider than I would have liked.After 3 days, we changed lodges. We left early in the morning and drove upstream for 5 hours. On the way, we made several stops again.
Among other things, we went into a tributary and stopped at a "salt lick". A salty wall where the parrots get their minerals. Of course, we wore sneakers. Then we docked on another island and had to walk through the mud for about 5 minutes. Our shoes were completely full of mud, dirt, leaves, and I don't know what else. I could have brought hiking boots in my suitcase, but well. At that rock wall and its surroundings, we saw about 50 parrots, amazing. They made such a noise, unimaginable.
Then we arrived at a very special lodge. Most of the guests there were researchers who take care of and study parrots. The lodge was a bit bigger and we were lucky to sleep in the brand new building. A researcher gave us information about the lodge, the activities, etc. Among other things, he warned us not to feed the parrots that fly around in the morning and at noon. These are parrots that were raised there and then released into the wild. They have become a bit lazy and that's why they fly to the dining area to have a look and steal the bread rolls from the plates. As soon as he finished the sentence, one of them flew in like a fury and quickly took the first bread roll from the table.The cheeky scoundrel.The facilities were really beautiful, everything open. In the afternoon, we had some time to relax in the hammock. I fell asleep for a moment. But after 30 minutes, I was almost thrown out of the hammock. There was a huge bang, I had never heard such thunder in my whole life. Muriel looked at me with huge eyes. It turned out that it had been raining at the same time for about an hour, but it was really pouring. But soon after, the sky cleared again, a bit like April weather.At dusk, we prepared ourselves for the first tour, there was a strong smell in the room and nobody knew why. But half an hour later, we found out what the reason was. We set off again and had no idea what we would see. After 2 minutes, we saw the first spider monkeys. It was amazing to watch them jump from tree to tree with their babies on their backs.After 20 minutes, there was suddenly the same smell in the air as in the room. Our noses immediately led us to it. We were literally surrounded by about 100 wild boars. Surprisingly, the guide got closer and closer and told us to stay calm and not make any sudden movements. What would be aggressive for us, was shy for them. At the slightest movement, they fled. We watched them for half an hour, how they turned the ground, fought with each other.On the way back, we also encountered the first giant tarantula in a cave. We only saw its feet, and the guide brushed it with a leaf to get it out, yuck..I didn't know at that time that a few days later I would have a spider much closer to me than I would have liked.The next day, we went to the island early in the morning with the researchers. From there, we made ourselves comfortable and waited for the parrots to come. One after another flew over to the mineral wall and clung to it. From afar, you could hear the howler monkeys majestically roaring through the jungle.In the evening, we had the chance to attend a presentation by one of the researchers. He talked about his project, which he had been working on for 4 months, taking care of the parrots. The babies, however, looked a bit strange.Later, we also had a 'Pisco Sour' workshop. That's a Peruvian drink that is very popular and very delicious. Reto did a really great job, but I think mine was a bit better.
After countless excursions, the last evening came and we packed our bags. When I came out of the toilet, Muriel was standing there and said, "I don't think you're going to bed!" There was a huge spider on the frame, hairy and fat.
Reto caught it, I really couldn't do it.
Then we looked around to see if maybe another brother of that spider was somewhere, and promptly we found another one in the corner. When Reto tried to throw it off the balcony, it clung to his hand and he quickly shook it off. Luckily, we had a mosquito net around our bed, that added some security. At 6:00 in the morning, we were then taken to the airport. It was a close call to make it there on time according to the plan. But it was a bit chaotic. The flight was scheduled to depart at 13:00. Our airline, however, didn't land. The airport was smaller than the train station in a Swiss village, so every flight that landed was there. After 1.5 hours, they suddenly announced that we could board. It wasn't our airline, but we didn't care anymore, as long as we could get out of there. We flew for 35 minutes to Cusco where we had a layover. We were allowed to stay on the plane and luckily they asked us if we wanted to upgrade to Business Class.
We flew Business Class for the first time and it was great. Muriel and I asked if we could take a look inside the cockpit and after landing, we were allowed to go in.Two very friendly, young pilots explained the cockpit to us and we took our seats. We are now in Lima, more experienced for the next blog.
