WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE: On the Ucayali River

This is the Maniti Lodge, home base for our jungle exploring. The wee turret has excellent hammocks for sitting and watching river dolphins (grey ones and pink ones) and boats go by.








The flooded jungle - photos don't really do it justice.



This is where the Amazon animals tried to hide from us. But they were no match for our little sightseeing boat and our guide Ashuko, who had an uncanny way of heading straight to the right spot almost every time. We think maybe he planted the animals early in the morning before we left.







We couldn't really get good photos of most of the animals as they were a bit too distant for our lenses and you wouldn't have the benefit of binoculars such as we had. So here's a wee list, and a few photos from the internet, of some things we saw.

• Monkeys - Brown capuchin, White-fronted capuchin, Dusky Titi, Saki, Pygmy Marmoset, Kinkajou, Squirrel Monkey
  
  Here's the Squirrel Monkey (one of my favs)

We watched as a baby Squirrel Monkey almost got eaten by one of these guys (a Plumbeous Kite):













Don't worry, the cute wee monkey got away.



We saw a lot of birds. We stopped counting at 70 species.

A few of our favourites include:












The Little Hermit Hummingbird
















Cuvier's Toucan

Iquitos: Gateway to the jungle

Today it rained. I fear it is becoming a habit. The long-range weather forecast is doing it's best to dampen our spirits but we shall soldier on regardless. I don't mind too much as it reminds me of home. Thanks for the umbrella, Mum, probably the most useful jungle accessory in my pack so far. We went for a walk along the river - not the Amazon, I have discovered, but the Itaya River which is a tributary.

We spotted some exotic wildlife. Well, technically, a local spotted it, called us over to show us and then Justin spent the next five minutes trying to help me spot it. Can you see it in the picture below?

Justin says there's no way that anyone will find it and I'll just end up alienating my readers if I don't give you the payoff - so, here is what, we think, is a Green Iguana (the largest lizard in Peru). This little guy is not yet fully grown at just over a metre long.

The local that just happened to be helpfully pointing out wildlife then ushered us into a museum to give us a guided tour of some fibreglass statues of indigenous Peruvians from various tribes that a Peruvian Swedish man had made after travelling around taking photos and making moulds in various villages around Peru and Brazil.

The further north you go the less clothes you need, apparently, so here's a wee taster of what Justin should be wearing after a couple of weeks in the jungle.

Tonight we dance. Carlos, a friend of my Spanish friend Ruben, has very kindly taken us under his wing and this evening he's taking us out on the town for a wee cumbia hoe-down.

El Peru: The Return

I'm back. It's quite an odd feeling actually, being back in Peru, four years on. I'd forgotten how much I love the madness. It's nice to be able to introduce the place to Justin too, and he seems to be enjoying it so far and doing his best to embrace the craziness. We stopped off in Santiago, Chile, on the way, which was nice, but was all European charm and not nearly enough random Peruvian flavour for my liking.

We've just arrived in Iquitos - the largest city in the world inaccessible by road, and a port on the Amazon River. It's raining. It seems tropical downpours are going to be a daily occurrence while we're here, and while we're in the jungle...camping. Apparently there is no "rainy season" in Iquitos though. I think perhaps the term "rainy season" implies some kind of predictability that Iquitos doesn't buy into.

We head out on our 12-day jungle expedition the day after tomorrow. Hopefully we should have some good photos to share on our return.