Some of you may have noticed that I havent put up any blogs for the past 2 days, well its been bacause I have been in the amazon jungle. And despite what you may have heard wifi access in the jungle is pretty limited....
Anyways the amazon experience was amazing and I definately recommend it to anyone, it was soo interesting!!! We went to a spot in the amazon near Puerto Maldonado, well it was about a 30 minute drive out of Puerto Maldonado and then a 45 minute boat ride down the amazon river. I was definately the kind of stuff you'd expect to see on an Indianna Jones movie. As you'll see from the photos the river is quite brown and from what I was told a bit polluted with Mercury. The Mercury has been gradually introduced into the river from gold mining practises carried out by locals trying to earn some quick cash. The government is trying to stop it but the gold mining industry is soo lucritive theres no chance of stopping it.
Anyways we eventually got to out eco retreat which was a series of beautiful raised timber buildings all connected via raised walkways. While at the retreat I saw lots of birds (Maccaws, parrots, jungle hens, shags etc), I also saw Howler Monkeys, Camon, Pirhanas, Capiburrow. We did lots of hikes and boat trips to look at the plants and animals. We even visited the local shaman and went on a walk of his garden and got an overview of all the plants that are used in natural medicines. At the end of the walk we were able to try some of the native medicines. I jumped at the chance and slugged down a cure for arthritis, and the jungle version of red bull. I skipped on the chance to try the natural version of viagra.......
Today we left the jungle and flew to Cusco where we will spend the next day and a half acclimitising to the altitude before a small group of us set off to do a 4 day hike up to Macchu Picchu. Cusco is situated at 3600m above sea level and I have already started to feel the effects of altitude sickness. So I quickly popped some meds to help and drank lots of water. Things seem to have gotten better, which is reassuring. On the 4 day hike the highest we get up to is 4300m at dead womans pass, once past this its downhill to Macchu Picchu.
Ive been really impressed with Cusco, its such a beautiful city and the food here is also amazing. We've just got back from dinner where I sampled Alpaca, very tasty I might add, similar to venison.
Well I hope your all doing well, Im having a great time and am fit and well. Still got a bit of a cold which wont go away, even after the shaman's medicines.....
Hasta Luego Muchachos
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