Madre de Dios

So we spent a weekend in a lodge just outside of Tambopata nature reserve in the Amazon rainforest. That was an interesting experience! We waded through flooded rainforest, got eaten alive by mosquitoes (and definitely caught some sort of mild jungle fever), and sweat profusely 24 hours a day. It was a swampy, stinky, insect ridden dive into the jungle, and we really enjoyed it!
Despite the trouble adjusting to the heat (and the need to be coated in deet at all times) we ended up having a great taste of life in the jungle. We tried local food (chicken and rice wrapped in bijao leaf) I found my new passion in life; taking long naps in a hammock, and Charlotte became best friends with a jungle cat. Not to mention the wildlife! We saw giant otters, Capuchin monkeys, red howler monkeys, squirrel monkeys (and red squirrels that weren't monkeys) macaws, parrots, parakeets, a black tarantula...'s leg, and hundreds of species of butterfly. Oh and one really weird looking mushroom. Even though we weren't so lucky with some of the more infamous Amazonian fauna like Anacondas and Cayman, it's a wild place and what you get to see is pure luck, we still really enjoyed our stay in the Amazon. Although ultimately that might just be the jungle fever talking.Read more