Amazon Rainforest 1

Despite being high up in the Andes, Cusco is a great place to see the Amazon from due to its proximity to Manu National Park, and that's where I was headed for a 7 day excursion. Leaving Cusco, you keep driving up and over the peaks of the Andes. You enter the park at around 4100 metres above sea level, then keep descending down through cloud forest and eventually rainforest until you are in the Amazon basin, at around 350 metres above sea level.

Heading through the cloud forest we saw all sorts of interesting birds, such as hawks, toucanets, well camouflaged potoos, a quetzal, and the unique looking Cock of the Rocks, which is the national bird of Peru. We also saw many butterflies and some capuchin monkeys. As we reached the rainforest we also saw hummingbirds, toucans, vultures, and a beautiful Emerald Tree Boa.

We spent a night in a lodge before heading off again to the boat dock, where we transferred to a lancha with all of our provisions for the next few days. We travelled down the Madre de Dios river, one of the many tributaries of the Amazon River. Passing beautiful scenery and many birds, we finally reached another lodge where we were welcomed by more monkeys.

We weren't actually going to get to sleep at this comfortable looking lodge, we just stopped for dinner and a rest before hiking for an hour into the jungle at dusk. This night we were going to be staying in a simple lookout next to a clay lick. Many of the animals eat and lick areas of exposed clay in the jungle for the nutrients, and these can be excellent places to spot wilflife. At this particular clay lick we were hoping to spot tapirs. As the tapirs are very elusive and can take a long time to appear, if at all, we were going to take it in turn to keep watch while everyone else got some sleep. So we watched out over the clay and every 30 minutes woke up the next person along for their turn, not seeing much more than a deer for the first few hours. I had just finished my look-out shift when Alex, the guy next to me nudged me awake to alert that a tapir had finally appeared! I woke up the person Jess on my other side and so on. The tapir is an unusual animal with a stubby trunk, we were very lucky to see it! Having seen one we all went to sleep until 3:30 am, when we had to get up, pack our camp away and hike back to the lodge in the dark, with just enough time to have a shower before getting back in the boat for our long journey up the Manu River.Читать далее