Travel scraps: The jungle - Manu National Park

Oct. 5th - 11th Having set up base in Cusco, probably the most visited city in Peru, I set about finding a tour agency to book my trip to Manu National park. It has been a lifelong dream of mine to go to the rainforest, and I wanted my trip to be perfect. Not having booked ahead, and being on somewhat of a tight schedule, I ended up booking a trip that left two days later, with Vilca Expeditions. There are only a limited number of agencies allowed in the reserved area of the park, and figuring out which ones offer what can be tricky. But now I know that there really isn't all that much difference, and in the end it also just depends how lucky you are with seeing the animals... We were a small group, a British couple, an Israeli couple, an elderly Peruvian gentleman and his daughter, me, Milton the boat captain, his helper Hilbert, Fernando the guide, and our cook, who kept us supplied with really wonderful meals throughout the trip. The trip was everything I could have dreamt of. I flew in to join the rest of the group at Bocca Manu, and the rest of the time we travelled by boat into the reserve where we spent 2 days on raised platforms. Staying at different lodges on the way back, we took the bus back up to Cusco after 6 days of wildlife heaven.

Geese

Black skimmers catching fish

A white caiman

Worlds largest rodent - a Capybara. About the size of a pig, just walking along....

Hummingbird

A spider eating a cocroach. We also saw tarantulas, and many other types of spiders. Good thing I don't mind them!

These birds make the most awfull noise!

Oropendulas and nests

A strangle fig

Fernando explains how the fireants who live in this tree, clear the ground so the tree can grow better. Fireants can kill a man in about 6 minutes, and the indians used to tie people to such a tree as punishment.