Weeks 45 to 46
6 June to 18 June
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANGELA for 9th June
We headed out of Huaraz on an overnight bus headed for Lima. Lima is a lovely city with lots of beautiful buildings. We arrived in the town centre just in time to watch the changing of the guards at the Palace de Gobierno. The parade and band were great but the whole square was surrounded by armoured vehicles and police with riot shields!
No rest for us. The same day we arrived in Lima we headed out again on a flight to Iquitos where the Amazon River starts in Peru. Once in Iquitos we were collected by the company we had booked our jungle trek with. Off we went on a motorboat out of Iquitos and on to the Amazon River. We arrived at our “camp” which was actually quite luxurious with our own private cabin with private facilities! We spent 3 nights and 4 days in the Amazon and both got bitten to death by mosquitoes, they are evil here as we both covered up completely, used insect repellent on both our bodies and our clothes and they still managed to bite us through our clothes!
During our time at jungle camp we went on various treks looking for wildlife both on land and on the river. We saw lots of snakes, spiders (tarantulas), frogs, birds, monkeys, insects, a three toed sloth, to name but a few. The trekking in the Amazon jungle was great but sadly we were also taken to a “reserve” and “monkey orphanage” to see animals such as anteaters, toucans, anacondas, boa constrictors, and many different species of monkey including the red howler, black spider and marmoset. Unfortunately these places appeared to be there solely to entertain tourists rather than to help preserve the animals in any way.
We also went to some local villages. At the Yaguar village we were invited to take part in the local dancing. The chief and his wife led us in circles around a post whilst wearing feather headdresses with red paint on our faces! We then took part in a blow dart gun shooting competition. Christine managed to hit the wooden doll a couple of times but Darryl was a very good shot, hitting the doll straight in the face! The local villagers use the blow dart gun for catching animals to eat. Christine was wearing her favourite pink scarf and one of the local ladies with a baby girl kept asking her for it. Eventually she gave in and gave it to the little girl! At another local village we found the local ladies sitting around on the ground with their bingo cards! They used stones to cover the numbers and each paid one Sole (about 20p) a game and the winner won the funds in the pot. Another day we were taken piranha fishing. There was great excitement when Christine caught something on her line, only to bring it in and find she had caught a small sardine!! Darryl did manage to catch a piranha but it was only small, but had very scary looking teeth! On another trip up the Amazon River we saw both pink and grey river dolphins playing in water. We saw some amazing sunrises and sunsets over the Amazon.
From Iquitos we flew back to Lima and again and then straight on another overnight bus, this time headed for Cusco. We have arrived at just the right time in Cusco as it is festival time. On 24 June it is the main Inca festival of Inti Raymi (festival of the sun). Already the celebrations have begun. Every day this week the local schools are putting on parades in the streets. Their costumes are amazingly detailed and beautifully coloured and their dancing is great. The parades started on Tues 17th with the nursery school, Wednesday was the primary school and the high school and college has yet to come.
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