Where in the world?

I totally forgot abut this trip, with all the excitement, its easy to forget 4 days melting in the jungle heat and trying to avoid being attacked by mosquitos!
We left Cusco at 5am and headed for Atalaya via inca tombs and a couple of villages. We stayed overnight in a lodge before heading out on a raft. The group were cool and seemed to get on OK. We stopped to go to a lookout to see the national bird of Peru, "the cock of the rock" and there were loads of them, although with the forest lighting they were difficult to get good shots of.

COCK OF THE ROCK

The rafting was a little hairy as we had an extra person on our side and coordinating strokes was a little difficult. Thankfully the river wasn't too rough. I think if it had been we might have spent some time swimming!!!!
There was a cool Macaw at the rafting centre called Lola although she did many tricks I wasn't letting her anywhere near my fingers.

LOLA THE MAD MACAW

After the rafting we got into a small launch and headed for our lodge which was about 25 minutes downstream. Some of the water was a little rough and I'm not sure how we stayed upright. Our lodge was built right on the riverside where the water flow changes direction so it was kind of interesting getting through the rapids and then the boat having to turn against the current.
The 1st evening we headed out on a night walk in our gum boots and torches. We were only a small way from our lodge when we spotted monkeys. They were easy to see jumping between the trees but impossible to photograph. We also spotted a caiman but not much else of any size. We saw a few spiders and many moths in my headtorch light so we headed back to camp.
The next day we were going to get up early to see the Colpa or clay lick where the parrots get there minerals but it was raining too hard so we got a lie in till 0630hrs!! The rain had stopped and we headed for our canopy ziplines. Those of you who know me well are aware of my fear of heights but will be surprised to know that I managed to zip through the forest canopy 60 metres above the ground!!! Well it was included and you know how I like a bargain!!!!

CANAOPY ZIPLINE

As it turned out, the parrot clay lick was a bit of a disapppointment. The photos they show you when they sell you the trip are obviously taken with a super-duooper camera as when we got there we were at least 150metres away on the other side of the river. My tip is get some binoculars or they look like greenfly!
The days passed really quickly. One day we went to see the local shamen but he was away!!! How dare he not be there!
We saw a few strange birds that look like turkeys but sound like a cow, thinks its called a Hoatzin. We also saw some nocturnal monkeys who had, unwisely decided to sleep just above the tourist path. Not very clever of them. This photo wa staken by Bjorn as he was the only one with a good enough camera.

NOCTURNAL MONKEY FAMILY

I really enjoyed the jungle although would have liked to see more wildlife. I know like anything in nature nothing is guarenteed but would probably try to go to Puerto Maldonado and fly back if I had the money.