Tuesday 12th June

Up at 2.30 a.m. for a 5.15 a.m. flight to Iquitos (only accessible by air or boat). Boarded the flight and sat on the runway for over an hour only to be told that the flight was cancelled due to the poor weather conditions! We returned to our hotel and caught the flight 12 hours later at 5.30 p.m. Iquitos was buzzing with motorbike taxis (like tuk tuks) and we were driven to the hotel in the swarm! Iquitos is a rubber boom town right in the middle of the Amazon jungle.

Wednesday 13th June

Time for a stroll by the river this morning, taking in the local market and overseeing the floating market. We then set off for our 145 km journey to the Muyuna Jungle Lodge by speed boat. It was due to take 3 hours but one and a half ours in, the steering went on our boat and we were up the Amazon with only a paddle! Fortunately we were in two boats and the other boat returned to rescue us after about an hour of us "tacking and jibing"! Once we arrived and had lunch we went for a jungle walk and as you would expect it rained. We saw pigmy marmoset monkeys (endangered), a fer-de-lance snake (one of the most deadly snakes in the jungle!) as well as many other dangerous insects and plants. In the evening we went on a night trip on the river and saw many nocurnal birds and the guide caught a 3 foot caiman.

Thursday 14th June

6 a.m. river trip to see/hear morning chorus.   This area is an ornithologist's paradise - we saw many beautiful birds, squirrel monkeys, iguanas, etc. After breakfast we were back to the main channel of the Amazon to see pink and grey dolphins and have a swim.   The water was warm and brown, bit like swimming in warm, strong tea!   Furtunately the pirahna weren't biting.  There are lots of lakes in this area of the Amazon and during the afternoon we visited these in the boats, seeing more wildlife all the time. On the evening trip we were taken to the home of a female tarantula on the river bank.  On our return to the Lodge we discovered two just outside the dining room!

Friday 15th June

Early morning jungle walk in search of monkeys - briefly saw nocturnal monkeys, a tree rat and pigmy monkeys again.   The wildlife in the jungle is so much harder to observe than in the Galapagos Islands!  After breakfast we went to the lake to fish for pirahna, must be easy as even Susan caught one!  We had the fish we caught for lunch, fortunately with other food as they were very small!

The journey back to Iquitos took 1 hour and 50 minutes (down stream) and we are now back in Lima for a couple of nights, catching up on the washing!   It was very muddy in the jungle.