So I arrive back to Cuzco from the Inca trail and Machu Picchu, have a shower repack my back with what few clean clothes I have left and set off to the bus.. There was a slight ordeal where they forgot to book the bus for me and I had to run to the office... and get it sorted out but anyway I was off to the Amazon..

It was a night bus with a bed..So I slept for the first few hours and then we stopped.. and stopped and stopped... I got off the bus that was like a sauna to investigate and found that we were stuck in the middle of a land slide on a cliff face... fun... there were tree trunks, rocks, dirt and everything in between surrounding our bus... the next couple of hours were spent axing trees, shovelling dirt and shifting rocks to create a path for our bus... this was awesome after 4 days of hiking and very little sleep.. My whole body ached...

Anyway the bus got going and I tried my best to sleep.. We finally arrive in Puerto Maldonado 3 hours late and it is humid and very hot... my transfer is there waiting for me and I grab my bags.. We walk out the front of the bus terminal and I expect to see a van or something... nope no van just a scooter.. I look at the lady and she smiles and gestures for me to hop on.. So me the tour lady and my 2 bags all piled onto this scooter and putted down the road for 20 minutes...

When we arrive I got a bit of attitude from our guide Carlos because I was 3 hours late and the other people on my tour had to wait for me.. I got a bit teary as I was so tired and over it by then and nearly hopped on the next bus back to Cuzco but instead I cracked it and said fine lets go since I'm holding everyone up so much.. He asked why I was late so I told him and then I could tell he felt bad and was over the top nice to me.. But you see the damage was done and I wasn't ready to forgive so easily...

We hopped into the boat and headed down river an hour to the lodge that we staying at.. When we got there we got assigned a room and told we had an hour till lunch to do whatever.. This made me so angry as I was then wondering what the bloody rush back in Puerto Maldonado was... I lie on a hammock and then fell asleep.. Was only an hour but was the best sleep I have had in a long time...

It was lunch time and lunch was amazing... the know how to fill you up over here that's for sure.

After lunch we headed off by boat to Monkey Island.. We trekked around the jungle and Carlos pointed out different bird and plant species.. Towards the end of the trek we finally saw some monkeys... they came closer to us to investigate... after a bit we think the females were in heat because they started to look at us like we were lunch.. I was out of there like lightening...

We headed back to the lodge where we rested again before heading out on a night tour in the boat for Cayman.. We saw a few.. Some big and some small.. Carlos got one out of the water Steve Irwin style... one of the girls started crying so he had to put it back.. It was like 40 cm long.. Anyway after this we went back to the lodge once again and then had dinner.. After dinner I was out like a light.

We woke up in the morning and had breakfast and then set off downstream to a lake and jungle area.. we were gone most of the day and trekked about 8km and canoed for a couple of hours also... here we saw spiders, spider monkeys, macaws, otters, stinker birds... yep that's their name, herons, snake ducks and a variety of other animals that I have already forgotten the name of.. The giant otter is endangered so was cool to see a family of them..

We headed back in the afternoon to the lodge where we laid in the hammocks and listened to music.. Was relaxing.. The weather was pretty crappy and it rained when we were canoeing so lying in the hammocks was really the only option..

Before dinner we were going to go on a walk to see spiders.. I wasn't really down with that and was feeling pretty average so I stayed and snoozed... when the girls came back they said I didn't miss too much and they only saw a couple of spiders which we had already seen earlier that day.....

We had dinner and after dinner listened to some salsa music and chatted for a bit and then called it a night.

In the morning I got my stuff ready and we headed back to Puerto Maldonado where I spent the day sitting in a cafe eating yummy food and writing my blog.. That night I caught the overnight bus back to Cuzco..