Day 2 in the jungle. Yup, we made it through the first day and night (despite losing most of our bodily fluids from sweating) and avoiding being stung, bitten or eaten alive! It's soooo hot here - 35 degrees Celsius and 100% humidity!!!! We awoke to the sounds of the jungle at around 4:00 am even though our wake up time wasn't until 5:00. We heard many bird songs and an eerie sound just like Richard Dreyfuss heard in the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind. And no, it wasn't just Vic and I who heard it! It was the topic of conversation during breakfast. 

Peru's Tambopata-Candamo Reserve is located in the region of Madre de Dios, not far from Cusco. In this amazing biological reserve, three different ecosystems converge together: the Amazonian plain, the eastern slopes of the Andes and the Pampas ecosystem. This environmental diversity has allowed at least 11 different types of forests to co-exist leading to an incredible biodiversity.    

Today we headed out early to catch the jungle at its wildest and coolest -although it didn't seem very cool to me! We took our canoe for a short trip to a part of the jungle where we were going to start our 4 km trek through the forest searching for wildlife and learning about the areas rich flora and fauna and the locals use of medicinal plants before heading out on an oxbow lake (formed when a river curves its way to form a cutoff lake) by canoe. I started sweating just getting out of the canoe. God, it was bloody hot! On the way we saw a family of capybaras (a semi aquatic rodent native to South America which looks like a cross between a Guinea pig and a hippo). Jose, our guide, said it was a male as he could see its balls. We all laughed and I said how can you see them as we were not that close. He said the male has an organ on its head that is the shape of a ball and we all had a good chuckle at that. The number of species of animals in the jungle identified until now have scored world records: 1,234 types of butterflies, 592 species of birds, 152 varieties of dragonflies, 135 kinds of ants, 127 species of amphibians, 103 types of mammals, 94 species of fish, 74 kinds of reptiles, 40 species of termites and 39 varieties of bees. Amongst these are 13 endangered species including the jaguar (panthera onca), the giant otter (pteronura brasilensis), the ocelot (felis pardalis), the harpy eagle (harpia harpyja) and the giant armadillo (priodentes giganteus). We did see a hole where an armadillo was digging for food but not an armadillo. Our guide, Jose, also lured a tarantula out of its nest with a leaf attached to a stick. 

Our group for the trek were called the sexy monkeys. Jose found a green leafed plant and crushed it between his fingers until it turned purple. Then he proceeded to paint our faces with it. We were ready to take on anything with our war paint (except the heat). Vic was given a leaf to make tea with that is called para para. It is the jungle version of viagra and gives you an erection for 3 days. As if I wasn't hot enough just breathing!!! The locals refer to it as a stiffy stiffy leaf. That's all I'm saying about that!!! We learned about all the various other uses of various plants for indigestion, deworming, natural mosquito repellents, cooking and making of alcohol, specifically a tree they call the jungle willy. Have you guessed what that's used for? You got it I'm sure - sexual prowess. 

We made our way to an oxbow lake and got into a catamaran that was like the Peruvian equivalent to a run down gondola. They used a weird looking "oar" at the back to power it through the water just like in a gondola. We saw many macaws along the way. They are so beautiful with their colourful plumage. We got off on the other side and saw a baby black caiman which we fed and a 2 meter long eel, which we also fed. Also there were sardines and angel fish. We walked into the forest and saw a huge ficus tree and a Kapoc tree which they think is the largest in the Peruvian rainforest. The trek through the jungle was treacherous with roots, rocks, and various fallen limbs etc. It was hard to keep your head up to see anything until you stopped. 

They said it was starting to get hot (starting??? I had already shed at least 5 pounds in sweat. I had to bring a towel with me to mop my brow as the sweat was just rolling off me. And we had to wear long pants and long sleeved shirts to keep the bugs away. Then, we returned to the catamaran and went back across the lake only stopping to feed the piranhas. I offered up Vic but they just wanted to use crackers. We returned to the lodge, after 5 hours, at noon and had lunch. We had options for activities for the afternoon. We could go on a plantation tour (ya I'm going to walk around a farm in this blistering heat), go to the creek and swim, or do whatever we wanted. Did I mention it was damn hot? Well, we decided to go to the creek. So we arranged to get a cooler and filled it with a bunch of cervezas to share with anyone who joined us. The bar staff was quite amused at this. No one had ever done this before. The creek was lovely. Running water, shade, cold beer, great company and little fishes cleaning all your dead skin away. I have seen this as an expensive spa treatment in Europe and was grossed out by it then but here it just seemed like part of the experience and after the first few nibbles I didn't even notice it. You really couldn't swim as it was about 2 feet deep, but we just sat in the sandy creek with the little fishes nibbling away and enjoyed the coolness. A few people joined us and we chatted and drank the beer and stayed cool for the first time in 2 days. Did I mention it was frigging hot there? We stayed the whole afternoon until we reluctantly had to leave to get ready for dinner which meant we had to change. No makeup, no hair stying, and we cpdidnt have to wear our long pants anfpd long sleeved shirts. Man, did I look hot!!!

After dinner we went by canoe, in the dark, to search for caimans (smaller cousins of alligators) and any other animal that cared to show itself on the river bank. We did see a couple but one was shy and submerged as we approached but a white caiman about 2 metres long was happy for us to get about 2 meters away and posed for us for at least 5 minutes. We also saw a capybara from about 2 meters away and a puma which is VERY unusual. I say we saw it but only some of us did. I was not amongst those so fortunate. I was on the wrong side of the boat with "bad" eyes. But Vic saw it as did others. The guide was ecstatic. He has only ever seen 1 before and he lives there! It was a beautiful evening with the breeze in the canoe. I was still feeling blissful from my afternoon in the creek. We went back to the lodge and the 80 steps for the 2nd time that day and got all hot and sweaty again. Have I mentioned that it's REALLY hot in the jungle?? Well we just had to have a cold cerveza and then it was off to our bungalow to get under the mosquito nets as we had another early morning tomorrow. We're leaving this hell ......I mean heaven to go back to Cusco. I say this only because...can you guess....yup, because it was so hot I felt like I was in hell. Other than the heat it was an incredible experience I'll never forget.