We waved goodbye to the French couples after breakfast and decided to spend the morning pottering around the lodge. The plan had changed through no fault of our own and we were now leaving for Puerto Maldonado at 1.30pm - this meant killing a lot of time in and around the town. I wasn't sure seeing the market would take up that much time so I envisaged sitting around until our bus departed at 8pm, but hey we're travelling... we have to go with the flow.

I managed to negotiate in Spanish selling five of our 2.5 litre bottles of water to the lodge. We had originally bought twelve large bottles in Puerto Maldonado, but the weather had been cooler than expected so we didn't drink as much. However if the last three days had been as warm as today then twelve bottles would have gone in a flash. Julia and myself set off for a short walk to see if we could see any monkeys in the same spot she had seen them yesterday. We didn't see anything so they must have been wisely hiding away from the heat in the shade somewhere. We doubled back and headed for the water tower cutting through a small section of the rainforest. It seems the heat keeps larger animals at bay along with the mosquitoes which isn't a bad thing. Although it does attract more insects, especially the noisy kind that sound like an out of control electronic keyboard. Having owned a bank of keyboards and synthesisers in the past I was fascinated at the range of sounds some of these little creatures made. One in particular made a high pitched sound which has a hollow resonance to it with a slight oscillation which speeds up towards the end of it's cycle. I can imagine emulating this sound on my old Roland SH106. The other sound which is striking is the macaws, they screech out a prehistoric bark like sound which echoes through the jungle.

By the time we reached the water tower we were drenched in sweat - I hadn't experience humidity like this since I was a child living in Florida. The sweat was pouring out of me. Any predator looking for an easy lunch could have simply chased us through the jungle for twenty minutes and watched us collapse of dehydration before helping themselves to some prime rib. We saw quite a few emerald green headed lizards from the top of the water tower.

We made our way to the pool to inspect the Tarantula nest up in the changing room roof. There were quite a few out basking in the heat. We returned to the lodge sodden in sweat for a nice cool shower. After lunch we were informed our plans had changed and we were now leaving for Puerto Maldonado at 5pm. This suited us better as it was too hot to do much. I was informed by our driver in Spanish that the young chap who came off his motorbike on Monday had been drinking - hopefully he will be ok. I was also told by the cook that the temperature was a soaring 38 degrees today! I continued to do nothing more than lie in the hammock most of the afternoon playing solitaire and watching insects jump around me. Around 5pm the wind picked up and we could hear and later see thunderstorms in the distance - the clouding over seemed to help reduce the temperature. Shortly after the hoard of 16 French tourists who had arrived a few days ago returned to camp. The ambient jungle sound scape was now lost to chattering French couples. Despite our efforts to smile and say hello in Spanish they retorted back in French or simply said nothing. I can't help but feel the older French generation still reinforce that British / French polite disregard for each other. I joked with the young French couples we had spent the last few days with about the fact we don't speak French, but they didn't seem that bothered. We also laughed about our cultures and the stereotype each culture is labelled with - it was at that point I ordered another lager.

We drove into Puerto Maldonado around 7ish where we had time to grab a bite to eat before catching the bus. We spoke with the lodge manager. She was keen to see what I thought of the lodge now after visiting it six years ago. I felt the lodge had improved and was more vibrant. It was good to see more staff working there and that the facilities had improved slightly. I told her I was concerned over the deforestation in the area and that this wouldn't help tourism in the long run. She agreed but explained that the situation was tricky. The police didn't seem that bothered about moving the illegal farmers on. The owner of the lodge had a moral dilemma as he was a Swiss priest. I queried what would happen if they were to destroy their crops and forced them to move on... she explained they had threatened to burn down the lodge and harm Nicholas one of the lodge workers. She went on to say that the lodge is trying to work with them to improve sustainability within the area and that the lodge is planning to buy up another 200 acres. Personally I'm not sure what can be done. If the authorities are not interested then the problem in my opinion will persist for many years to come.