Welcome to the Jungle…

Another day, another trip, this time the 5 days 4 night tour with Bonanza Tours of the cultural zone of Manu National Park. This post contains mostly photos (we saw around 100 different birds though we do not have photos of them all).

Another early start, this one actually earlier than normal as there were road works and the only road would be closed for most of the day (similar to what we encountered in Indonesia)! At 4.30 am and we were off…to collect the rest of our group- Liz and John (UK), Malu and Remco (NL) along with our guide Moses, chef (he was just called chef), his son Ronaldo (the chef’s apprentice) and of course our driver we were finally on our way.

Our guide Moses grew up in the jungle up stream from the Bonanza lodge and has known the owners all his life. Over the next few days led us on the most awesome adventure in the jungles of Manu National Park, the Peruvian Amazon….

We left the city of Cusco behind and began our trip towards Manu National Park.

The first stop, the breakfast stop, was the folklore rich village of Paucartambo, home to the three-day Fiesta de la Virgen del Carmen. It is one of the biggest street parties in Peru. This is the main fountain in the town which shows some of the characters at the festival.

They also love the “dried on a mountain” potatoes here, there were loads of them.

From the village we continued on to the gateway to the park for our “snack” stop (there was a lot of driving the first and last days and, rather randomly, eating, we never were hungry on this tour) before descending into the cloud forest….stopping every time someone spotted something- which was a lot! So many birds to see as we wound our way down to the Rainforest lodge, our stop for the night.

The map of Manu, most (the dark green) is restricted access for researchers (and local nomadic tribes), the bit we could get in to was the tiny part of slightly darker green on the right side near the bottom. A tiny part.

Different levels in Manu, Cloud forest (3,490 m) to the rainforest floor (293 m).

There was a lady selling her hand woven scarves here. They were gorgeous but we couldn’t afford them, we did buy a t-shirt each off her though. Next time I’m totally getting one of these.

I almost stepped on this little guy, he was so tiny and in the middle of the road. Moses picked him up and moved him to the verge. Poor chap.

Such concentration! We all squashed into a tiny hide to try spot the national bird of Peru, the Andean Cock-of-the-Rock

This was it! Weirdest looking bird and very hard to get on camera. Gav managed it all the same though!

Around 5 (I think it was) we pulled into the Rainforest lodge, our home for the first night. We were shown to a twin room on stilts, left to chill out and have a (cold) but refreshing shower before joining everyone for coffee and dinner and a little night walk to see what we could see around the lodge.

Our room. We slept really well. It was quite nice to have the individual mosquito nets, like being in a cocoon!

I didn’t take many photos of the food as it tasted a lot nicer than it looked, all served buffet style.

A Cane toad on our night walk. We also saw a tarantula nest (under one of the other rooms) and on the grounds we saw a burrowing crab nest. As well as a bat…

..and a few frogs and moths and this butterfly.

In our room we had a small praying mantis… they’re great. 🙂

Day 2: The following morning we woke just before dawn to do a bit of bird watching before breakfast (we managed to spot the following before breakfast: purplish jay, chestnut eared aracari, sulphury flycatcher, pale-vented pigeon, white-faced parakeet, mealy parrot, chestnut fronted macaw, crimson crested woodpecker). Then after breakfast we packed up and headed down towards the village of Atalaya.

chestnut fronted macaw, through Moses’ telescope.

Crimson crested woodpecker right outside our room.

A village shop near the Rainforest lodge

A small coffee plantation- coca smuggling is big here, a fuel for the drugs trade. As a result the government is incentivising the growth of other crops such as coffee.

Poison dart frog – these are highly poisonous but Moses used to frequently play with them as a child. He didn’t realise how dangerous they were until a specialist in frogs was on a tour with him.

You could easily pick off a bit of their covered trail and watch them

Tiny hawk (juvenile brown morph), he had spotted breakfast..

At Atalaya, we had a chance to grab some snacks (as this was the last shop before the jungle). They had puppies…

everyone was very excited by the puppies.

Great Potoo, google them, they look a bit crazy. This guy was fast asleep unfortunately.

Atalaya, the gateway to the river into Manu.

Sunbittern-(google it, it looks amazing) I’m the only one that saw this as everyone else was still with the puppies.

Eventually everyone joined us in the boat…

..well almost. They had just refitted the boat complete with new engine. Which broke, so the captain quickly aimed us at the side to stop us being swept away.

An ominous sign? Black vultures circling,…….eek!

Na it’s fine, they sent another boat with the spare part they needed. Bonanza is a complete family business, the boat driver was Moses’ cousin.

They were lovely, a bit sulfury but lovely. They were a bit hot for poor Ricardo though.

After the springs we continued up the river to the Bonanza lodge….

A weird stain on the floor of our room. We found out that night what it was. Just as we were drifting off there was the freakiest shrill shriek, followed by the sound of wings and more shrieking. Then it stopped. The following day I asked Moses, he told us it was a bat that liked to bring food inside to eat it (the rooms were like the last place but open at the top so he could easily get in and out). Luckily he only did it the once.

After lunch it was time for another walk to an observation tower nearby. Moments after we left the lodge we almost stepped on a Fer-de-lance snake or Bothrops asper. This type of thing is the reason for the wellies. We took some photos and then gave it a wide berth.

There was a bird living in this tree, he was bobbing it in and out so it was impossible to get a picture!

You could make jam out of these. Can’t remember the name.

Once dusk was well on its way we made our way back to the lodge for dinner before heading back out again on another night walk. I have about 20 photos of grasshoppers etc from this walk, so these are the highlights (scroll quickly over if you don’t like spiders-click to enlarge if you do).

Wolf spider

Stick insect

Stink bugs (we were warned not to get too close)

Gladiator frog

A cool little bettle

Yellow garden spider,

Moth.

I asked Moses about this grasshopper, why he had a massive spike on the end of his abdomen. Moses said it was to kill the monkey (or whatever) that ate him. Not the most thought out of defences.

Weta

Another spider, not sure of this one.

We had moths all over us.

Wolf Spider

Another stick insect. Rather sinister looking this one.

Scorpion Spider

Owl butterfly

I love this photo! One of the many “glass” butterflies of the Amazon

Pink toed tarantula

While we were out looking at all of these rather cool insects (I could have spent another hour looking for things), we heard the distant calls of the night monkey, which was a little spook . Once we got back to the lodge we crossed to the river to look for a baby caiman (well the glint of the eye in the torchlight). As we were there we heard something heading at us from behind at quite a speed….

Out of the darkness appeared this little chap…

Pablito! Turns out he is a sort of pet of the lodge, as he has got bigger he spends a lot longer on his own in the jungle

But he comes back to hang out and play. So that was quite fun, getting to pet a capybara. So cute!

Oh he was so cute! Little Pablito. That night was the first (and only) night we slept in the Bonanza Lodge (it was the same set up as the previous place- two single beds with mosquito nets), and we slept amazingly well, even with the bat screeching over our heads for 15 minutes just as we were drifting off to sleep.

Day 3: We got a bit of a lie in on day three, and after breakfast we headed off into the jungle through a tertiary and secondary forest. En route we saw many things that there is no photos of such as a white throat toucan, yellow tufted woodpecker, black-fronted nunbird, Red squirrel and an agouti. But what did we see? Well….

Preparing to go out for our morning jaunt…

Brown capuchin monkeys. We also spotted some squirrel monkeys but they were too fast to get a photo of.

We had to cross the river to get into the tertiary forest.

It was a bit on the slippy side, I think Gav was trying to get a photo of me as I fell over. Luckily I didn’t!

Walking Palm. This guy can really travel. As the trees around it grow and the canopy narrows it sticks out new roots to move to find the best light, breaking off the old roots if needed. We saw quite a few that managed to move around 2-3 m.

Platana-This is a type of leaf they use for building roofs in the jungle, they only last a few weeks and then need replaced. It can also be used as a container for cooking or generally around food.

Remco telling us not to worry, he was going to clear the path for us now Moses had given him the machete.

I think this was the fruit of the Wecoungo palm tree.

Three bamboo sticks later and he found one..

… it was a bit like coconut water but less sweet and more green tasting.

Then we had a go at rope climbing- this was Remco “aka Mowgli”‘s go- he really went for it.

This was my attempt. I managed to get off the ground, that counts right?

Ant nest, this particular one likes to hang from trees and when broken it stinks. Moses warned us about it as one of his previous customers managed to walk into one despite being warned.

Other notable plants we saw were the Judas ear mushroom which is edible and soft (to touch) like beef and a type of belly palm which is used in making parquet flooring. There was also a tree that the bark could be used for rope or fabric as well as an ironwood and caber tree.

During this walk Moses told us a story about a rich logger who got lost in the jungle. He was attempting to retrace his steps cursing the jungle when his best friend approached him and offered to show him the way out. He asked how long it would be. Two days was the reply. The logger was getting tired and hungry but kept following his friend as he cleared a perfect path through the forest. They continued for two days and he asked again. We are nearly there, was the reply, only two days more. So they continued. After another two days had passed the logger had enough. He asked again “how much further?”. “Only another day at the most” his friend replied. Only now did the logger notice that his friend was hovering and had no feet beneath his cloak. He reeled back, horrified, exclaiming “you are not my friend! Who are you??”. At this point his friend’s face broke into a wide grin and he disappeared leaving the logger alone in the centre of the jungle to die for his crimes against the forest. That is the story of the spirit of the forest. Actually quite scary when you are in the middle of one.

After lunch our walk took us to a second viewing tower. Not much action here though, but we had one of our many snack bags here.

We could also hear howler monkeys (this is either one or a spider monkey).

Hoatzin, the national bird of Guyana. These were so cool. Total link to the dinosaurs, the chicks have claws to climb trees and everything (they loose them as they mature).

Bit of Tarzan action. There is not one of me, I have the upper body strength of a t-rex. Just couldn’t grip.

I’m not sure what these were, two small butterflies and some cuckoo spit?

These berries are toxic but are eaten by a type of wild pig. This pigs have a gland and store the toxin as defence.

After dinner we packed up and went deeper into the jungle to our camp for the night, an elevated hide over a clay pit- the salt lick.

The viewing platform was about 4 m up (no boots allowed). We had some mattresses and individual mosquito nets

And now we wait for it to get dark. There was some discussion about a rota but in the end we all fell asleep…..

Not to worry, the gentle sloppy suction noises of a tapier moving did actually wake us up.

They were so cool with their little mohawks.

in all we saw 5 of these guys visiting the salt lick for their dose of minerals.

But they weren’t the only animals that came here..

We also saw a bicolored-spined porcupine

Red Brocket deer, the last animal we saw before tidying up to head back to the lodge for breakfast..

It was time to head back to the camp from the salt lick hide…but we had time for a spot of fishing..

John was beyond happy that he caught a little fish..

..honestly he was beaming! Then it started to lash it down..

..good weather for these guys but not for us! It was a quick march back to the lodge for breakfast.

Once we arrived back at the lodge, it was breakfast time and thankfully it stopped raining so we could get ready to leave. By the time we got back the mother of the owners of Bonanza had arrived. She had lived in Cusco for many years but the altitude made her quite ill so every so often she had to come to the lodge for a little break. So it was a quick hello and we were off in the boat, battling upstream towards Atalaya.

This was our lunch on the boat, remember the Platana leaf from a few days ago?

Lunch, rice, eggs and veg in a fragrant sauce with chili, I didn’t write down the name unfortunately. Served with chicha.

Red throated caracara- these guys are ten-a-penny.

Black vultures.. we also saw a king vulture flying but he was way, way up so the photo in the photo only a small speck!

Yellow rumped cacique look at the blue eye…

he really wasn’t happy and he let us know, so noisy!

There were loads of hoatzin at the small lake we were on.

We had a go on a basal wood raft. I got quite good at manoeuvring it

On arrival into Atalaya, we continued with day 2 in reverse getting the bus back to the Rainforest Lodge. We were running a bit late, when we arrived there was only a short time before dinner, enough to just grab a shower and freshen up really. Our last night Moses treated us to a bottle of wine, which was really nice. As a result though we ended up staying up late chatting.. not the best idea with a long day’s travelling left. Oh well it was great craic.

Day 5: One last morning bird watching before breakfast and loading up the van to head back. Through the checkpoint (to prevent coca smuggling), through the small village of Paucartambo for a lunch break and then the joy of road works before arriving that evening into Cusco.

Last morning and time to leave the lodge…but time for a dawn bird watching before breakfast

black faces tanager through the telescop

Me taking that photo- from that tree on the left.

Blue black grassquit, I quite like this picture

Spotted this guy on one of the walls in the lodge, if only he had been on a tree you’d never have seen him.

The way back was a race to get to the road before it closed again. We stopped in the same village as the way up and paid a visit to the market

Spotted in the market, wouldn’t have been out of place on a horror set. The ladies were very amused when I asked it I could take a photo.

We had now got back up to over 3000m, I was glad I still had a few coca leaves.

Our last stop was the pre-Incan burial towers of Ninamarca…..

When the spanish arrived all the gold that was once in these was removed and buried.

Many local farmers have become rich selling the piles of gold they have found in their fields.

It was a lovely spot to catch our breath.

This was a fantastic tour and I can highly recommend it. We only wish we had been able to spend a few more days at Bonanza or travel deeper into the jungle but it was not possible with our budget. Next time though…..!

Adventures in The Ether….

personal notes on a nomadic style round the world trip.

Welcome to the Jungle…

2 thoughts on “Welcome to the Jungle…”

Leave a comment Cancel reply

Want to share? Click below!

2 thoughts on “Welcome to the Jungle…”

Leave a comment Cancel reply