Day 28 - Manu National Park

Wednesday, 10 September 2014

Breakfast at 7 am. I woke up at 6 am, brushed my teeth and face and went to the toilet before all the fuss began. By fuss I really mean the children. I never really liked children, I think they are menaces to society. And like pit bulls or cockroaches, I think children can smell fear and they will come to those who fear them. It's like a horror story. This morning we saw brown capuchin monkeys near our lodge looking for food, but of course, I didn't have my camera with me. Damn.

After breakfast we went for a walk for about an hour. On the way we saw various types of butterflies, fire ants, a type of oriole, ginger plant, cinnamon tree, cocoa tree, and various other flora and fauna. The weather today was very hot and humid. I felt right at home again. Then we rode in the van to the town of Pilcopata where some of the people in the group went river rafting. I didn't go because it was a requirement that we should know how to swim, although I did river rafting back home in Taman Negara. Now that I think about it, the guide in Taman Negara probably lied about knowing swimming so that I would get into the boat. Well, luckily for me the boat did not capsize.

After this we sat in a sampan like boat with a motor to Atalaya Port, to go to our new lodge, Erica Lodge. During the boat ride we had our lunch, and were told to throw the chicken bones into the river! And now we enter the rainforest, which is part of the Amazon jungle! The river that we were on, the Alto Madre de Dios River, is a tributary of the Amazon River. 

At approximately 3.30 pm we were given boots, and we walked through the Amazon jungle! It was so humid, much more humid than our Malaysian jungle, that my t-shirt was soaking wet! In the jungle we saw many interesting flora and fauna such as caterpillars, termites, a type of cicada, trumpeters (a type of bird that makes a sound like a trumpet), mosses, tree ferns (with many small roots to enable it to move for sunlight and water purposes), and a kapok tree which is approximately 45 m high and 400 years old. And to think I bought a Kapok guitar for RM50! Poor tree. There are micro ecosystems within this tree itself, because it houses other plants, ants, bats, squirrels, and other flora and fauna.

There are approximately 8,000 species of birds in the world, in Peru alone there are about 2,000 species of birds. There are big insects everywhere! Yikes. 

After this we returned to the lodge, where I took a shower, then dinner, and the lights were out again at 9 pm sharp! I can hear insects buzzing everywhere in my room, I will just hide quietly in my mosquito net and hope they don't bite me.