Jungle Mania!

Arriving to Cusco I was reunited with Dan and Holly in yet another Loki hostel. This one however was much prettier than that of La Paz, but just as much of a party hostel. I checked into there room 106 which turned out to be a super party room, comprised of us, some crazy London boys and some Aussie girls... all the drinking nations under one roof! So first night in Cusco was a good one!

Tragically however, I managed to get myself sick again the next day, and it was really getting old. Despite this me, Dan and Holly decided to go ahead and book our 4 day trek to Manu Jungle. Luckily my vomiting, fainting episodes lasted for 24 hours and off we went on Monday, with out wonderful guide Freddy. Freddy was born and raised in a little village in Manu jungle so had amazing inside knowledge about it all and all the plants and animals we saw. The first day involved a long car ride down with plenty of stops along the way where we hiked along the path and saw an amazing amount of birds (none of whos names I can remember) and some cappacino monkeys. We arrived to a jungle town just outside Manu where we stayed in a hostel ( along with large flying Cockroaches) for the night.

I loved the jungle, it was incrediably interesting but there were two things I rapidly had to adjust to, one was the intense humidity and the other was the constant swarm of insects, varying from mossies to stinging wasps the size of my head. Having said that, thanks to some amazing insect repellent I didn´t get bitten once, which means goodbye crazy Lariam Maleria tablets!

The 2nd day we drove another bit and stopped in a Cocoa farm for a look. We then got a terrifying boat (yay...) down the river into the jungle. We walked to our lodge which was wonderfully jungle chic! All wooden with no electricity and an outhouse with the kitchen outside under a shelter. After dropping our stuff off we hiked through the jungle for a bit where Freddy pointed out various plants all with different medical uses, and many hallucinagenic ones. He also pointed out the largest species of tree in the jungle which the native communities consult if they want to cut a plant down and also use it to curse people they don´t like. There are over 40 different languages spoken in the jungle by various communities, some of which still live in the stone age and have never seen fire. They only know of them through the communication they have with certain indigunous tribes.

One very sad thing I discovered about Manu Jungle was that in May of this year, the Peruivian government sold it to huge American Oil companies. The entire time we were there we heard and saw helicopters of the oil company. They are currently preforming explotions throughout to find oil, and when they do, they cut the forest, destroying wildlife that has taken hundreds of years to develope. What made me sadder was that western news didn´t deem it newsworthy and it is now too late to stop. I´m lucky I got to see it before its destroyed.

After lunch we crossed the river again, hiked for a bit then took a RAFT on a lagoon to bird watch and look out for the giant otters and rodents. We then waited till nightfall and saw Camens (like Aligators) and other strange creatures.

Unfortunately the 3rd day was yet another sick day for me, but I managed to get myself out of bed at 4 am, get on the boat, and go to the Salt Lick, where Macaws and other birds go early every morning. It was amazing, but after that I returned to bed for the day and slept for 35 hours, which was broken up by sickness and the occasional halluciation! Theres nothing like being sick in a room full of bugs and intense heat. Freddy brought me back some jungle medician which he made into tea but unfortunately, didn´t work to well.

The 4th and final day largely involved our trip back to Cusco. I still wasn´t feeling very well but Freddy told me we´d stop in the Jungle town to visit the doctor. He wasn´t there, so we went to the jungle Hospital instead! Wonderful experience! People mostly walk in there feet in the jungle, and it certainly wasn´t as clean as home, but they still managed to fix me with antibiotics which cost 1euro for over a weeks supply! Don´t think its worth claiming on the insurance somehow...

On the trip back, Freddy told us about our boat drivers previous night, in which him and his friend took a local hallucinagenic which is supposed to help you discover the meaning of life. However, they both just tripped out, he tried to beat up his girlfriend, but he had no strength in him so she just hit him and pushed him in the river! I was glad he told me this after our boat trip rather than before!