Headed down toward Milaflores again this morning and walked in the opposite direction along the beach front and cliff top.
Then it was back to the hostel to collect my bags, met up with a girl there who was also heading to downtown Lima so we shared a taxi, what an experience that turned out to be. Picture a yellow lada type car, a bit smaller actually, only one of the back doors opened and the boot was jammed shut, this is a typical taxi and also you agree a price before you get in as they don´t have any meters !! Anyway hopped in the back and had to throw my large and heavy backpack over the back seat into the boot and off we set, the driver spoke no english whatsoever and we had very little spanish between us so it was fun trying to explain that I was going to a hotel and she was going to the main plaza, at one stage we were sitting in traffic (3 lanes bumper to bumper) and an ambulance came up behind him with lights flashing, sirens blaring and Senior Driver just sat there and would not budge, none of the cars would but in fairness our fella was in front of him, nobody moved for about 3-4 mins, we were looking back at the Ambulance and the driver was shaking his fist, it was awfull, anyway our lad opened his window (which took some effort) and waved him arm out at the ambulance telling the driver to drive up the wrong side of the road, some more yelling went on and eventually the ambulance took off up the wrong side but not before shouting a load of abuse at our fella, god help whoever was in the back of the ambulance.
Got to my Hotel where I´m meeting the rest of the crew and I have a room to myself, yepee, usually you have to share but I won´t complain.
Met up with our Guide, Hilda and the other couple who are on the tour, John and Lynn from the UK, a really nice couple who are on route to Figi for 4 months to do some voluntary work. Had a bit of a tour of downtown Lima, visited the two main plazas and the Church of St Francis which was really interesting, normally I´m not one for getting a guided tour around a church but this was different. Finished off in a hotel bar (as you do) with a Pisco Sour and then got a bus out to Balanco which is the arty district of Lima, a really cool place, would have liked to see it in daylight but time didn´t permit. Had dinner just off Kennedy Park which was really good, the beef here is nice, not as nice as Argentina but a close second.
Didn´t sleep very well as my room is overlooking a main thoroughfare so between music, shouting, trucks collecting stuff ! it was well after 4 before it eventually quitened down and then I was up at 6.00am, it´s pretty hectic.
Met up with the TV Crew, 4 in total, Jane the producer, Bevan the main shooter, Ollie the second shooter and editor and Annie, the celeb. After introductions were made we headed to the Airport for our flight to Puerto Maldonado. We flew first to Cusco where some people got on and off and then continued on to Puerto Maldonado. The guys started filming almost straight away and after watching them over the past few days I can tell you I will look at documentaries in a very different way, they need to shoot 2000 mins for a show that will last 45 mins and it takes 5 weeks to edit. They certainly earn their money.
A bus brought us to the office of the Adventure Company where we packed a bag for 2 nights and we left our main luggage at the office, then it was off again to the port to get our boat, the road to the port was literally a dirt track and because it´s the rainy season here they was plenty of puddles, rather large ones ! Got to the port which is literally where they have cut a few bushes from the side of the road and make some steps down to the river, not exactly what you´d call a port but this is the Jungle and you need to blend in. The boat journey took about an hour up river, and the river we were on is a tributary of the Amazon. Got to our destination and then had to walk through forest for about 10 mins before we reached our lodge, it was fab, not what I expected at all. It´s called the Posado Amazones, it´s constructed totally from wood and there is no electricity ! They have a generator which is used to cook ect and this goes off at 9.00pm on the dot, Kerosene Lamps are dotted around the place also but these too are blown out at 9.00 so all you have then is your torch and 2 candles in the bedroom and it gets pretty dark here. Again I have a room to myself, double and singel bed, hammock and shower and toilet, there are no windows in any of the rooms, so when you are lying there under your mossie net you are literally looking out into the Jungel. I was swinging away on the hammock one afternoon watching 3 monkeys playing away in the trees, now you couldn´t ask for anything better than that, total bliss.
They have these other Monkeys called Howler Monkeys and crikey do they howl, the first time I heard them I thought it was a small aeroplane overhead, they are sooo loud. Myself, John and Lynn have our own guide, Auriel, and the others have a different one as they need to do extra stuff and there are certain things they need to film so rather then holding us up it was decided there would be two guides.
Auriel brought us on a hike to a viewing tower which is 120m high and the view was amazing, we were over the tree line so you could see all around, you could just about make out the Andes in the distance and we got to see the sunset, various species of birds flying around, there wasn´t a sound except for the animals and birds.
The food in the lodge is really good and of course there is the bar, myself, John, Lynn and the two camera guys were enjoying a few drinks on the first night when right on cue at 9.00pm all lights went out, so it was an early night for all, mind you I did have to get up at 4.00am the following morning so the torch and candles came in handy, after brekkie we walked through the darkness of the jungle to our boat and went about 20 mins up river where we disembarked and trekked for another 30 mins to another river. Saw a tarantula on route, lovely fella ! Got onto a catamaran and went out onto the river where we fished for parana, yes you read right, PARANA and guess what, I caught one, ok he wasn´t exactly huge but you should have seen the razor sharp teeth he had. The river is full of them and we all caught one, actually John caught two, you should have heard the shouts from us when we did catch them because you can see them coming for the bait and biting but they are so quick that you have to pull the rod from the water really fast, must have gone through a 1lb of meat before i caught the little bugger. The heat out on the River was unreal and this was only around 7.00am.