viernes, 27 de enero de 2012

Cusco Part Two (Leroy`s Birthday)

17th Nov - Day 36 


Mr Browns Birthday began with a great breakfast at Jacks Cafe. Nothing new but the foods just to good, and Leroy is fighting a strrawberry milkshake addiction. His Birthday plans were up in the air, as the Inka Trail Relief Samana Spa day i booked fell through due to the spa turning out to be in building sight conditions, oops. After dashing about town, Leroy and I turnedto google and found a beutiful place called Encantada. A boutique offering a relax package. This turned out to be even better than the original plan, a sweet touch of fate.

We booked it for the next day to get the most and spent the day wandering around town. We went to the Natural Museum to see some wild life. A selection of birds, snakes and creepy crawlys. I wasn´t really a fan, especially after doing the Inka Trail and seeing most of the animals alive and well ! anyway, we chilled out for the rest of the day, in preperation for what ever the night had in store.

 
First stop Paddy´s bar, followed by a reggae bar called Wachuma, a band full of spirit played tribal fusion. It was great to also meet up with a few friends we´d done the trail with. An Irish guy called Phil and an Austrian lovely. Willam and Analika from our group also joined us for drinks and dancing. We ended up at another bar, hoping to see a Doors tribute band, but as we missed them we had the bar to ourselves till morning. the owner even played happy birthday for Leroy.


18th Nov - Day 37

Moving to the Spa was fantastic. we checked in to a room with the biggest bed in Peru and enjoyed the day. We went off to the Spa for 3 where we enjoyed a full body massage and facial. The room was filled with tranquil music, insent, flowers and a basket of edible joy. great day finished off with dinner at the hotel, again we had the place the place to ourselves making it fell strangly a little like a honey moon !!!!



19th - 25th - Days 38-45

So this was a genral week of eating at different interesting places and hostel hopping. We´ve decided that this would be a great time to also organise our next big adventure to the Amazon Jungle.

We moved into a new hostel `The View point´ and met with our Inka Trail group for drinks. The next day we foun a place calle The Real Mcoy for roast dinner, ow how i´d missed gravy. We can start to see the rain season kick in a little more, saw the biggest storm today. On the 21st we ran away from our hostel. (leaving them money for what we´d had obviously) It was the worst hostel, When we got ther the bed had bugs on it from the wodden beams above, they sorted it straight away so we let it slide, they had quite a few dirty cats and dogs that made nosie during the night, somthing that happens regulary in Peru so we also let that slide, in the morning they played the worst generic party music, it was annoying but the view and room was so nice and cheap, we where willing to put up with it ! The final straw was when they had the biggest faf trying to get my shower to work, in the end they offered me the dirtiest room to take a shower in, with the dapiest smelly dog imaginable. No thanks ! we packed then ran. Football at Paddy´s bar with a beer made it all better.

For all fellow traveler´s here is a check list of important things to check and ask when finding a good hostel.

Find out if they have what you want (in our case a matrimonial room) and the price.
Always ask for a disscount if your staying more than 3 nights, especially out of season.
Always ask to see the room before you say yes to anything. (sit on the bed, bit extreme but its surprising what you feel and find)
See what´s included for the price, breakfast, internet, heaters and any extra costs they want to through in.
See what time breakfast stops, if your not up in time for it why pay for it !

Our new home was a hidden gem in San Blas, Inti Quilla. peaceful clean with a huge tree growing in the middle of the court yard. That evening we found a gay bar-restarant for dinner, with the most elaborate decor we´d ever seen.bath tub tables with fish in, a massive selection of out there art and lots of cherub pigs on the ceiling.

We found a great Indian on the 22nd, Kormasutra! so great to have something different. Peruvian food can be great but sometimes you just need more variety, something england really provides. its interesting going from bar to restarant to understand what the altitude effects. When up high the things can no longer exsist are:

Yorkshire Puddings, celling the deal that leroy could never live up high.
Popadoms
Light pastry´s
Guiness on tap, ow well!

 













 Some lovely flowers Mr Leroy got me xxx




So now it was time to get ready for the Jungle. We´ve gone with highly recommended company called Amazon Trails. and we´re heading in deeper to a place called Manu. a few days of faffing and we were ready to get in and amoungst the jungle.    

Manu The Amazon Jungle

26th Nov - 2nd Dec - Days 46 - 54

So here´s the link to our 8 day jungle itinery. happy reading for all the details ! if not then enjoy this short overview of our time in the Amazon.






























<<<<< A Monkey Brush 

 <<<<<< Our Cabin 

  Owl Moth >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>


After getting an 11 hour bus ride to the Amazon river side we started our adventure. Our guide was Carlos, a man who had grown up in the jungle until he was 16, then did his degree in Biology and became a jungle guide. very smart ! Our chef was a cheeky man called Donald. He cooked amazing food and even produced a cake whilst in the jungle, very skilled. 

The first half of our journey was spent on a boat getting to our first lodge. Along the way we all kept an eye out for the wild life.  we were really lucky with the weather, and mostly had great sun shine. The jungle is a very hummid place, and as there´s so much oxygen here majority of the wild life grows to giant proportions.


Most of our time was spent getting up really early (4am) to drive down river, getting to view points or trekking through the jungle. along the way we had many stops to learn about the medicinal uses of the trees and plants, or to see the animals.

Visiting the clay lick was beautiful. with a chance to see many types of parrots, from a fantasticly made view point. We also got the chance to get on board a couple or rafts at various points, to quietly move across lakes and get close to giant river otters, caimans and prehistoric birds.




One night we trekked deep into the jungle to sleep on an open platform, to see wild Tapirs. a little scary as there where vampire bats about, and the the rest ! Mosquito nets are certaintly your best friend in an eco system like this!   

One of my favorite outtings, was to go to the top of one of the oldest trees in the world. they can only guess that it´s over 600 years old, reaching great hights, way above the canopy top. finding a rare old owl asleep at the top of this wise old tree was 
very special.




One evening we stayed at a lodge Where we met two guys working for the National History Museum. They were collecting new species of insects for the museums collection. That eveing they found a rare snake that we got to get really close to. Later one we witnessed the biggest storm ever. it shook the walls of our cabin, and I had to bunk up with Leroy due to rain falling on my bed.











The final day, heading back throguh the Andes we stopped off to see the cock of the rock, there national bird. once we saw a few and had our lunch on the side of the road with some monkeys we went back to Cusco.

So that´s the overview of our time in the jungle, and now here´s a list of all the animals we saw for you to google away at. we managed to capture pretty much everything but i think the blog would crash if we tried to upload them all here. keep an eye out on Leroy´s facebook for all the pics.

Here's a list of everything we saw in 8 days, so you get the idea of how much we saw.




Birds

Jabiru
Muscovy Duck
Speckled Chachalaca
Razor Billed Curassow
Neotropic Conmorant
Anhinga
Cocoi Heron - Agami Heron - Fasciated Tiger Heron - Straited Heron - Black Crowned Night Heron
Horned Screamer
Black Vulture - Great Yellow Headed Vulture - Turky Vulture
Plumbeous Kite
Black Collared Hawk - Great Black Hawk - Road Side Hawk
Pale Winged Trumpeter
Sunbittern
Azure Gallnule
Purple Juvinile Gallinule
Common Moorhen
Wattled Jacana
Spotted Sandpiper
Large Billed Tern
Ruddy Pigeon
Blue Ground Dove
Roseate Spoon Bill
Great Egret - Catle Egret - Snowy Egret
Limpkin   
Blue&Yellow Macaw - Scarlet Macaw - Red&Green Macaw - Chestnut Fronted Macaw
Dusky Headed Parakeet
Orange Cheeked Parrot - Blue  Headed Parrot - Yellow Crowned Parrot - Mealy Parrot
Squirrel Cukoo
Greater Ani - Smoothed Bill Ani
Hoatzin (Prehistoric Bird)
Great Potto
Festive Coquette - Rufous Crested Coquette
Blue Crowned Tragon
Wire Crested Thorntail
Long Tailed Hermit Humming Bird - Fork Tailed Wood Nymph - Violet Headed Huming Bird 
Ringed King Fisher - Amazon King Fisher
Blueish Fronted Jacamar
Black Fronted Nunbird
Andean Flicker
Lesser Kiskdee - Great Kiskadee
Social Flycatecher
Tropical King Bird
Black Tailed Tityra
White Banded Swallow - Bank Swallow - Swallow Wing
Black Capped Donacobius
Black Billed Trush - White Necked Trush
Magpie Tanager - Silver Beaked Tanger - Blue Grey Tanager
Red Capped Cardinal
Russet Backed Orpendola
Yellow Rumped Cacique
Giant Cow Bird
Solitary Black Cacique
Troupial
Pale Eyed Blackbird
Blue Throated Piping-guan
Toucan

BIRD WATCH EAT YOUR HEART OUT !!!!!

Mammals
Long Nosed Bat - Vampire Bat 
Squirral Monkey
Saddled Backed Tamarin Monkey
Brown Cappachin Monkey
Noisy Night Monkey
Monk Saki Monkey
Red Holwer Monkey
Spider Monkey
Dusky Titi Monkey
Giant River Otter´s
Capibara
SouthernTamandua
Amazon Dwarf Squirral
Ginger Varigated Squiral
Tapir
Osolot (Foot Print !)
Long Furred Wolly Mouse

Insects

Scorpion Spider
Sicada
Wolf Spider (poisonous)
Orbit Spider
Leaf Mimickimg Katydid
Grass Hoppers
Horn Beatle
Lelius Urania Moth
Isula Ants - Black Arm (Carnivourious) - Red Army - Leaf Cutter - Bulet (Dangerious)
Termites
Butterfly´s - Massive Blue One - Many Orange Ones - 89 Butterfly - Yellow - Rainbow

Frogs

Amazon Rocket 
Ameerga Hahneli (Poisonious)
Ameerega Trivittata (Poisonious)

Reptiles

Black Caimen
Amazon Racing Lizard
Yellow Spotted Turtle
Forset Whip Tail
Green Boidae Cainus
Small Green Vipor
Boa Esmerelda


Trees


Sattuemto - Heals a bad stomach
Palosomto - Heals a bad stomach, also used as punishment as red fire ants live on it.
Big Shebai - spiky tree - the spines are used by native people to hunt animals 
Pijuayo - over 600 years old, very large and tall
Ceiba Perntanclea - good to make fire, string like bark
Copaiba - heals parasites 
Caimen tree - expensive wood to make furniture (looks like crocodile skin)
Capirona - sheds its bark 3 times a month so it can't rot of be homed in by bugs. very green and solid
Topa - Pyramid tree - used to make roof tops for the native people.