MONDAY – THE NEXT STAGE OF THE ADVENTURE BEGINS

Yesterday we flew from Buenos Aires to Lima. Once again arrangements went like clockwork and we safely arrived at our hotel and met our guide for the Inca and Amazon Tour, Renaldi, otherwise known as Reni.

At this stage, the tour group consists of us so we have very personal attention. Reni is our tour guide, interpreter, language teacher and general adviser on all matters South American. We are to be joined by two more after the Amazon experience but the maximum number will be four.

We went back to Lima airport this morning and flew to Puerto Maldonado where we embarked on the Amazon adventure. We flew over the spectacular Andes – incredible country.

Lima was an experience and we are not sorry to be leaving it. Like all cities we have visited so far, it is a city of contrasts but, in Lima, the traffic, people and residential precinct is more like Phnom Penh than any other South American city visited. The traffic is chaotic, the vehicles are battered and one of their systems of transport are vans that people are just crammed into.

Where we stayed was near the beach and in quite a tidy part of town. Reni took us into the city using a very smart busway system and we spent some time wandering the very interesting city streets with their many listed heritage buildings. The irony is that the heritage buildings are only occupied on the ground floor, in many cases, by very smart modern shops. The upper floors are in a total state of neglect and unoccupied. They must maintain some sort of roof structure for the protection of the ground floor shops but, in some cases, you look up at the upper floor windows and all you can see through them is sky.

 

Apart from wandering around town and taking in the sights, we visited St. Francis Church, a church set up by the Franciscans in the 1500's It had a monastery attached which was the home to numerous Franciscan priests over the years. A feature was the catacombs beneath it which served as cemetery for hundreds of years. It is now a massive collection of dismembered bones.

After a three hour trip up the river this afternoon at planing speed in an outboard powered oversize covered canoe being the mode of transport here, we arrived at Refugio Amazonia, a very impressive lodge, where we are staying in a room completely open to the jungle. We can hear the rain and miscellaneous sounds including crickets and birds. Hopefully something interesting will wander by. Apparently we are to spend the next day or so exploring the nearby jungle. As I typed this, several animals which look like oversized guinea pigs had a squabble just outside.

The internet is not too good apparently so I am posting this as text and, as in Antarctica, the photos may need to follow I haven't yet finished posting the Antarctic photos I want to share. I may never catch up.