Tuesday 22/05
Alarm clock at 7:15am. Isabelle and I are already awake.
Our transportation to the airport (still with Marcos but in another minibus) comes at 8am. The drive to the airport only lasts 30′.
The check-in is very quick. We are all set 1h30 before our flight departure time (which is at 10:06am…).
We eat a chocolate croissant at the airport.
We land in Puerto Maldonado at 11am.
We go to ‘Rainforest Expeditions’ office (the company organizing our trip in the jungle).
We then take a bus (during 1 hour) to the port, where we’ll take a boat.
During the drive, we see a sloth with 3 fingers, crossing the road, very slowly. His name in Spanish is similar to the one in French: ‘perozoso’ (lazy).
We embark on the boat at 1:30pm.
We eat our lunch in the boat: rice in a kind of natural banana leaf but more “waterproof” (similar to plastic).
The weather is great.
We (i.e. the guide) spot 2 white caimans; small ones (1.2m long). We also see our first macaws near a clay lick (3 red-and-green ones).
We arrive in our first lodge (Posada Amazonas) around 2:30pm. We’re staying here one night. It’s a very nice eco-friendly lodge. We have (2) spacious and nice rooms, which have only 3 walls. It’s great to have one side completely open to the jungle. Florence is reassured that we have mosquito nets around the beds.
After a (second) lunch, we go for our first walk into the jungle. Our guide, Christian, has a laser pointer to show us he different animals. I find it quite useful. We see monkeys. We go to a Mirador, from where (above the canopy) we have a nice 360° view of the ‘selva’ (jungle). We see also night monkeys and a white caiman, which arrives when our guide calls him…
Dinner: lasagna with rice. In our group (“sharing” the same guide), we only have 2 other people: a nice Canadian couple, with the man from Iranian origin.
We are in bed at 8:30pm.
