Deep into the Peruvian Amazon

From Lima, we flew to Puerto Maldonado in the Amazon. From the plane, we could already see the jungle stretching out until the horizon, with a river winding through the dense forest.
I had been really looking forward to the rainforest and it turned out to be a really cool experience.
We went by boat to a lodge about two hours upriver.

On our way, we saw far more animals than we had expected. There were macaws and monkeys sitting in the trees and caymans and capybaras on the riverside bank.

I really loved the capybaras. They looked like giant guinea pigs and were funny to watch.

We slept in huts with the walls only going halfway up. There were no glass windows but moscito netting instead, so we could hear all the jungle sounds while falling asleep.

The first evening, we went on a night walk. I do not have any pictures to prove it but we got to see some pretty huge, disgusting spiders. We also ran into some snakes which were fascinating to watch. One of them, a really tiny one, was still waiting for us in the exact same position where we had left her on our way back.

The next day, we started early to get into the jungle again. It makes a huge difference to see it by daylight.

Our tour guide showed us all kind of plants along the way and we even caught a glimpse of a tarantula and a rainbow boa.

After a while, we arrived at a lake that we crossed by boat.

In the afternoon, we went to a local farm, which I’ll tell you about later.
That evening, we were so exhausted that we went to bed directly after dinner. The next morning, our boat went back to Puerto Maldonado and we had to leave the Amazon.
I really enjoyed my time there.
What about you? Have you ever been in the jungle? How did you like it?