Diary Entries

Diary Menu

Next Entry

Previous Entry

Related
Information

South American Map

Cuzco

Cuzco Photo Tour

Peru Info + Photos

Saturday, August 9

Location: Cuzco, Peru

Today's weather: 16°C.

Got up late (again). It was quite an aweful day really. I had the feeling that I'd already spent long enough in Cuzco, and I was running out of things to do. Basically, I was just feeling bored.

I also had to leave Cuzco at 3.30am the next morning for my journey into Manu Reserve – I was a little nervous and didn't know what to expect. I also spent a lot of the day thinking about friends that I missed – I missed my friend Susi in Brazil, and my friend Maria who had taken me out dancing in Manaus. I think that they are both very special people, so I wrote them both letters. I felt sad because Susi was leaving Brazil to go and live in Portugal, so it was very unlikely that I'd see her again for a long time – but I think we will write to each other lots. I also wrote letters to lots of other friends in New Zealand, telling about my trip and my recent visit to Machu Picchu.

At 1pm I wandered down to Expeditiones Manu where I had arranged to meet my guide, Tino. He was going to take me shopping so that I could buy the remaining few items needed for the trip. Top of the list was a pair of gumboots – this wasn't something that I'd imagined having to wear in the rainforest, but Tino said that they were very useful when climbing out of the canoe and into muddy sand at the edge of the riverbank. He also said they were good when walking through the rainforest, where it was sometimes necessary to cross muddy bogs. Other items were:

• binoculars for viewing birds and other rainforest animals (its very difficult to get close to animals in the wild, so you need binoculars to get a good look at them);

• several rolls of 400 ASA film (suitable for taking photographs in the dark conditions of the rainforest);

• and a big torch (because we'd be spending several hours walking though the rainforest at night).

Tino took me to a street market where there were lots of stalls selling shoes (cheap Nike copies, made in Boliva), and all sorts of items. There was even one stall with hundreds of tiny green frogs swimming around in a big pot. The frogs are bought by local people who use them to make a special soup – the soup is supposed help increase your intelligence. In other parts of Peru, Tino told me, people believe that eating frogs increases your strength and virility. Perhaps these things are true, but I just felt very sorry for the frogs!

In the afternoon, I packed my backpack – carefully sorting out the things that I would be taking into the rainforest with me. To lighten my load, I chose to leave quite a few things behind (including my computer, which I didn't want to get wet in the bottom of the canoe). I arranged to leave the extra equipment at the Expeditiones Manu office so that I could pick it up on my return.

I wasn't feeling hungry, so skipped dinner and went to bed early – ready for a very early rise (3am) the next morning.