We had a lovely breakfast buffet at the hotel before being picked up by our tour guide. A quick van trip to the office then a short walk to the river and we were underway, heading down river to their jungle lodge. https://paradiseyakari.com/

The lodge and compound sit just on the river bank, backing up to the jungle. It has a primitive feel but still covers the bases for creature comforts. We have 2 bungalows, each with nice screens and mosquito nets for the beds. Our guide for the next two and half days is Jose/Allen, I’m not sure which is his actual name but we he needs us, he calls out “Allen’s group”! After the boat ride we had a short time to get our stuff settled we gathered for a jungle walk. Allen pointed out interesting flora as we walked, spotting some small frogs and big spiders. The trees really steal the show though! We snacked on some termites, found some small ground tomato like things, shared a fresh lemon and cocoa fruit. And the whole time, we sweated! Maybe Ashish doesn’t mind the climate but the rest of us felt and looked a little haggard after a short hike. This confirms for me that I am not built for tropical climes!

Back to the lodge for lunch of traditional catfish and rice, with fabulous fresh lemonade to drink. Then it was time for afternoon activities. I love the phrasing of “morning activities, afternoon activities” since Steve uses the same with our IU class when the students try and get specific details from us. Allen gave us way more details about what was happening next! We loaded back on the boat headed downstream towards Monkey Island. Along the way we rotated pairs of people into the sit on kayaks for a brief paddle. It was a little underwhelming to be honest due to how short we were actually paddling. Monkey Island is a small maybe 2km long island that was once home to many monkeys of several species. Due to illegal gold mining and hunting, the island is down to only 15 monkeys in one family troop (I think… might do some research on this when back online). The leader of the troop is Chico and he just wasn’t in the mood for a visit and free food today. After seeing the number of boats that came and went, I don’t blame him! The boat ride back to our lodge was more exciting though since we saw capybaras!! That was my bucket list animal for this trip once I realised they are native to Peru! Once again, I have phone envy after seeing how Josh and Ashish’s phones take such quality zoomed photos compared to mine. Might be time to mix up the Apple ecosystem…

Once back to the lodge we had a little bit of downtime before the evening activities of caiman spotting. We enjoyed several hands of Shithead, with Ashish winning the first round of course! Evening comes quick, with full dark by 6 pm. Back to the boat, we spent about an hour cruising around looking for caiman. After the sight of huge alligators in Florida, these little guys were cute! We did see another capybara enjoying a snack. Josh keeps calling the chupacabra, while Steve calls them ROUS (rodents of unusual size).

Our bungalow has a nice full bed net and that combined with the rechargeable fans Steve bought made for a pretty comfortable sleep. We both thought it was a lot better than the night we spent in the hostel in Cancun way back in 2007.