Manu, Peru - Polarsteps

Welcome to the jungle! (We got fun and games) 🎵 After spending a long time high up in the mountains, we looked forward to descending into the lush and verdant lands beyond Cusco (oxygen!!!). Together with Mariana, from the Salkantay trek and a friend of hers, Paul, we went for a four day excursion into the jungle. Although we were a bit unlucky with rainy and cold weather (what dry season?! and what hot+humid jungle?!) 😔, which caused most larger animals to stay away from the riverside, we really enjoyed being back in a world so filled with life! 🌳 The first day we spent in the cloud forest, spotting heaps of birds and even Woolly Monkeys 🐒 -spotted one just after we left our car for a walk!-. The following days we took a boat upriver🚤, from where we did several hikes into the jungle and another boat ride into a marsh🛶. We saw fantastic, almost prehistoric quetzals, which made the link between birds and dinosaurs all the more obvious. Also ubiquitous were the screamers (actual name), which were promptly renamed by our guide as stinky birds and by us as ugly birds. Poor things... 😜 It is hard to talk about all the animals we've seen but we want to mention the leafcutter ants (see last video). 💡Funfact: Frank's favorite animals (after elephants). These ants cut leaves from trees, which they "feed" to fungi living in their hill. For this they have extensive road networks. At some point we followed a trail of these farming ants for almost half a kilometer! 🐜🐜🐜🐜 💡And when we are talking about ant's, we also saw some bullet ants. They are named this way because when they bite you, it feels as if you've been hit by a bullet, yikes!🎯 Finally, talking about scary animals, we also had a tarantula right next to the lodge.🕷️ But we survived. Not only the jungle, but also a monkey attack! And we loved being in the rainforest, surrounded by nothing but birdsong and the occasional cry of a monkey🐒. The boys got to show their Tarzan skills and Liselot loved the different cats, that were more cuddlesome than the creepy crawlers around. This was our first time this trip into the jungle, but definitely not the last! 🐝

Country Guides:

Peru