After spending a couple of days in Lima, Peru, we headed to the Amazon for 4 nights. We flew from Lima to Iquitos, where we took a 50 minute boat ride up the Amazon to a Lodge deep in the Peruvian Amazon. Iquitos is a city of over a million people and is only accessible by boat or plane. The Amazon River is the longest river in the world at over 4,300 miles long. We are about 2,000 miles from the headwaters and 2,300 miles from the Atlantic Ocean.
Right now, this stretch of the Amazon is about 1 mile wide. In May, at the end of the rainy season, the water level will rise ~20 feet and the river will swell to nearly 4 miles wide.
Highlights included:
Fishing for piranhas. The lodge cooked up our catch for lunch, which were more bones than meat.
Visiting a local indigenous tribe, the Yagua’s, who explained their culture and trained us to use their blow guns.
Seeing both types of fresh water dolphins found in the Amazon along with numerous monkeys, birds, sloths and other wildlife.
On our last full day, we took a boat up the Amazon a short distance to the nearest town of Indiana, where we caught a three-wheel taxi for twenty minutes, then we boarded a small boat and cruised for about an hour up the Napo River, the largest tributary of the Amazon. From there, we hiked for an hour through the thick Amazon jungle to the world’s longest canopy walkway. The 1,500-foot-long canopy walkway, at its highest, was 136 feet above the forest floor.
As we’ve spent the last 9 days exploring Peru’s Sacred Valley and Cusco the main highlight has been visiting Machu Picchu – one of the seven wonders of the modern world.
Started by the Incas around 1430 and later abandoned around 1530, it is estimated to have been home to around 800-1,000 Incas at its peak. It’s still a mystery why the Incas abandoned the city.
On the first day we spent a couple of hours walking through the ruins – quite incredible what they were able to build without modern equipment and machinery.
On the second day we hiked to the Sun Gate – technically the entrance to Machu Picchu on the ancient Inca trail. It was a 1.5mile hike with a 1,000ft elevation gain – going from 7,900ft to 8,900ft above sea level. It was a long, slow, slog over the rough terrain. Unfortunately the weather didn’t fully cooperate so we only got glimpses of Machu Picchu through the fog and clouds.
All-in-all an amazing experience. And Peru has been a wonderful country to explore. Now begins the journey home!
