We arrived in Puerto Maldonado early in the morning after spending a full night on the bus from Cusco, which surprisingly was more comfortable than any flight I've ever taken. Although the sun had just risen, the temperature was already high, along with the humidity. It was a drastic climate change from the Cordillera, confirming that we were indeed in the Amazon.
In Puerto Maldonado, we met our jungle guide, Y., who would accompany us for the next three days. Y. was a fun man with quite some experience of the world, and at least a couple of families scattered in different countries, a peculiar sense of humor that made us laugh every time, and a genuine love for the jungle and its inhabitants, be they animals, plants or humans. Y. led us on the river Madre de Dios to the fabulous Corto Maltes lodge where we stayed, and from there to multiple trips in the jungle: on the river itself and to Lake Sandoval looking for caimans, birds, monkeys, piranhas, tarantulas and other creatures; on the top of a daunting 50 m platform built on a iron tree over the canopy to spot parrots and toucans; and even to meet a family of natives living nearby and trying to find an acceptable compromise between the traditional live in the jungle and modernity (where modernity mostly means be able to send their children to school).
Selecting 10 photos - that’s the format I imposed myself for these posts - from the Amazon days was not easy: there’d be way more animals, plants, dawns and sunsets on the river, and friends in the pool or on the hammocks to show. The jungle presented to us as as one of the most beautiful and at the same hostile place I’d ever been, where everything is gorgeous and at the same time seems to be ready to kill you and eat you. I already long to be there once again.
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