South America: Plane flight out of Manu
Most of the last 2 and half weeks have been spent where there is no computer much less an internet.
Last night we set the alarm for 5:15 am and just as luck would have it, it went off at 5:15 this morning. I removed the mosquito net from around the bed, lit the candles -- the generator only is used for a couple of hours in the evening, walk down the hall to the entry and put on my mud boots, walked 30 yards to the bathrooms, return to our room and finished packing, and sat down to breakfast with Nancy and our guide, José, for breakfast.
Heard the boat about 7:15 so we took off down the path to the landing -- the river bank with no dock. About 5 minutes into a 20 minute walk a group of monkeys crossed over the path by way of trees so we stopped to watch. Arrived at the landing and climbed into the motorized canoe and headed down river. The trip is about 2 and half hours to Boca Manu, the first town and last town for 4 or 5 more hours by boat -- no roads. Another 10 minutes brings you to the air strip -- a grass opening in the jungle for a small plane to land. We waited for a little over an hour for the plane. Seven passengers and two pilots. Nancy had only one part of the seat belt and I sat behind one of the two pilots. I watched as two men walked down the grass runway to make sure no animals were present and then watch through the pilots window as we took off. Only a 35 minute flight to Cusco -- it took about 12 hours by van and 11 hours by motorized canoe to get to the jungle.
The week before we were on a boat visiting the Galapagos Islands -- no computer on board. We did get a chance to use the facilities in one of the two towns we stopped in but I did not take the time to sit down and write.
The last couple of weeks have been great, especially if you like nature. Both Aunt Nancy and I thought the Manu Cloud Forest and Manu Rain Forest was more interesting and fun than the Galapagos Islands. If you visit Peru I strongly recommend Manu. I will write more about our experiences in the next day or two. We had some really interesting times.
This evening we are back in Cusco, Peru. Tomorrow is a day to tour the city and write a long email to everyone.
Aunt Nancy is fine -- just ate some food that did not agree with her. A word of warning, if at all possible never use a public hospital in Ecuador. I will write more on this real life adventure at a later date. But I will say everyone was very nice to us and the armed guards at the doors even said good night to us when we left about 4:30 in the morning.Hope everyone is doing well.
Tom South America
Last night we set the alarm for 5:15 am and just as luck would have it, it went off at 5:15 this morning. I removed the mosquito net from around the bed, lit the candles -- the generator only is used for a couple of hours in the evening, walk down the hall to the entry and put on my mud boots, walked 30 yards to the bathrooms, return to our room and finished packing, and sat down to breakfast with Nancy and our guide, José, for breakfast.
Heard the boat about 7:15 so we took off down the path to the landing -- the river bank with no dock. About 5 minutes into a 20 minute walk a group of monkeys crossed over the path by way of trees so we stopped to watch. Arrived at the landing and climbed into the motorized canoe and headed down river. The trip is about 2 and half hours to Boca Manu, the first town and last town for 4 or 5 more hours by boat -- no roads. Another 10 minutes brings you to the air strip -- a grass opening in the jungle for a small plane to land. We waited for a little over an hour for the plane. Seven passengers and two pilots. Nancy had only one part of the seat belt and I sat behind one of the two pilots. I watched as two men walked down the grass runway to make sure no animals were present and then watch through the pilots window as we took off. Only a 35 minute flight to Cusco -- it took about 12 hours by van and 11 hours by motorized canoe to get to the jungle.
The week before we were on a boat visiting the Galapagos Islands -- no computer on board. We did get a chance to use the facilities in one of the two towns we stopped in but I did not take the time to sit down and write.
The last couple of weeks have been great, especially if you like nature. Both Aunt Nancy and I thought the Manu Cloud Forest and Manu Rain Forest was more interesting and fun than the Galapagos Islands. If you visit Peru I strongly recommend Manu. I will write more about our experiences in the next day or two. We had some really interesting times.
This evening we are back in Cusco, Peru. Tomorrow is a day to tour the city and write a long email to everyone.
Aunt Nancy is fine -- just ate some food that did not agree with her. A word of warning, if at all possible never use a public hospital in Ecuador. I will write more on this real life adventure at a later date. But I will say everyone was very nice to us and the armed guards at the doors even said good night to us when we left about 4:30 in the morning.Hope everyone is doing well.
Tom South America
posted by Rambling Tom at 7:36 PM
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