The Sunset Tour

We were able to relax for pretty much the rest of the day. But we had an optional jungle walk which we opted to do. There is no way we were going to pass anything adventurous up! Duane was too tired to go and Denise wasnt feeling well, so it was me, Alora, Tami, and our other tour buddy. Phil wanted to stay with Denise and Deanna was sick too. We walked for awhile and saw peanut bugs, mccaws, and more monkeys. These monkeys were alot more active and playful than the ones we saw that morning.

Once we got back to the resort Tami and I went to the hammocks inside the lodge to take a break and journal a little. Its a tough life to live... It was hard to journal in a hammock though because its so relaxing that all we wanted to do was nap. Alora was off doing her own thing most of the time because she had an admirer that would follow her around. He wanted her to teach him English. His name was Paolo to which Alora loved getting attention from. He was a good looking guy too, so she would get giddy and giggle when around him. Later we went on our next tour with almost everyone. Deanna still was sick and wasn't feeling up for anything.. The sunsets are so beautiful there. At one point in time, Tami suggested that Alora go back and help Paolo paddle the canoe around. She was just giving Alora a hard time but she was so excited that it seemed like she was just waiting for someone to give her the opportunity.

The funny part about Alora paddling was that we were heading in cirlces. Poor Paulo had to paddle twice as hard. She got the hang of it eventually, but its hard to compete with a buff Amazon man! When the sun went down and the sky was pitch black, we began looking for the red caimen eyes in the water. I couldn't believe how many there were! We couldn't have the flashlight on for too long though because it attracted bugs. Once the tour ended we headed back to the lodge once again for a long awaited sleep.

A little of the wildlife in Peru!

In the morning we woke up and started our journey for the day. We cruised around the lake on our canoe while the same guys that carried our bags, paddled us everywhere. We saw so many herons and exotic birds. Also turtles and a whole tree full of monkeys. The tour guide told us that they were slower moving monkeys and liked to take their time while eating... this worked perfect for us because we were able to take a couple decent pictures! You can kind of see them in the picture. Tons of large black dots. We also saw a few turtles and the biggest black caimen in the lake. The tour guide said it was about 3 meters long. Which is pretty big! It didnt let us get very close to it though. Our canoe started back to the dock of the lodge, when all was said and done. When we jumped up on the dock we looked down and saw a black caimen staring at us! He was a little guy but it was neat to see him only a few feet away. Tami got a few good pictures. I think he liked the camera because he stayed there while everyone took a picture.

I know I know, I really need to get out of Peru

After our hike through the jungle, it opened up to a small canal in which we got into paddle canoes and were on our way to being that much closer to the resort. We reached the shore and jumped out onto a long stretch of wooden stairs. This trip has proved to be a pretty good workout as far as stairs and long hikes.

We are at Sandoval Lake Lodge/Resort. We were complemented with a very tart drink and then checked into our rooms. The rooms had mosquito nets above the beds! I was hoping we wouldnt encounter many mosquitos on the trip... but thankfully our tour guide explained that there arent many at this time of year. There are billions during the rainy season. We had a bit of down time to get settled and check the place out before we went to dinner and also on our night jungle tour! We found a nice bench that over looked the lake and had an awesome foot rest. The funny part, is that those who know us Mortons know how short we are.... needless to say, we had to stretch our legs as far as they would reach to get to the foot rest.
We then went to dinner and met up with our tour guide. He explained a little about the night jungle tour, like what we would encounter and what we should bring. We ran into a few creepy spiders and bugs. I think the biggest trial was trying not to trip over the large tree roots in the ground. Its crazy walking through the jungle during the day, knowing all these bugs are in the cracks of the trees waiting to come out at night! We then went to bed because there are only certain times of the day they keep the electricity on at the lodge. The housekeepers tucked our mosquito nets around our beds. We were very excited for the next day because we were getting up at dawn to see the giant otters of the lake playing, and also see some of the other wild life living around the lake.