Ok, so it’s been a month – probably time we updated this
blog.
After Galapagos we spent about a week being beach bums on
the coast of Ecuador, and getting in a bit of hammock-time. Puerto Lopez has
hundreds of humpback whales which come to the area for “romantic time and
making the babies” as somebody in town told us. We went out on a whale watching
boat trip which we expected to take all day, but within 20 minutes the boat
pulled up alongside two whales that were happy to perform for our cameras –
we didn't see any baby-making but they both breached, twice... previous similar tours have been more of a case of spotting black splotches in the water and waiting ten minutes watching the space.
After Ecuador we headed back to Peru for a night in Lima and
some more bird watching and monkey-spotting in the Amazon jungle (including the
smallest monkey in the world – about 10cms without the tail). We spent 4 days
in a lodge going for walks in the muddy jungle (thank god for the gumboots we
hired from town) and early morning and evening boat trips spotting sloths,
birds and a couple of caiman (like an alligator). We also “swam” with pink
dolphins in the Amazon River (read: we floated around in the extremely cloudy
water, while a few dolphins swam about 50 metres away) until Iain felt a nibble
on his back and yelled “piranha!” and we all raced back to the boat.
We allowed an extra day in Iquitos before flying back to
Lima, to visit Pilpintuwasi – an animal orphanage and butterfly farm – which turned
out to be one of the best days of the whole trip. The owners have taken in
orphaned and often wounded wild animals to nurse them back to health. Most of
the animals are free to roam in the wild, but choose to stay close to their
adopted parents – and pickpocket unsuspecting tourists! Luckily this doesn’t
include the jaguar, who has his own cage. We spent hours getting up close and
personal with the overly friendly monkeys who didn’t seem to mind as Iain took
hundreds of photos, from every possible angle!
After a quick day in Lima we headed back to Buenos Aires in
Argentina, where we started the trip from. It definitely feels weird to be back
where we started, and answering other travellers’ questions, instead of just
grilling them for answers. It’s great to be back in the land of late nights, amazing
steaks, malbec wine and empanadas.
Right now we’re in Puerto Iguazu after surviving a 17-hour
bus (which was actually quite luxurious with hot meals, completely flat
seat/beds and individual tv screens). The main attraction here is Iguazu Falls
which are meant to be amazing.
Only 6 days to go.....see you all soon.
(we’re in the process of uploading pics to www.iainsim.net, so we’ll only be putting a
few more up on the blog)
