If a pig and a woman fall in love in the jungle can it last?

We have survived the jungle. It was really amazing.

We left Lima early in the morning on Friday and took a flight to Cuzco for a 20 min layover before flying to Puerto Maldonado where we met up with our guides, Sally and Geraldine. Seriously, two Peruvian girls named Sally and Geraldine. All I could think of was that old Flip Wilson skit where he dressed up as Geraldine.

We dropped our big packs at the lodge and packed our day packs with what we´d need for the 3 days 2 nights we would be in the jungle. Ok, here´s the part where Cari and I totally miscalculated. Not completely sure how we did it but we only brought enough clothes for 2 days. So, we had to wear the same thing more than once. And it was hot. And it was muddy. And I sweat like a fat woman in a fur coat. So, I smelled like many of the animals we saw.

From the lodge we took a bus for about 20 minutes on a road that resembled the Santa Fe trail. This thing had pot holes that you could lose a family of four in. I think we traveled about 2 miles in the 20 minutes. Part of the delay was that we had to pull a local in a truck out of the mud. They couldn´t get their truck started and they were blocking the road. We hooked a rope up to our bus and pulled them out. As we were walking to our boat we saw them pass by. I guess they have AAA out there.

Our boat ride was pretty cool. Not much to see but it was nice to get out on the water and feel the breeze. It took us about 1 1/2 hours by boat to get to the jungle lodge.

I gotta say, the lodge was more than I expected. Really nice. Definitely still in the jungle, but it was nice to come back to a real shelter. Our rooms had two beds with mosquito nets and a "private" bath with a view of the jungle where the locals and guides set up lawn chairs to watch the tourists take their showers. I must have put on a pretty good show because in the morning one of the locals was offering me his daughter´s hand. I asked him to throw in a llama and we had a deal.

Seriously though, it was pretty au natural. The room had two walls and the back was open to the elements. Thankfully nothing crawled in bed with me. We woke to the sound of howler monkeys and macaws. Some of the lucky ones heard the "growler monkey" on several occasions from my bathroom.

One of the highlights was experiencing a "wild" pig on one of our hikes. Apparently this has never happened before with our guides and the looks on their faces was pretty funny. You could tell they really didn´t know what to do. I´ll let Chris tell you about the special connection that she and the pig had. Sparks were flying. The pig kept following us down the trail and even tried to get in our boat as we left. Chris must have made a real love connection. I´d be worried Dale.

Today we traveled to Cuzco and I have a feeling I´m going to like it here a lot. Very old world feeling about it.

More to come tomorrow after we´ve explored this place.

Hasta lluego.

B