Rather than take the easy trip to a luxury lodge a few hours from the airport we decided to book a six day, five night tour into the Manu Biosphere Reserve, a remote section of the Amazon with some of the greatest biodiversity on earth. In Manu alone there are over 5000 types of flowering plants, 1200 butterfly species, 1000 types of birds and numerous endangered species.
To get to Manu required a 10 hour car ride from Cusco that first had to cross the Andes before dropping into the high altitude cloud forest, and finally into the tropical lowland rainforest. Our group, a couple from India and a family from Colorado, bounced around the van along the narrow dirt road, hugging steep cliffs where a wrong turn meant certain death and the double track was so narrow we had to back up to let any oncoming cars pass.
Looking out into the Amazon... Green as far as the eye can see!
We spent the first night in a rustic lodge before heading an hour further to the Madre de Dios river where we would journey beyond the road's end into some of the most remote, tourist accessible jungle on earth. Our final lodge would be another eight hours by boat down the chocolate colored Madre de Dios and then up the Manu River, where uncontacted tribes still hunt and gather in the forest, living totally isolated from the modern world. Beyond the reach of electricity, hot water, wifi and the Peruvian government, we were truly at the last stop of civilization.
Our 30 foot motorized canoe, preparing to embark for another five days into the jungle. With no roads, this is the only method of transportation.
The end if the road... Literally
Accompanied by our guide, chef, boat driver and his assistant, we set off into the jungle...
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