Manu National Park

I had been looking for an opportunity to go the jungle and had been advised that the best countries to visit it through were Ecuador, Peru or Bolivia. I hadn’t had the chance in Ecuador and tours from Peru are expensive. I also didn’t have a lot of time before my travels to Patagonia in early 2020. Fortunately, a tour company I messaged about volunteering offered me a position at their lodge in Manu National Park instead of in their office in Cusco, of course I enthusiastically accepted! Manu is located around a six hour drive north east from Cusco and is recognised as one of the worlds most bio-diverse areas, the park actually covers an area half the size of Switzerland! It is still home to some virtually uncontacted tribes who live deep within the park.

My trip to the jungle began with a 15 hour overnight bus from the town Ica to Cusco. The morning after arriving in Cusco I took a taxi further out of the centre of town to where the colectivos (a smaller more local transport) leave for the towns towards Manu. The colectivo was a 15 seater and there were two other tourists taking the same transport to Pillcopata, the village closest to our destination in Manu. The rest of the passengers were Peruvian, some wearing the traditional colourful clothes. There were two babies on board and an array of cargo; personal belongings; clothing; fruit; corn; bread; along with various other things. These were either stashed under seats or mounted on the roof with a tarp pulled over to protect it all.

I was told the colectivo would leave at 10.45am but generally they leave once they’re full. We didn’t end up departing Cusco until 11.30 and started off up the mountains. I expected the road to be a bit treacherous and unnerving but was surprised when the first part of the trip was on a completely tarmacked road, there were even crash barriers at the edge. After a couple of hours we stopped in Paucartambo, a small town set in the valley and had a 20 minute break to get something for lunch. From this point onwards the path got worse and worse. Paucartambo was the limit of the tarmacked road and it quickly turned to some sort of gravelly dirt track. I was told this driver was slower than some of the others but whilst we were flying down the mountain roads with gravity on our side it didn’t quite feel that way. The road is a single track and I was on the side closest to the edge for the most part, meaning that my view was directly into a valley below where you couldn’t even see the bottom.

Cusco is around 3200m above sea level, and Pillcopata is at 600m, therefore we had a lot of mountain to descend. We’d drive down one mountain and I’d be relieved only for us to turn round another corner to be greeted with more of the same track, remembering that yes, we were still very high up. Despite this I must say the views were insane, we started off in sunny Cusco, made our way over the mesmerising Andes, through valleys and then after a few hours started to plunge into increasingly thicker rainforest with views of lush green mountains for as far as the eye could see.

Around 5pm we arrived in Pillcopata after stopping at some small villages on the way where people slowly disembarked. Each time the poor driver would have to get out, retrieve their items from the roof and then drive off again, sometimes to only go one street away in the village and do it all over again. From the town of Pillcopata we still had to get to our new home Guadalope lodge which was 7km and a 30 minute drive away. I waited at the bus stop with the two other tourists who were guests at the lodge for the owner to pick us up. Due it’s distance from Cusco and the lack of a good road you’d be surprised how much is available in the village. Large trucks can also tackle the track so there is a large market with vegetables, some small shops with other non-perishables and even an internet café!

On the way to the lodge it was pitch black so we couldn’t anything but we did stop a couple of times, once to look at some frogs and then again because some armadillos ran in front of the van. We arrived at the lodge around 7pm, had a cup of tea together and went to get settled in our lodges. I had a twin room with a bathroom to myself which was a little bit of luxury. We had power and internet for very limited times in the jungle, sometimes the power (including lights) would be on in the morning for a few hours, say from 5-8am and then again in the evening from 6.30-9pm. The wifi would usually only be on from 7-9pm and occasionally an hour in the morning if the guests asked for it. I quite liked this restriction, it meant anything I needed to do online I did within a couple of hours and didn’t waste my time online when I didn’t need to use it.

On my first day I awoke at 5am in order to meet with the owner before he needed to go to Cusco. We put on our welly boots and he talked me through my tasks for volunteering – helping to look for monkeys! We walked to two different locations where he asked me to visit once daily in order to to search for the monkeys. The first location was along the main road (if you can call it that) from the lodge to Pillacopata and took about 20 minutes to walk to. The road has dense jungle to one side and a wide river on the other so is very picturesque. Small streams run across the road in sections so the wellies were definitely needed. The location is on a corner where there is a bit of cliff with exposed rock and dirt and a canopy of bamboo. It is here I was told that the monkeys occasionally like to eat the clay and will sometimes lower themselves down the bamboo. They have been seen around 2-3pm in the afternoon. The other side of the track was an epic view of the jungle and surrounding mountains so whilst waiting you could enjoy the view. Adjacent there was also a small paddy field for a local family to harvest.

We turned around back towards the lodge to go to the next site. On the way we saw lots of Macaws flying and he pointed out one collection of trees where sloths had been sighted telling me I should keep my eye out. We passed a couple of small banana plantations and the second location for the monkeys was a small marshy track a five minute walk from the lodge. This track entered dense rainforest with mud half way up your wellies in sections. There was a palm forest to one side, upon which were tonnes of nuts growing and it is these that the monkeys come to eat. I was told that they usually come in the afternoon, around 4-5.30pm so I was to come back and look for them then. This track extended for 30 minutes but the only bit I needed to look at was within the first 15 minutes or so. After this we headed back to the lodge, had a breakfast of fried banana chips (a delicious delicacy) and fruit salad.

On my first afternoon the caretaker took us to some caves a 15 minute walk away, these caves were full of bats. For the most part it was more like two sections of rock very close together so not the typical rounded cave that you’d normally imagine. He kept leading us deeper into the cave and the floor was actually a small stream that got a bit too close to the tops of our wellies at times. The bats were flying everywhere and it was really cool to see them up close. We could also see spiders in the walls of the cave and small fish swimming in the stream. Due to the tight space we were in the bats kept flying into us. He kept trying to lead us further into the cave to see a small waterfall but after 10 minutes or so of having big bats constantly flying into me I was ready to leave!

Everyday I went to the two locations to look for monkeys. Unfortunately at the first site along the road I never saw them, I did however, enjoying taking in the views, saw a lot of wildlife, and talked to many lovely local people who would always wonder what I was up to and ask if I needed a lift to somewhere.

At the second location in the palm forest I saw monkeys many a times. They were Capuchin monkeys and would come in a group, the  most I ever saw at one time was four and one with a baby on the back. They were curious about me and would pause on the trees above to look, despite this they were still a bit nervous and occasionally would move to the trees further away if they saw me walking. If I kept quiet enough they usually didn’t mind me and I could watch them feely playing with each other, eating the nuts and jumping from tree to tree. The macaws also love the nuts on the palm trees so they were always there too, and easily identified by their loud high pitch calls.

Whilst waiting for the Capuchin monkeys to come I would observe the rest of the wildlife and listen to the sounds of the jungle. I saw woodpeckers, lots of bird life, butterflies, frogs and much more. Before entering this trail I would always coat myself in deet, including my clothes as sometimes the mosquitos were persistent enough to bite through my clothes!

A few days during my stay it rained, it was rainy season so expected, and the storms were incredible. You could hear the thunder coming and see the rain clouds travelling towards you through the valley. The thunder was insane to listen to, the loudest I’ve ever heard and we sat in the lodge watching the lightning light up the mountains. When it was dark you could easily see the bolts of lightning in the distance and the rain was some of the heaviest I’ve ever experienced. One night the storm started around 5pm, just when I’d started searching for the monkeys, it didn’t stop raining until around 8am the following morning. It was awesome to watch the storm and fall asleep to the incredible roar of the thunder and rain.

Throughout the mornings at the lodge I’d have an early breakfast with the guests before they set out on their activities for the day and would then enjoy the grounds of the lodge, sometimes going on strolls to the nearby river. There were large flowers everywhere outside the lodge where I could see hummingbirds feeding every day. There were lots of insects and butterflies too, a striking blue one would swoop past every so often and even landed on my foot once. The forest there is incredibly green and lush and really is a tropical paradise.

 One day I went on a different trail with the caretaker and we walked up the mountain the lodge was located at the foot of. We set off around 11am and we saw the same group of Capuchin monkeys that I’d been monitoring. One of the juvenile monkeys who was very small was not timid like the older ones and came incredibly close, watching us and feeding on the bamboo right in front. Unfortunately I’d decided not to bring my camera on that particular walk but it meant that I just got to enjoy the sight of the cute little monkey feeding. After observing them for a long while we decided to leave them to it and continued on the rest of our walk, there was a great viewpoint on the mountain where you could look over the valley below.

Another day we went on a night walk together, we went down the swamp trail so I was very familiar with it but unfortunately we didn’t run into any more exciting animals. The worst thing about jungle trails is that spiders always make their webs across them. Sometimes if I was fed up with it I’d walk with a stick in front of me to break the webs before they ended up in my face yet again!

After spending seven splendid days in the rainforest it was my time to leave. I had to get to Pillacopta in order to take a colectivo back to Cusco. The owner was on a trip with some guests so we didn’t have a car just a motorbike. I didn’t fancy the 7km walk through the humid jungle so first the caretaker had to take my backpack to town and then he came back for me. It’s was only 20 minutes one way on a motorbike so it was a nice trip.

I wasn’t looking forward to the journey on that delightful track but I’d spoken to a few other locals whilst staying there and they’d told me not to worry and that in fact years ago the track was a lot worse. One chef told me a funny story about his friend that drove down from Cusco in the dark and slipped off the track on his motorbike, his bike disappeared into the abyss below but his friend was saved by flying into a nearby tree!

The colectivo set off at 10am sharp this time and we collected people from a few villages along the way. I was the only tourist this time and everyone else lived locally, bringing local products from the jungle to presumably sell in Cusco such as Papayas, bananas and bags of coca leaves. After an hour of driving there was a very un-official looking check point where there were three men checking all the cars heading up the mountain for coca leaves. Only one was in uniform and it was a small wooden shack that they were operating from. I wasn’t sure the exact reason for the stop but I’m guessing it was to stop people from taking too many coca leaves from the jungle, either due to the fact that you can manufacture cocaine from them and the threat of deforestation. The guards kept shouting ‘solo una libra’ or ‘only one pound’ so I’m guessing each person was only allowed this amount. One man sitting next to me had a big bag of leaves on his lap that he was allowed to keep but three other bags discovered his backpack were thrown out of the van. Some more packages were taken from the goods on the roof of the vehicle but after 20 minutes or so we were on our way.

Fortunately, the road really wasn’t as bad as I’d remembered, this time I was sitting on the side closest to the mountain and could see that the track was in fact wider than it looked from the other side. Because of the incline we were driving a bit slower so I got to relax a bit on this drive and enjoy the views. It seemed to go quite quickly and within a few hours we’d left the jungle and were stopping at Paucartambo again for a 10 minute break. We made it into Cusco around 5pm and I was sad to have left the green oasis but a little glad to be back to civilization in time for Christmas!