IT'S A SURREAL EXPERIENCE IN PERU

Just an update from Pete for those of you interesed in catching up with his progress.
Pete is having the adventure of a lifetime. He has taken 5 months off work with spend time in South America and the USA. His first two months will be spent in Peru working on projects with Projects Abroad. At the moment he is in spending a month in the area above in the red circle working in an Eco Rainforest at a place called Taricaya. It is in the middle of the Peruvian Amazon Jungle right near the border of Bolivia. It is all very primitive. The closest town to them is a place called Puerto Maladonado and the only way to get to it is in one of these
It is a two hour boat ride down the Madre de Dios River. The Madre de Dios is a major tributary to the Amazon River. They get to come to town each weekend for the weekend where they also have to pick up their supplies for the week ahead.

Taricaya derived it's name from a conservation project for the river turtles of "tarikayas" that collects and incubates the eggs and returns the offspring back to the Madre de Dios River upon birth. There are lots of animals to be seen here: jaguars, various monkeys, tapirs, peccaries and exotic birds.
Life at Taricaya is very basic - no electricity,(they do run a generator that turns off early in the evening. No internet or phones. No hot water, and it is always hot and humid here. Pete says that they are constantly wet all the time. Very much a back to nature place, but he is loving it.
This is where he lives during the week.
Constant rain
There sleeping quarters are like this
You must use a mosquito net to sleep, the rainforst is full of mosquitoes and bugs.
Where they hang out.
The wild life is amazing though and so far he has seen all of these.
Here they are feeding the Toucans
Feeding Nacho the Macaw Parrot.
Some of the other animals he has seen since he has been there are
Tapirs
Caimans
Monkeys

This week Pete got to climb the most epic tree house ever. it's over 40metres off the ground and has a 100 metre rope bridge to get up to it. It was built mainly for bird watching.
Knowing Pete and his love of tree houses, he would have loved being up in the top of the forest.

Each weekend, the take the boat back to here

It is very hot and humid and they are constantly wet..... Life is pretty primative....
I haven't heard yet what specific projects Pete is working on whilst he is there but I do know that so far he has seen these

Puerto Maladonado - it has a population of about about 40,000 although Pete said it was still pretty primitive. Very slow internet and wifi. He is in town again this weekend and staying at this Hotel. ( pretty flash by Puerto Maladonado standards)
It is clean and the food is good and it is within walking distance of the main town square and markets.
A bit different to the Woolies and Coles we have back home here.

The local Puerto Maladonado taxi service.
After a weekend on the town they board the boat and it is back to Taricaya for another week of adventure. Pete is loving it and hopefully he will keep well whilst he is there. We kind of look forward to each weekend when we get an email from him.

It has been a big week here... back to work, some BCC cut off my face... a girls night out last night but I will be back to blog about all of that in the next couple of days.