Rare Adventures

Category: Adventures

Stories about travel and adventure

  • Rediscovering Freedom: Our Adventure to Peru

    Rediscovering Freedom: Our Adventure to Peru

    As the last offspring left the nest, it was time to enjoy our new freedom and start travelling to far flung lands again.

    23 years earlier we had completed our last pre kids adventure trekking and rafting in Nepal, Next on our list was the Inca Trail in Peru, but fate intervened and child number one was on the way, and that trip was put on ice.

    The last of our offsprings was heading to university so we decided it was time for us to get back on the road again. Now that we had our freedom back the destination was easy, Peru here we come.

    After some research, which included the BBC TV series “Race across the World“, we came up with an itinerary. Contacted a few trekking agencies and settled on Alpaca Expeditions tours out of Cusco, there was a 6 week lead so by mid-August we were booked up and ready for the off in late September.

    It was at this moment that I had a closer look at the Inca Trekking route and discovered it was VERY steep and at high altitude. This hadn’t really registered 23 years ago, so every weekend we were out doing at least 20km walks up and down any hills we could find around Bristol, with plenty in Wales and in the Mendips.

    Our training culminated in a trek up Mt Snowden, the highest mountain in the UK, we dropped our youngest off at Liverpool University, gave him a hug and a wave, and headed off to north Wales for the trek armed with all our new gear and our cockapoo Tess for company.

    The trek up Snowden was roughly the same as the toughest day on the Inca Trail but without the altitude. It was quite tough but manageable, even Tess the Dog started to look a bit tired on the way back down.

    We headed for our hotel, had a nice meal and went to bed. At this point things took an unexpected turn, I woke up in the night in agony, it later transpired that I had trapped a nerve in my back, probably on the steep decline at the end, and not to be left out, Tess the Dog threw up in the hotel room, probably a bit of exhaustion.

    So, the last few days before departure to Peru were spent in the physio going through untold pain with the manipulation, followed by sleepless nights, and more pain.

    It was difficult to know the true source of the pain, was it my back or was it the physio. By the time we headed to the airport my walking had improved from a shuffle to a limp but still not a lot of hope for climbing a mountain, but we had a couple of weeks in Peru before the trek so there was hope.

    We flew to Lima via Madrid with Air Europe airlines, which seemed to be quite a new low cost airline and they were very good. We upgraded to business class to give my back a chance and by some freaky miracle, lying a bit awkward on the flatbed seemed to do my back the world of good, though it is never fun arriving in a county at 2.30am.

    We had 3 days allocated to Lima to recover and look around and it was probably more than we needed. Thanks to Business Class we didn’t need the recovery day and were up and walking around by mid-morning.

    Lima is a typical third world capital city, heavily congested with clapped out vehicles, mad people on motorbikes and packed buses, all the guidebooks send tourists to Miraflores as the epicentre of fun, and to be honest it was quite a nice place to chill out on the first afternoon.

    There are lots of restaurants and you can generally get buy speaking English, there are Irish bars and wandering bands of minstrels playing Peruvian music, and you will be faced by your first deep fried guinea pig which is a bit disturbing.

    After an hour or so sitting around it was time to test my back a bit more and do some more exploring and we discovered a very spectacular waterfront. Lima is built on a cliff top overlooking the Pacific Ocean, so technically this was our first glimpse of the South Pacific.

    The lower level has the motorway running beside it but there was a pier with a loverly bar overlooking the rocky beach and the local surfers enjoying the waves, I noted their thick wetsuits from bar and decided the water was no place for a bloke with a bad back.

    We headed back to Miraflores to test the Peruvian food for dinner and a pint in the Irish Bar before heading back for a good night’s kip. Next day we were beginning to regret having an extra day in Lima, then we decided to take a tour bus to fill the day up and see the city. This turned out to be a very good idea, as there was a lot of good stuff to see and the bus was really the only way to see it.

    The city is spread out but we discovered that the muddy hill behind our hotel was actually an ancient pyramid that had only been discovered 25 years ago, up to that moment the local kids had used it for dirt bike riding.

    The tour took us around to the main square of government builds which was very attractive, and over the coming weeks we discovered that pretty every city in Peru had one of these.  Our fist ancient monetary and some sites of some bad moments between the people and their government which litters their history.

    So that was our trip to Lima, a good start but now the real fun begins.

  • Jungle Adventure: Monsoons and ancient trees

    Jungle Adventure: Monsoons and ancient trees

    The second day of our Jungle Adventure was largely shaped by the events of the previous night.

    On our way back from Piranha fishing  and Caymen hunting the weather really turned. We had spent the evening listening to the thunder and watching the storm clouds gathering, then as it got dark the lightening forks started to appear in the sky.

    Our little canoe made its way along the navigation channel of the lake in pitch darkness, so the navigation sticks in the channel were hardly visible, we ran aground a couple of times but managed to get back into the channel with lots of pushing and panting.

    As we came around the corner of the channel into the deeper lake, the rain started. We were probably about 400m from the shore and the lights of the lodge were visible in the distance. The rain started as a few big dollops of water landing on our heads and within 30 seconds it turned into a torrential downpour, with claps of thunder and fork lightening all around us.

    Jungle Monsoon

    As we made our way towards the bank, we became aware of hundreds of jumping silver fish, this awareness mainly came about because they were hitting us on the heads from both sides and landing in the bottom of the canoe. These things were everywhere, I have never seen anything like it.

    By the time we made it to the bank we were absolutely soaked, and the scramble up the mud bank to the Lodge was not a simple manoeuvre either and ended up with a few face downs in the mud. I have seen a lot of tropical rain over the years, but nothing matches what happened here in the jungle.

    However, we were the lucky ones, because the canoe that we overtook in the Caymen hunt was not behind us. It transpired that the other canoe could not find the channel across the lake, and as such ran aground. Visibility was bad enough without the rain, but with the water curtains provided by the monsoon conditions they got completely lost and arrived back at the lodge a good 30 minutes behind us.

    We then discovered the jeopardy associated with the location of our room, in the monsoon conditions the walkway was in pitch darkness and slippery so even getting a jacket was challenging, thank goodness for the torches on our phones.

    So, after a very exciting day of adventures, we all headed to bed for a good night’s kip wondering what tomorrow would bring. However, while we were laying in our very hot room, there were a group of poor souls camping in the jungle in those conditions and getting thoroughly soaked, and that shaped our view of the next day.

    The big trek

    We were up at the crack of dawn for the day trek into the jungle to look for giant snakes, monkeys and anything else the Amazon has to offer. After a hearty breakfast we set off into the jungle with a guide at the front and rear so nobody could wander off and into danger.

    One of the first things we learned was that this part of the Amazon is not famous for its animal diversity. The Peruvian Amazon has a much better animal eco system, this part of the Amazon is famous for medicinal plants, sort of nature’s pharmacy.

    The other thing we discovered is that the end of the dry season is not the best time to explore the jungle, this is because the water level is very low and most of the creeks dry up. This particular event should have involved a canoe ride into the jungle, but we ended up hiking instead.

    The temperature in the morning wasn’t too bad, but the humidity was still high, and we were all sweating profusely after 10 minutes clambering along the steep banks of what should have been a river.  We couldn’t walk along the riverbed as it was still boggy, and probably the home to a wide range of nasty insects.

    Our tour first took us to the overnight camp used for jungle night; the overnight monsoon had dropped so much water on the shelter it had collapsed onto the happy campers. If Wooksie had any thoughts about agreeing to the night in the jungle they evaporated when she saw the campsite, we would be staying in our very hot, but dry room at the Lodge.

    We headed off deeper into the jungle and spotted our first animal, a howler monkey high up on the trees. To be honest, these creatures, are so far away they are impossible to see unless you have got eyes like a hawk.

    The guides gave our intrepid adventurers range of fungus and potions that they found lying on the ground in shells, most of them were really small so it is unlikely we were ever going to find them again, or if we did, we would probably die from eating the wrong thing.

    The journey through the jungle involved navigating a number of obstacles and temporary bridges to get across the streams where the riverbed hadn’t completely dried out. There were plenty of funny incidents and comments along the way to keep our spirits up in the rapidly rising temperatures.

    It was during the trek, and seeing how Wooksie was struggling with the heat, that I decided to cut our 3 night stay in the jungle down to 2 nights, at the end of the day, the jungle seemed to be the same in every direction and the river and canoe activities weren’t possible due to water levels, so 3 more days of walking around in that heat didn’t seem like too much fun.

    We stopped to look at a huge snake in a tree, which unfortunately I couldn’t see, and after a few hours of tough walking, discussing politics and the state of the world with my mate Antoine, it was time to head back to the Lodge, a nice lunch and a cold beer.

    The big decision facing Wooksie and I was where we would have dinner, the plan was to go to the overnight camp with the rest of our travellers, enjoy the jungle barbecue and come back to the camp afterwards.

    As we lay in our room, recovering from the walk our conversation was constantly interrupted by the booming sound of thunder. After the monsoon the night before, we were only too aware of what would happen after a few hours of thunder, and so did our travelling companions who made sure they packed their wet gear.

    As the afternoon went on the thunder got louder and more regular, and it didn’t take a rocket scientist to work out it was going to be a very wet night in the jungle. So, being people of a certain age, we decided that we didn’t need to be heroes. There was no point getting soaking wet in the jungle just for the sake of some barbecued fish, and opted to stay at the Lodge, enjoy the hammocks, the view across the lake and enjoy a little bit of time out.

    As it transpired, despite 3 or 4 hours of thunder hardly a drop of rain fell, it could be best described as a spring shower at worst, so our companions did not get washed away after all, and we felt like we had missed out on something, but we stayed in a comfy incident. After 2 hours in the hammock, I had a horrible cramp attack so I dread to think what it would have been like in the jungle.

    The last trek was a walk in the jungle to look for sloths and to see the incredible tree of life, at 450 years old it is one of the oldest trees in the Amazon and hopefully the loggers don’t find it.

    That marked the end of our Jungle Trek, and we embarked on the trip back to civilisation and an unexpected day in a hotel, where Wooksie could enjoy an aircon room to cool herself down and I sat by the pool drinking beer and cocktails.

    However, the surprises weren’t totally over, as when we got back to the hotel we found we were sharing it with Amazonas, the Manaus professional football team who were using it as their base to prepare for their next game and to meet a genuine Plymouth Argyle supporter, which they were all so excited about.

    As with other things we have discovered on this adventure, once you have seen one the impact of the other diminishes. This was our first visit to the Amazon, but we had been in the Costa Rican jungle only 4 months ago, not to mention jungles in Thailand etc, in the end, they all look the same !

  • Piranha fishing in the Amazon

    Piranha fishing in the Amazon

    We arrived at the lodge after about 5 hours of travelling through the jungle in a variety of transport and a chance to meet up with our fellow adventurers. We arrived in early afternoon and after a couple of hours to get over the trip and “enjoy” our new environment our new environment it was time to head off for into the jungle for our first adventure.

    Top of my list was always the river adventures, so I was glad it was the first thing on the itinerary. By a coincidence our companions in the canoe were all the French people on the trip, Antoine the physio from La Plagne and champion photobomber in the pics, Genevieve and Jean the fragile looking 70 something adventurers from Paris but were tough as old boots, and of course the long suffering Wooksie who was well outside her comfort zone in the jungle.

    We all piled into the small wooden canoe with our guide Ismail, who was also the Brazilian jujitsu champion at one time, which is why his knees are all strapped up. So, we headed back out into the lake to navigate the shallow channels surrounded by wading birds and eventually we made it back out to the main river and ready for action.

    Piranha action

    A few hundred metres up the track we pulled over to the bank and tied the canoe to the branch of a tree hanging in the river. Ismail then handed out our tools, which were 2m long thin branches with fishing line on the end, no reels or sophistication here, the hook was tied to the line with a strip of wire, which gave us the first indication of how sharp the teeth of the piranha would be.

    The bait was the skin from the chicken we had had for lunch, which made sense because it is tough, so it would be difficult for the fish to get it off the hook. So armed with our fishing rods, I ended up helping the others put the chicken on their hooks and into the water we cast.

    Within seconds the fish attacked the bait, with really violent attacks that had the rods shacking, but these cunning little fish weren’t easy to catch as they ripped the skin off the hooks but eventually, I swung one over the side of the canoe.

    This raised new problems, firstly we had to get these violent little critters off the hooks, which we did by shaking the fish off the hooks. This created the next problem, what did we do with the fish in on the floor of the boat. My pal Antoine took no chance and put his feet in the air so they couldn’t bite his feet whilst leaving me to deal with the problem.

    As we were getting short of bait, we just used the fish as more bait, so basically the Piranha were now eating their mates. Then Wooksie caught her first fish and helpful swung it out of the water and into my lap – brilliant, a deadly fish in my lap. I shook the fish off the hook, so it was now loose on my seat. I decided to flick it back into the river, after a couple of efforts I said to myself “stop faffing around and pick it up”, it is this lack of personal risk management that has got me into trouble before and duly I picked it up and was immediately bitten by their infamously savage teeth.

     With blood all over the seat, Ismail decided we had had enough fun for one afternoon, and it was time to take a break and get my finger treated.

    We pulled in our gear and headed up the river.

    Riverside pub

    After 10 minutes enjoying the tranquil surroundings we saw our destination, a barge moored beside the river. This was an unexpected sight and as we drew closer we realised that the barge performed many functions.

    It was the local supermarket for the riverside communities, it sold beer to acted as their local pub, the owner was installing a big new TV so it was about to assume the role of local cinema too, and lastly it was also the local hospital and I had my injury dressed.

    So, we sat back and enjoyed a relaxing beer as the sun went down over the river, we sat back and enjoyed a couple of ice cold beers. Just behind us was another canoe from our lodge who pulled in and joined in the fun.

    Strangely, Ismail suggested that it was safe for swimming and people should jump in for a dip, which the young people did. Luckily, I was told I shouldn’t jump in due to my find, and to be honest I was very grateful for the excuse not to enter the water with those fish only 1 mile away!

    After an hour it was time to head off for our next adventure, the day wasn’t over yet.

    Crocodile hunt

    The freshwater crocodiles in the Amazon are called Caymen; they grow to about 3 metres and live along the riverbanks eating anything that wanders past their nests.

    The sun went down very quickly and before we knew it, we were heading back through the dark. The method for finding the creatures is to shine a torch along the banks and the beam catches their eyes and reflects their location.

    We didn’t have much luck until we entered the narrow creek back to the lodge. Ahead of us the other canoe suddenly ran into the shallows and their guide jumped out and splashed around in the narrows.

    We passed their boat and the hunt intensified, suddenly Ismail jumped over the side of the boat into the muddy shallows, and then reappeared with our Caymen, not a full grown adult but a stroppy teenager with a bit of attitude.

    As we examined the beast in the canoe it was quite difficult to capture the moment because of the high powered lights, but it was lots of fun and our French friend Genevieve insisted on waving at it rather than touching it.

    The adventures of the evening were not quite over. As daylight came to an end there had been rumbles of thunder and gathering storm clouds were ominous, then as we put the Caymen back in the water there was the first crack of lightening and a warning about what was to come on the way back.

  • Culture vultures land in Buenos Aries

    Culture vultures land in Buenos Aries

    We landed back in Buenos Aries for our second visit of the South American adventure. The first visit only lasted about 15 hours but we did manage to get in a tour of the main sights before heading to the airport, so we were looking for something different on this visit.

    The trip up from Ushuaia using Flybondi had been surprisingly incident free. After our previous experiences, we were relieved the find the flight on time and we landed in Buenos Aries on schedule, tired but with the evening to look forward to.

    We then encountered the Howard Johnson hotel chain, in particular, their hotel naming convention. Now I get the need for branding and consistency but do the hotels have to have almost the exact same name?

    Howard Johnson Hotels

    So after a long day we got an Uber from the airport to Howard Johnson by Wyndham Buenos Aries, which it turns out is  hidden away in a shopping mall. After walking around in circles trying to find it, we finally found the hidden entrance, waited 10 minutes while a couple of other customers faffed about before it was our turn.

    The receptionist  looked at our reservation and laughed, “You have the wrong hotel”, firstly I didn’t like having to wait anyway, but when he chose to laugh it really did agitate me so I let Wooksie deal with it. It was the first time the pace of our South American adventure started to catch up with us.

    Turned out we were at the Howard Johnson by Wyndham Plaza Buenos Aries Florida, when we should have been at Howard Johnson Plaza by Wyndham Buenos Aries Lima, a mile away, a simple mistake to make I’m sure you will agree, and in fact, a naming convention almost designed to cause trouble for innocent customers.

    So, we called another Uber for 4 persons, and the driver turned up in a VW Up which is hardly a 4 seater. It patently wasn’t big enough to take us and our bags comfortably but I wasn’t giving in that easy, we then had a stand off as he wanted to cancel the trip but after another very dirty look from me we piled into the car with two big bags on our laps, and finally we made it to Howard Johnson Plaza by Wyndham Buenos Aries Lima.  We then discovered that Buenos Aries shuts down on a Sunday night, so there was no big night out for us so a light dinner and a good night’s kip.

    Culture options.

    For this trip to Buenos Aries we wanted something a bit different, we had already done the city tour so wanted to see a different side of the city. Wooksie was adamant that she wanted to experience the traditions of Tango, we had touched on it in Boca, so we decided we would go to a see a Tango show.  We also had time in the day for something else so we decided to do the  tour of the street art in Palermo, and in particular the Soho district.

    In the morning, we went for a stroll in the spring sunshine around the parks and the around Porteno backstreets, was good to feel the sun again after Patagonia and Ushuaia in particular.

    We are not particularly arty, in fact, not arty at all, so the walking tour of the street art was a bit left field for us, but it turned out to be one of the absolute highlights of the trip. We had a really nice, paced walk around the back streets of this famous suburb and you could really feel the buzz, I would imagine nights out in that area would be a lot of fun, there was even an Irish pub.

    Street art in Palermo

    The street art itself was brilliant. If we had wandered around the streets ourselves, we would have missed so much, not just the art but all the history and buildings that make up the area. Bright vibrant colours on all the walls, apparently vandalism is defined as someone who damages someone else’s art.

    Nearly all the walls had artwork on them, from artists all over the world who had come here to leave their mark. I now know the history of graffiti, not to be mistaken for murals of course. It was difficult to really capture all the vibrant colours in the photos as there were so many of them, so I created this video to capture them all.

    The time flew by with a great tour guide and interesting company in the group, but before we knew it, we had to bail out and head back to the hotel for our big night out at the Porteno Tango show a few blocks from our hotel.

    We got ourselves ready in our least scruffy T shirt and jeans for our big night out. Just before we headed for our night out in at the Tango (at 745 pm) I received an email from Antonio Jungle Trekking that said our  accommodation was double booked and offering me their very basic accommodation, no aircon, shared bathroom and a night camping in the jungle – I couldn’t believe what I was reading and it is fair to say it poured cold water on our  evening at the Tango, you can read the full story in our Cautionary Tale blog.

    Wooksie started to come to terms with possible unravelling or Jungle Trek in Manaus and at least started talking to me again in rather clipped phrases, one of the terms she used sounded similar to  anchor.

    A night at the Tango

    Thankfully, our arrival at the Porteno Theatre went without a hitch, the booking was all in place so no problems to navigate, the welcome was warm, and we were directed to our dining table which had a great view of the stage. 

    We then found ourselves in the company of another English couple touring South America in the wake of the BBC Race Round the World, exactly the same as us. So, we had much to talk about, and tales to tell of our adventures and experiences and the pre-show dinner and drinks just flew by.

    A word on the dinner, the food at the theatre was as good as anything we had enjoyed at restaurants and the Merlot was really good quality, it was relatively expensive but was good value for money.

    In the UK we don’t really do show things, it’s not really us but this was a great experience. The whole Tango experience was different to what we expected, the dancing was more akin to what I would have expected in Paris with café culture scenes.  I think we were expecting Flamenco dancing, which we now realise is associated with Brazil 😊.

    Even though the Tango is associated with Argentina, it clearly has its origins in France and Italy with other European influences, a bit like the whole of Argentina really. So, this was the last act in our Argentina adventure as the next day we headed to Brazil to continue our adventure.

    We had a wonderful time in Argentina and I’ve documented the little surprises about the country and what to expect if you decide to come here.

    The pictures tell part of the Tango story, but I put them all together to make a little video of the night, which I hope you will enjoy.

  • The journey into the darkest Amazon

    The journey into the darkest Amazon

    After all the trauma with the booking, we were relieved to be in Manaus ready for our adventure. We didn’t have much information on how we would get to the lodge in the middle of the Amazon.

    The journey to our Jungle Lodge was all part of the fun and very quickly got into the spirit of adventure, you could even say it started with a bump, literally. Amazing Tours  picked us up in a minibus from the Intercity Hotel, the bump in question was when the minibus hit a car when turning into the hotel to pick us up, so the excitement started early !

    We then had a tour of the city picking up lots of youngish European trekkers, who all spoke wonderful English so by the time we got to the port we all knew each other, and our favourite football teams, very well. There was a rich mixture of back packers, a couple of Spanish girls who were working in Sao Paulo and an elderly couple from Paris. It’s wonderful how quickly people mix and integrate when they are on an adventure.

    First stop was the port, where we all decanted from the minibus in search of our next mode of transport. In front of us was a vast waterway, which in fact was the place where the Amazon River is officially formed by the meeting of the Rio Negro and Rio Solimoes.

    Once all the bags and people were loaded on to the little ferry boat, we headed across the river to have a look at the natural phenomena called the Meeting of the Waters, where the two rivers are different colours and the water doesn’t mix, so there are light and dark brown waters running in parallel, this is covered in more detail in this post.

    We then bumped into a boat load of noisy Polish ladies, who we later discovered were heading to our lodge as well. The waterway acts as a major highway for traffic with an assortment of ferries going in different directions and lots of boats ferrying goods around. I

    We then arrived at the little port and disembarked; to find a fleet of little old style VW Type 2 vans waiting for us, this was turning into a real adventure. These vehicles are based on the 1960s design and were laid out with two benches for us to sit on. So, our intrepid travellers loaded ourselves into the vans, opened the sliding windows and set off into the wilds of the Amazon.

    At this point there wasn’t a lot of jungle but we noticed that many of the wooden houses were built on stilts, it wasn’t clear if that was to avoid the snakes and nasty things of the jungle, but we later realised it was because the whole area would be under water in 6 months’ time.

    After an hour of driving we were glad for a stop to grab a drink and an ice cream at a remote petrol station, to have a chat with our companions and start to adjust to the world of the jungle. As we reboarded the van, we didn’t realise this was the last we would see of civilisation for a few days.

    We headed off down a very straight main road with the company of huge lorries and motorbikes. Another hour down the road we turned off into a muddy track, which ran for another 45 minutes – these old buses have a hard life.  Eventually we arrived at another river port, there were motor bikes lying around so we were grateful these didn’t feature in the transportation plans.

    We were loaded onto another wooden ferry boat for the next stage of our adventure, unfortunately there wasn’t enough space for the passengers and the bags, so one of our French companions, Jean, was despatched to the front of the boat to enjoy the baking sun and keep a lookout for danger!

    The trip up the river was tranquil (except for Jean) as there was no one else around and it was a beautiful windless day, the only ripples on the water were those created by our boat. It was our first opportunity to see the illusive dolphins, unlike their sea water cousins they don’t follow and play with the boats, the only sightings are their grey bodies as they make their way along the river.

    30 minutes later, it was time for another transport change. Our boat was rammed into a muddy bank where a small wooden boat was waiting. At this time of the year the river levels are very low, as we cruised up the river it was clear that the high water mark was at least 5m higher than the current water level, the consequence of this was that the tributary river, creeks and lakes dry out at this time of the year.

    Once again, we had another change, we had to clamber into smaller boats for the next stage of the journey to the lodge. We headed into the creek which was little more than a stream, the waterway was very narrow and shallow which required a lot of skill from the driver. The boat was navigated using an outboard motor arrangement, the rear steerage was tricky, and we beached on occasional banks and needed a team effort to get us back in the channel.

    The boats then entered a large lake with sticks poking out of the water, it transpired that these sticks were the navigation channel that had to be followed. The water level of the lake had dropped to only a few inches in places, and we could see numerous wading birds enjoying their fishing opportunities in the shallow water.

    After another 15 minutes we turned the corner into deeper water and there was our destination, Ipanema Lodge sat high up on the banks of the lake. The driver beached the bow of the boat into the muddy bank, and we all scrambled out of the boat, stretching and stiff, and clambered up the bank to have a look around our home for the next 3 nights.

    Here is the video of the trip – hope you enjoy it