Muyuna jungle Lodge — Lisa's (& Steve's) Travels

The 5 days spent here, vie for the most uncomfortable of my life! We were constantly sticky from humidity, and the hot still air didn't help at all. Again, wearing long sleeves and pants against mosquitoes compounded the misery. Within 30 minutes of walking along trails, you were totally soaked, with sweat running down your back and legs. Clothes took a full 2 days to dry (if at all). The accommodations were awesome, as to the space in the cabins and bathrooms, and there was electricity (!), in contrast to the previous week in the lodges down in Manu. The mud boots they provided were absolutely necessary, as sometimes they nearly got sucked off your feet, when trying to step out of a swampy area. The birds were a very loud and punctual alarm clock each morning starting at 0500.

We did take several trips on the canals around the lodge (including piranha fishing), and got to see some sloths. I had no idea their fur was so mottled in color.

We also saw some different monkeys than the previous lodges, and I was able to get some neat pictures.

And the smallest monkey in the world, a pygmy marmoset, at 6 inches for the body, with a 6 inch tail.

I had wanted to go to the Amazon near Iquitos (the largest city in the world without road access) to see pink dolphins. They live in the fresh water of the Amazon, and are actually blind. If you saw how brown the water was there, you'd understand why they didn't need vision... The first outing to see them, was pretty disappointing, as we saw only a few, and just their backs as they'd disappear under the water after surfacing briefly. The outing was also "to swim in the Amazon with the dolphins", but I declined to get in the very warm, brown water, hoping to get some pictures. Alas, I just sweated under the hot sun.

Over the next two days, we actually had a guide to ourselves (as the other guests in our group left - they didn't stay as many days as we did), and we requested to go back out on the Amazon, hoping to get better sightings and pictures. Our second trip found only grey river dolphins.

On our third attempt, we went out with 2 boats (some other guests wanted to try and see some more pink dolphins) and essentially had a "dolphin roundup". The boats would speed in circles around them after spotting them, hoping to get the bait fish more concentrated. I started just firing away when I'd see some disturbance on the surface, hoping to catch them coming out, rather than always catching just their backs, as they went back under. After several hundred pictures, the one I discovered when reviewing my pictures (on my laptop) back at the lodge was totally pure luck, as I actually didn't see them with my eye, I was just clicking madly away.