The jungle and Pucusana - Peru

Boarding our boat in Puerto Maldonado for the 6-hour ride to our jungle lodge down the Madre de Dios to the Heath River on the Bolivian border.

Parrots at the riverside clay lick.

Hoatzins (aka "punk chickens") on the oxbow lake near the lodge.  It's hard to see, but they have mohawks.

Fishing for piranhas.  Instead we caught some local fish that we ate for lunch.  

Capybara by the side of the river.  About the size of a sheep.

Exploring the jungle with our guide, William, and the other couple in our group,

We hiked through the jungle to a stretch of savannah.  On this elevated platform, we could see for miles around.  After a stunning sunset, we walked home through the jungle in the pitch dark.

Boarding the boat in the morning for a bird-watching expedition.

Breakfast in the main hall of the lodge.  All walls are screens.

Our bungalow at the lodge.

We spent our last weekend in Pucusana, a fishing village about an hour's bus ride south of Lima.  View of the harbor from the deck of our humble cliffside hotel--a brisk climb up.

Fishing boats in the harbor.

Washing the catch unloaded from one of the boats.

Lunch by the harbor.