Manu Day 9: Claylick and return to Cusco

The last day of the trip was supposed to be straight down the river for 3hrs, then back to Cusco by road, taking a total of 12 hours from leaving the lodge to arriving in Cusco.

Instead the wonderful guides offered us the chance to see the claylick, then head back to Cusco.  Needless to say everyone was keen to see the claylick.

When we arrived at the claylick the parrots were still there but very few of them.

Little green parrots

Soon the parrots  were replaced with macaws.  Slowly more and more macaws arrived, flying to and fro, lower and higher, perching on the trees and palms, bickering over the best perches.

It was a long return journey.  Three hours in the canoe to the mining town of Colorado, such a contrast after the pristine jungle of Manu.  An hour and a half in taxis on a dirt road, then back into a different canoe for the final river crossing over to the bus.  Here we were entertained by three canoes lashed together transporting a truck and another canoe piled high with mattresses.  Then 8hrs in the bus back to Cusco . . . we were awfully glad to get back to our hostel.

The trip to Manu was phenomenal.  At times it was hard not to compare it to the Galapagos but it was so startlingly different.  In the rainforest nothing is as close as it is in the Galapagos, but there is a sense of excitement, of not knowing what you may see around the next bend of the river.  And when you do see something, a flash of bright coloured plumage, a leaf turning into a camouflaged creature, a troupe of monkeys leaping and diving through the branches it's all more extraordinary.