amazon/ jungle trek

templeville

hello folks,
I want to go on a jungle trek early next year, but I want to a proper one where you head off for a long period of time, not one of these holidays where you leave your luxury hotel and go on a day trip.
Does anyone know where I start with this, travel companies, organisatiosn etc?
many thanks

Wild Rover

Hey mate,

I did a week-long trek in the Amazon Jungle a few months ago, got a flight into Iquitos in Peru and booked the trip there. There was lots of agencies to chose from and could leave the next day if I wanted.

I know you can also book trips to the jungle in Cusco, Peru that go to Manu National Park, little more expensive but meant to be good.

I would recommend Iquitos if you fancied that, it's a proper jungle town that you can only fly into. The trip itself was great, went with two guides, living rough for the week under a mosquito net. Saw lots of snakes, spiders etc.

You can book all these jungle trips from the town that they depart from.

templeville

hey wild rover, many thanks for etting back to me
this is exactly what i am looking for, sorry but i have lots of questions?
how many people were on the trek with you other than the guides?
how much input did you have into planning the experience or was they are all "standard" treks?
How much was teh jungle trek you went on?
what were your best bits, what do you recomend?
many thanks
very excited about this

bungaro79

went went on one too in the amazon, left from cusco as we also did the inca trail and wanted to be based there. we went with a crowd called peru discovery and they were very good. it was just the two of us on the trip and the places we stayed were really nice, no electricity but view were amazing from both lodges!! we went trekking from both places and spotted a variety of wildlife.

the drive from cusco to manu park was a fair long one but was worth it although the road is cut right into the mountain side so you'd want to be alright with heights!! i think jorge, the owner and guide of peru discovery, also offer bike trips during the trip.

Wild Rover

The tour I went on was just me and two guides who spoke only a little english, and we carried a lot of supplies for the week between us. I could have book with other agencies who had a few people going the same day as me, but the agency I wanted to go with had no-one else. In the end it was great being there by myself with just the guides for company. We didnt meet anyone else for the entire week, except on the last day when we walked to a local jungle town.

When leaving from Iquitos in Peru there is one National Park that almost all agencies try to get you into, called Pacaya-Samiria National Park. The trips looked good but all more-or-less the same, so I was lucky to find an agency that went to another remote part of the jungle away from the National Park where there were no tourists. The agencies give you a little input into your trip, like how long you want to go for. After that I just left it to them coz they knew the jungle better than me! The trips can last from 4/5 days to anything like 20 days or a month. For me a week was great and just the right amount of time.

The trips aren't very cheap, about US$100 a day I paid for a good agency. Some offer cheaper but dont get you into the jungle proper.

There were a lot of highlights now that I think of it, some were:

- travelling down the amazon river on an old boat with just local people on board staring at me!

- Night walks with the 2 guides and a torch looking for snakes, spiders and anything else that moved. It was a bit dangerous I guess coz you dont want to step on a poisonous snake, but we found one huge one in the bush and the guides caught it. Made for great photos! Also saw lots of tarantula's.

- During the day walking in the jungle with a shotgun looking to shoot monkeys for food!

- Building a treehouse out of wood which would be our base for a few days. We didnt have tents, only mosquito nets.

One thing to ask yourself before you book is whether you want to see much wildlife on your trip. If you do then you should book a trip that includes a lot of boat trips down rivers coz thats where you see tons of wildlife. On my trip, I wasn't too bothered about wildlife coz I'd seen loads already in Rurrenabaque, Bolivia (another amazon town). I wanted instead to see proper jungle and just walk through it for days.

To book, the best option is to go to the town you want to leave from and book it there after talking to a few agencies.

Any other questions, fire ahead.