Visiting the Amazon rainforest has been a dream of ours for a long time, seeing it and Macchu Picchu were our two main priorities when planning this trip. We could not have asked for a better guide than Abraham from Amazon Trails Peru. We were lucky enough to be the only two people on our tour so we had a very personal experience with Abraham. He grew up in the Amazon and possesses an incredible amount of knowledge about the wildlife and fauna. There was not a single question he couldn’t answer.

Abraham, along with our boat driver and his side kick, ensured that we saw an unbelievable amount of wildlife. It was like they had a sixth sense for spotting the smallest insect to the bird in the highest tree. They went out of their way to find even the most elusive of animals like the sloth. They persevered until we found what we were looking for. That was one arduous hike in sweltering heat and humidity. They macheted a path for us in untouched jungle to find sloths high in the trees, asleep of course.

We did a 5 day tour, 2 of which were spent travelling to and from Cusco (car, boat, car, boat – an all day affair). The other 3 days were spent exploring the area both day and night (sometimes a little scary walking in the dark with only a torch and the possibility of encountering a jaguar). We saw fresh jaguar prints a few times but unfortunately never actually saw one. We learnt so much about the plants and animals, it really is quite amazing how every tree, plant and weed has some reason for existing in the jungle. One of the highlights of the tour was seeing the brightly coloured macaws at the clay lick, even if it meant getting up at some ridiculous hour of the morning.

Click here for more pictures of our Peruvian adventure