The 2 days in between the mountains and the jungle where we were gonna spend the second week was spent going to Lake Titicaca the first day. Here we spent some time on a man made floating island Uros, which was a real eye opener in the novelty factor. The islands made of reed and mud actually had inhabitants, it has to be seen to be appreciated. We spent the day in our boat and headed back around sunset back to the city of Puno. Took the bus back to Cucsco. Said our goodbyes to the rest of our friends and it was down to me and Priya now, felt kinda alone after 10 days of having people around us, but we were looking forward to Manu so it was back to chilling in Cusco. After spending a day in Pisaq, which has a very impressive ruin site also and doing a short trek there, we left the next day and drove down to the cloud forest. The drive from the heights of Cusco to the sea level of the Peruvian Rainforest was 8hrs long and had various aspects to it. I had no clue to what the cloud forest meant till I actually saw it from a height above at the Manu biosphere reserve entry point, also saw the capuccin monkey and also various rainforest birds along the way. We left the sun behind once we came down and welcomed the humidity and the mosquitoes. We then took the boat, which would be our means of transport for the next 5 days and went down the Madre De Dios river to the depths of the jungle where we would have many eventful experiences.

We were introduced to the jungle by Carlos, fittingly since over the course of the next 5 days we came to know how lucky we were to have a guide like Carlos. He was born in the jungles and has studied it, so his knowledge is vast only surpassed by his joie de vivre. The sojourn on the boat was a long and eventful one, we gradually got into the Manu preserve on the endless river. Saw everything from giant tarantulas, capybaras, caymans, snakes and many different kinds of monkeys (red howler, green squirrel, spider, woolly, brown capuccin) and we saw one jaguar. The jungle walks in the day were mostly uneventful but for a few sightings and information that Carlos used to render upon us. The night walks were a whole different story, the jungle comes alive at night so they say, and every sound feels heightenened and sends shivers down your spine at times. One night we did a beach jungle walk and upon seeing some caymans Carlos decided that we walk towards them, which is in contrast to every thing you have ever learnt when you see a alligator in the dark, the gist of which is to run as far away as possible. The caymans are quite shy so they slinked away in the dark of the night, didn't know what we would have done if they had started approaching us but thankfully we never had to make that decision. The night walks were simply brilliant though since if you ever came upon a clearing the southern hemisphere night sky was illuminated in what felt like a million stars, just an amazing view. We struggled at times with the humidity and the mosquitoes, but the adventure and the pure adrenaline of living in the jungle, without electricity if I may add, got us over the hump.

After 5 days we flew out of Manu after bidding adieu to the rest of the boat crew, on our own flight to Cusco, where we would spend another couple of days shopping and taking in the sights of the city some more. By this time with the tanning, I started to look exactly like a Peruvian, not that I cared because I had a ball in this country. We then headed out rather wistfully to our home in the States via Lima. The city of Lima is huge and bustling like any metropolis, does not have the romanticism of Cusco but we took in the sights of the Plaza de Armas in the few hours that we had. Finally caught the flight out to Houston from Lima, we had some souvenirs from the stores in Cusco, but after 16 days I felt like the greatest souvenir that I would take are the indelible memories that this country had left me with.