1 June WP 558
The GPS indicates in a straight line we are 400klm to Cuzco after driving 370klm from our last WP …BUT it is soon clear as we spot a road sign which gives us the true distance not our straight line distance indicating 700klm to Cuzco….MAN THAT’S A LOT OF BENDS…..The road surface is great with few trucks and very few cars. The scenery was wonderful huge trees and some prime forest, lots of birds and a few monkeys’ flying through the canopy. It was cool but without doubt it was still the Amazon Region, the foliage was huge dense impenetrable the grass was thick the insects huge and my windscreen resembled an insect pate’ dish……. ready to serve slightly warm., the bug entrails had glued my windscreen wipers to the windscreen better than any epoxy glue.!! The road surface was great and Victor was humming along just fine, I could not understand why this jungle road had so few vehicles traveling on it, the surface looked almost new when was it constructed I thought. Then we saw the European circle a Brazilian flag a huge sign in the middle of nowhere that explained the funds for the construction of the road some 3 years ago had been donated by Brazil and the European union……do those poor European tax payers really know where all those EURO”S GO ???????? a jungle road with no traffic on it. The road followed close to Bolivian border and was a delight to drive with such interesting surroundings still low in the Amazon Basin vivid green plants and some HUGE trees were flowering high up in the canopy’s we spot Pink and orange flowers in profusion with large butterfly’s flapping there huge iridescent blue wings swooping low along side as we drive past. I swerve and miss a swarm of large Orange hornets but a few enter the buggy and a mad fight breaks out as we continually swerve, Elayne beats her arms around her head as I try to get a large Orange hornet from her hair….At last the short violent war with the Orange Hornets is over and we return to our coarse keeping a sharp eye open for anymore critters.
We see many dead sloths on the road but our eyes are scanning the tall tree canopy where we see Howler and Squirrel monkeys swinging around eating what looked like the flowers high up. The whole feel was still prime jungle and Elayne was not wondering to far from the road for a pee the Black Caiman here are huge some 3 -6 meters in length not what you want to stumble across when you bare your bottom to the world Elayne exclaims.