Day 69: Tambopata Ecolodge to Cusco (Peru)

Monday, March 5th, 2018

Day 16 of G-Adventures Inca Heartland tour
Day 3 of G-Lodge Amazon – 3 day independent adventure
@Tambopata ecolodge

“Departure. Time to return to the city of Puerto Maldonado is scheduled according to flight time of the group. In the mornings you can see the wildlife that is particularly active at this time, are frequently heard howler monkeys or stop. Your guide will give support to his arrival in Puerto Maldonado and will relocate to the airport and assist you on your flight.”

Today we fly back to Cusco. Our transport from the lodge will be at 08:30 am. So we get up, walk to the waterhole of the lodge and afterwards to breakfast.

Hugo shows us the brazilian nut (paranut). A tree needs to grow approx. 50 years to have fruits. That is why they are protected and grow only wild. We taste them after breakfast. The Guinea pigs seem to like what we left over.

We leave the lodge at 08:30 am by boat. It already starts to get hot.

05.03.2018 08:32 S 12°49.5392′ W 069°24.1225′ altidude 422 m @ Tambopata Ecolodge

We do the check-out at the national park station half an hour later.

05.03.2018 08:57 S 12°49.6864′ W 069°17.4627′ altidude 421 m @ National Park entry

Go further with the boat to inferno habour.

05.03.2018 09:40 S 12°43.6180′ W 069°12.9827′ altidude 423 m @ Inferno Harbour

And drive an additional hour to Puerto Madonaldo Tambopata Ecolodge office. So, whatever they sell (3 days 2 nights jungle adventure, it is not even 1.5 days).

The drive is the same nasty hour as it was to the lodge. I donot understand why they don’t pick you up in Puerto Madonaldo harbour and give you a smooth 2 hours boat ride to the lodge with animal spotting on the way, anyway …

05.03.2018 10:51 S 12°35.0692′ W 069°11.6546′ altidude 453 m @ Tambopata Ecolodge office

In the office they give you a questionnaire about your NPS and satisfaction.

Then they bring us to the airport. We arrive at 11:00 am, our flight is intended to be at 13:50. Everything is closed at the airport. We are the first ones. Hugo Brainer leaves. Seems like he wants to have an early ending. Not good service.

The Latam Lady at the desk checks us in “prefered2. Yes, there is a lounge you can go in. We pass security. Go to the lounge. No, you cannot go in. No, you cannot go out of security area (only if you pay 8 eur), wtf? The plane is late. So we sit 4 hours on the most serviceless airport in the world.

Anyway …

FLIGHT16: LatAm LA2074 Puerto Madonaldo (PEM) 13:50 delayed to 15:00 to Cusco (CUZ) 14:50 delayed to 15:50, 1h00min, 250 OneWorld miles,

Gladys is already waiting with a minibus at the airport and brings us through crazy Cusco traffic back to Hotel El Puma. She also got our laundry done and got my usb charging cable back from one driver, where I forgot it.

We get our luggage out of the locker, checkin another room, re-sort and re-pack our luggage and get Gianni for a drink to Limbus Restobar, Cusco. First I have to fight on life and death to protect Gianni from getting immediately eaten by the waitress. She sees him, bares her teeth and approaches him with a hypnotic rythm in her walking.

Anyway, the bar is nice, drinks and food are good.