Welcome to the Jungle!
Updated: Aug 12, 2025
Leaving Cusco pulled at my heart far harder than I had expected. Driving to the airport I felt like I was leaving so much behind – it still didn’t feel real that I was going but I felt a small sense of panic as part of me knew I would soon be gone. I kept thinking of all the things I had wanted to do, things I never got a chance to do and things I wished I could do again. I wanted another queso helado, I missed the cat cafe, I thought about the crispy picarones that I knew I wouldn’t be able to find in the jungle. Thankfully, going through the airport was easy. It took me less than 15 minutes to check in, drop off my checked bag, and go all the way through security. Security for national flights in Peru is done so much differently – someone merely glances at your passport and boarding pass, you can carry water and liquids through (thankfully so you don’t have to pay airport prices for water), and there was a massive sign above the entrance point with a list of the most wanted people in the country and their ransoms. The board was wild, people stopped in their tracks gathering around it and staring, everyone hoping they wouldn’t recognize any faces but with an anxious wondering of the possibility. The board held the perpetrators picture, full name, last known location, crime, and the reward for information or their capture.
As I boarded the plane and watched the city of Cusco fade below me I began to feel lost, detached from the home I had built, the people I loved, and the streets I knew. We soared above the buildings and over the Andes once again, the snowcapped peaks and glacial lakes sparkling below. I had a window seat, empty next to me, and was at the front of the plane so I felt like I had some nice personal space. Once we reached our cruising altitude we were high above the clouds and we could see nothing but a thick blanket of white below us. Almost five minutes after we had leveled out, the cabin crew announced we would be making our descent into Puerto Maldonado. My period of limbo was coming to a rapid end.
The moment we broke through the clouds I felt everything change. A smile appeared on my face and my jaw dropped. We had emerged over the vast Amazon rainforest, entirely switching landscapes in 30 minutes. The jungle was a brilliant green and so dense you couldn’t see a speck of the forest floor. We flew over winding rivers that curved like giant serpents through the trees, a contrasting brown against the surrounding foliage. I watched the rivers chase each other across the landscape, breaking off and weaving together in a complex chain. I felt beyond shellshocked – my heart beat in my ears and I felt my cheeks turning red from smiling. When I looked to the distance I could still see the Andes, standing tall and dark blue above the immense mass of jungle. The forest expanded in all directions around us, a seemingly impenetrable wilderness. When you see it from above it seems endless but I know it is being chipped away at each day, the urban world gnawing at the edges. My sadness about leaving Cusco was gone and I felt nothing but the buzzing of excitement, joy, and adventure.
The moment our wheels touched the ground I facetimed my parents, smiling so much I could barely talk and tears coming down my cheeks in joy. This is the adventure of a lifetime, this is the real thing. I couldn’t believe I was there. I sat buzzing in my seat waiting for them to open the plane door so I could smell the sweet air. The airport was tiny, we walked across the tarmac and there was one other plane in the whole place. The jungle fought its way in, reaching tendrils of vines over the fences and flocks of birds flew overhead. Waiting outside the airport was a taxi driver with a sign for me and another newly arrived volunteer for the station. Driving through Puerto Maldonado felt like an entirely different country, reminding me more of Colombia or India than Peru. There were motorcycles everywhere, we hardly saw another car on the whole road and almost none of the motorcycles had less than two people on them. The city was far smaller than I had expected and much more remote. We were driven to a restaurant to wait with the other new arrivals for the boat that would take us to the station. The air there made me feel alive, it is fresh and so has much more oxygen than I am used to. Somehow in a 35 minute flight I have lost 11,000 ft of elevation and arrived in an opposite climate. I have switched the cold for heat, the driest air for the humidity, the high mountains for 500 ft above sea level, and hardly ever seeing trees so being surrounded by them. I have been transported into another world in less time that it took me to drive to school just months ago. From the restaurant we walked to the port, a mud bank with a few wooden stairs and boats tied to trees. We clambered into the boat, avoiding the dogs running around the bank and passing the heavy suitcases into the boat. We were joined by some of the station's current volunteers who had taken the boat to town for a few hours. The boat looked like a long and wider canoe with a covered section. From the port we rode 50 minutes down the river, a journey that felt surreal and was incredibly exhilarating. I stuck my hand into the water and felt the cool water splash up my arm and smiled. Boats passed us heading up and down the river and we passed emerging tributaries where boats turned off down different directions. As we continued down the sun began to lower in the sky, casting a golden glow across the water and making the trees glow. The weather was perfect, a cool breeze blowing in my hair and the sun on my back.
The station is barely visible from the river and if the driver hadn’t steered us into shore I never would have known we were there. We had passed many fancy hotels, lodges, and compounds earlier up on the river but the further we got, the more remote it became. Stepping off the boat I knew I would be starting the biggest adventure I have had. As I felt my shoe squish into the mud and looked up into the trees, I already knew this was going to change my life.
When you go looking for adventures, you find them! Your writing totally conveys the sense of exhilaration you felt and lets me feel it, too. Stepping into mud, the shift from dry air and elevation to the humidity and nearness to sea level, the absence of trees to the crowding presence of thick covering green everywhere. Dipping your hand in the water immediately made me imagine the piranhas swimming toward you for a snack -- glad they were left behind with their hunger. These blog posts have been bringing the world to my doorstep.