Happiness has a monkey face. Peruvian chronicles. Day 11.

We got up early with our backpacks ready and wearing my brand new swimsuit. This was one of the best days ever! We left Pilcopata and soon we got to an animal preservation place. Guess which animal marvelled me the most...of course, the monkeys.

Spider monkey, spider monkey, does whatever a spider monkey does!

As soon as we got there I hunkered down to take photos of a spider monkey that was walking in my direction, and when he came close enough to me, he grabbed my legs and climbed on me. I died out of love in the moment. And I melted even more when he didn't want to go with another person. For me, just this moment was worth all the trip. If it was up to me, I would have stayed there for the rest of the trip, but German didn't let me.

My love and happiness meter exploded.

Apart from my spider monkey friend, there were several capuchin monkeys, another one really really little, and another animals as macaos, wild pigs, and tapirs, an animal that I didn't now until then and that if I had to describe it, I'd say it's a hybrid of bear and elefant. When I saw it, I could only think about how vast the diverity of species is and everything we have out there to learn about.

As one American friend once told me: "who doesn't love monkeys?"

The tapir, an unknown species to me until July 2015.

In the preservation establishment, we also saw some plants as the one known as "cow boob" and the ultra famous coca, but don't get distracted, I still am crazy about the monkeys, because while I was still smiling and was paying attention to the plants, my spider monkey friend came back and sat next to me.

I think we understand each other perfectly.

We left. We went back to the road alternating drives and walks. It's soooo hot. We got to Atalaya, a small town on the side of the Madre de Dios River. It's really humble, the houses stand on pillars and most of them have windows but with no glasses or any other thing that closes them. In that moment, the tales of Gabi -my first friend in hitting the South-American roads- who mentioned that feature of the houses. In that moment, that was the dry season, they handle it well, but when the rainy season comes they always have trouble with the electrical network.

Madre de Dios River from Atalaya. Those are the motorcanoes, our new transport.

After a while in Atalaya during which everyone got ready for the water, and we also bought a stash of chips and junk food...and beer of course, the motorcanoe was ready for us. In that place the River makes sort of a bend and we went to one of the sides to swim. The flow was powerful, but swimming in there was awesome. Then, we let ourselves get carried away by the flow to a safe spot where the motorcanoe picked us up again to take us to our last stop, or lodge in the middle of the rainforest.

We're on our way to the lodge.

We got off in front of Paititi lodge. Logically, it was not close to the shore of the river at the moment that during rainy season rises like the authentic Mother of God. We had to walk for a couple of blocks (I think) that were completely covered in the other season. The lodge was also located up in the hill for the same reason. This lodge was the one that didn't have hot water and I didn't care at all, I needed a nice cold shower. We had to go up some sort of stairs made of the ground itself and it's better to go up wearing no shoes, Mowgli style, specially if you're wearing flip-flops like myself. The reward, the view from the top.

Room with a a view anyone?

Our room, we baptized it like "the princesses' room".

We settled in our rooms and we called our own "the princesses' room" because of the mosquitos net we had over each bed. A shower, lunch and we went on our first walk in the rainforest. Hakuna Matata! First, we went further into the woods in the motorcanoe, and we started the walk in the called "Primary woods", the one that's super leafy, with permanent vegetation, giant trees that weave their tree tops and where you rarely see the sky.

The photo doesn't make justice to one of the most tall trees I've seen in my life.

I'm feeling like Tom Thumb here.

Lots of mud, with an included burial for me (because let's face it, I had to have my Mr. Bean moment at some point), but that's how we got to see amazing trees, including a huge one that it is estimated that is around 500 years old, and just its roots were taller than me (not that being taller than me it's that difficult, but anyway), and another one that grows roots shaped like penises -so, you know it know, they grow on trees-. I saw the pineapple plant, and the cacao one, which we tasted and wasn't tasty at all and I don't know how it is possible to get the flavour of chocolate from that even though I know it comes from its seeds and not the pulp.

Seeing how pineapples grow was a novelty for me.

Can you believe that one of the most delicious things in the world comes from this fruit? Me neither. #chocolatecountsassalad

When we got back, right at sunset, it was time for another shower and the weird dinner. We stayed there chatting and drinking our beer after finishing our food until the electric power went down. So we went to the porch of our rooms to continue. I looked up and I had never seen the sky so clear in my life. I grabbed my camera and started shooting. I could have done that all night, but we had to go to sleep to our princesses' beds at one point.

Perfect ending for a perfect day. Note: the blue shape on the right side is not an alien, nor a spirit, nor Batman, it's just someone that invaded the frame for a few seconds.

To be honest, this day was just perfect.