The long trip back

The last 2 days of our trip were spent back-tracking... but instead of running with the strong curent of the Alto Madre de Dios River we were oposing it and the drive up the Andes was much longer and not nearly as exciting as the trip down. Saturday we made it back to Erika Lodge by boat and although our guides threatened that we would have to get out and push the boat, the river level was just high enough to slip past the shallows by redistributing some body weight. Our only stop during the 7 hour trip was a relaxing soak in a creek partially fed by hot spring of scalding water, although not hot enough to cook and egg (we tried). No night walks or ziplinning this time from the lodge but alot of card playing, another futbal match, and some boarding down the rapids for the younger lads.
After dinner our guides and hosts treated us to dos jarros de sangria - a very nice end to a great trip.... no jaguar sightings or sloths (two hopefulls among the group) but we couldn't have traveled with a better group of folks and the weather was perfect. The only rain came on our last evening, preceeded by a double rainbow over the river, and stayed with us until the high pass above Paucartambo. We never really needed the ponchos we purchased in Cusco for the trip, so we donated those to folks at the lodge along with our bug repellent, knowing that Cusco would be dry as a bone until we leave and hoping that we had seen the last of mosquitos for a while.