Day 3 - Laguna Azul

Hola!

We had another amazing day of site-seeing yesterday on our way to the blue lagoon (Laguna Azul) just a few miles away from Tarapoto.

The tarmac became a bumpy dirt track, taking us up into the mountains and then down to a river, where we needed to get a boat to cross it.

The scenery was absolutely beautiful, lots of lush forest....although there were quite a few fragmented sections and we passed an area that looked as though it had recently been cut down :(
During the drive we made friends with some Peruvian tourists from Lima and Iquitos, we practiced our Spanish and then found that they could speak English, so many bilingual conversations then followed.

When we arrived at the lagoon we got into a boat and took a bit of a tour, stopping at several spots. One part had a statue of a mermaid on a rock, there are legends that mermaids live in the lagoon. In other areas there were little market stalls and BBQs...it also seems that a lot of local people make their own alcohol, we've had coffe and chocolate liqueurs and Tarapoto whiskey.

Eventually we could go for a swim, the water was a really nice temperature, compared to the freezing cold water at the waterfall we visited the other day.

...Later that evening we met up with the people we had met on the trip and went to the bar 'Bananas' for a few drinks, some dancing and some amazing karaoke. It was a really fun evening.

Asli will be joining us this evening and tomorrow we will be on our way to La Esperanza to join Sam and Noga Shanee at the Neotropical Primate Conservation head office.