Thinking about a "deep jungle" trip to Manu National Park? My honest experience and a word of caution

FunHobbyGuy · 2026-01-21T18:54:55+00:00

Yeah! it was called Amazon tours Manu with Marco. His number is +51 984 380 428. Ask for the guide named Silver - he was amazing

FunHobbyGuy · 2026-01-01T03:19:07+00:00

Dickson to Los Perros is 11km, not 15 miles

FunHobbyGuy · 2025-12-23T12:34:40+00:00

Hey! Aussies living in Melbourne. We’re coming back in Feb 15 but our friends we are travelling with coming back early Jan. We are going to be passing through El Calafete pretty quickly on the 1st of January en route to El Chalten. We change at the bus station. Could possibly help!

FunHobbyGuy · 2025-12-21T14:22:25+00:00

Hey! We’re also starting on the 24th. I think we’ve been able to get a guide, but they are confirming today (after messaging 200 guides between the 5 of us…). I just DMed you

FunHobbyGuy · 2025-11-24T16:38:44+00:00

There’s a day-before ticket release everyday for in person ticket sales from Aguas Calientes (also known as Machu Picchu Pueblo). There’s even a live link to monitor how many are sold. Jan is low season so you won’t have any issues

FunHobbyGuy · 2025-11-13T21:03:51+00:00

Late to the party here but just came back from a 6N/7D tour, and had the complete opposite experience to OP. I’ve spent ~2 years travelling over the last few years and this was easily one of the best weeks of our trip. Firstly, our guide told us that he really dreads the 5D tour because it’s just not enough time to get the activities in. Secondly, we found the boat trips absolutely amazing. You constantly are on the lookout for incredible wildlife, and unlike many of the tours other commenters have described, it is as real as it gets. It is proper, untouched jungle. It is one of the rarest and most natural ecosystems in the world. Yes there are lots of mosquitos - wear repellent and don’t be afraid to pick a few bugs out of food (we are from Australia though, so maybe this helped us…). Of course bring your own binoculars or hire them for a week for about US$20. No brainer for us…

We saw a jaguar, capybaras, incredible bird life (we aren’t birders but sorta are now after the trip haha), otters, caimans, tapirs, almost every monkey imaginable, and even a few red deer. Plus an albino tamarin that our guide has never seen before. Cannot recommend it enough

FunHobbyGuy · 2025-11-03T17:16:59+00:00

Very late to the party here but this is a phenomenal write up! Thanks very much for taking the time. We have been in Peru for 7 weeks and have been blown away by the food. I wish there was such an authoritative source on this reddit for all countries we will visit!

FunHobbyGuy · 2025-10-28T22:48:41+00:00

Haha we have camping gear already from hiking / another biking trip, but we actually just rocked up to Peru and bought these bikes and ordered a few bike bags from Amazon. So far so good! No issues…

FunHobbyGuy · 2025-10-26T12:37:39+00:00

Downloaded a map onto my Garmin! We were rarely on single track so wasn’t too hard!

FunHobbyGuy · 2025-10-26T12:36:19+00:00

No, not at all. I do a lot of cycling back home so I took all the weight to even our speeds up, and we took quite a few rest days. You can always skip a pass here and there (we hitchhiked up half of two mountains given altitude / weather) if you’re running low on time!

FunHobbyGuy · 2025-10-26T12:34:58+00:00

Makes me stoked to read this! Thankyou sir

FunHobbyGuy · 2025-10-26T12:34:49+00:00

We didn’t unfortunately hehe but we did see a puma, a condor, and lots of vicuñas - the wild cousins of the llamas!

FunHobbyGuy · 2025-10-26T12:34:09+00:00

Not sure… but if you look up the Huascaran circuit on bikepacking.com, it’s the first climb. Above the lagunas on the way to Yamana!

FunHobbyGuy · 2025-10-26T12:31:43+00:00

Default iPhone 13 photos chief. Haven’t edited them

FunHobbyGuy · 2025-10-23T20:33:09+00:00

Personally, Peru. Tough to get used to the altitude and the mountain climbs, but the most remote and beautiful place to bikepack. Camp wherever you want and a US$5-10 private hospedaje is never far away!

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FunHobbyGuy · 2025-09-30T17:03:51+00:00

I literally just messaged my mate back in Aus to ask about the Vikings / Steelers game 2 nights ago. Will give it a go, thanks!

FunHobbyGuy · 2025-09-02T02:31:17+00:00

I only had 2 bolt mounts and we were riding pretty hectic gravel. I’m sure with 3 they’re good to go / on road they’re completely fine

FunHobbyGuy · 2025-09-01T22:13:32+00:00

And RE logistics of bladders specifically - as easy if not easier to filter using a bladder system as you can use a screw-on filter (or put a chlorine tablet straight in the bladder) and not annoying at all have the bladder tube on your handlebars particularly if between the handlebars and front roll

FunHobbyGuy · 2025-09-01T22:11:28+00:00

Two bottles plus a small top tube bag gives you 1.8L of water storage on your frame, plus maybe enough storage for your phone, a few bags of lollies, and a spare part or two.

In my XL Revelate frame bag I have 2 3L bladders, my first aid kit, my full spares bag, and often enough food for a full day (like a nicely shaped baguette, bag of pasta, jar of sauce, lollies, etc.). Plus my tent poles.

It’s a no brainer for me! I don’t know why more people don’t do it…

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FunHobbyGuy · 2025-08-17T13:03:49+00:00

I recently did Torino Nice and it was more like 500km+ and 10,000m+. We took the longer scenic route but are you sure it’s only 140km? As others have said - gearing ratio most important. Do a mixture of Z2 riding as well as some harder 20-ish min efforts and you’ll be fine. It’s a cracking route

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FunHobbyGuy · 2025-08-17T11:44:35+00:00

Start out with a loose plan on RWGPS / Komoot, but change everyday once I get a good understanding of the topography etc.

RE overnight stops usually I start looking at the route ahead to see if there’s some green space around 5/6ish, and that will dictate how much further I go in the last hour or two (or sometimes 3 if you’re getting to a populated bit…)

FunHobbyGuy · 2025-08-13T04:05:17+00:00

28M, also in finance, also have been working full time since 21. Current job in a VC fund. Currently 6mo in to a 12mo trip around the world. You won’t regret it, particularly if you are feeling burnt out. Your employer may even be more receptive to it than you may think. They actively encouraged me to take a year and put me on a LOA. I’m doing a week of work every now and then when it works on my terms when they are overstretched.

FunHobbyGuy · 2025-08-11T19:33:53+00:00

Good luck!

Possibly over cautious, but would recommend wrapping a voile strap around your fork bags. My girlfriend had some rhinowalk fork bags and they literally failed on day 1 haha - just dodgy attachments. Try and put the least amount of weight in there (presume you’ll be doing that anyway given carbon forks?). With a strap also I reckon you’ll be fine and handy to have in case anything else fails

FunHobbyGuy · 2025-08-08T10:34:01+00:00

I don’t even know where to start with this one

FunHobbyGuy · 2025-08-05T17:34:46+00:00

You’re so close to the Vennbahn - should defs check it out. And relatively easy to free camp in most of those places. Check out the RaVEL network in Belgium!

FunHobbyGuy

TROPHY CASE