We originally were going to spend a third day and night exploring Manu, then heading out via boat and van to Puerto Maldonado for a flight back to Cusco. Patti explains what happened next:
When a miner's strike blocked our relatively easy access out of Manu to Puerto Maldonado, we had to leave a day early. We met up with guests of the other Manu area lodges and all of us took an 10 hour boat ride back up the appropriately named Madre de Dios river. (The boat ride down river to the lodge was only six hours, the hours broken by another stay along the way.) After 10 hours, thankfully with skilled local boatmen, we crawled out of the boat and into a bunch of vans that took us on another two hour, bone emulsifying drive, around curves on a one lane jungle road, back to Cock-of-the-Rock lodge. After a late dinner at the lodge, we arose at 5:30 the next morning to continue on that road, with our drivers honking at each curve, and occasionally performing Rubik's cube maneuvers to allow oncoming vehicles to pass. (Earlier, on the way to Manu, 30 minutes after we passed, with the rain pouring, a mudslide blocked the road. Those, on the other side, including Jose Luis's brother, spent the night in their van waiting for the bulldozers to clear the road.) Although we were exceedingly cranky about this forced extraction from Manu, we got to feed this incredibly magic tapir [Vanessa] and we loved the exquisitely beautiful Manu and all of its creatures, including Red howler, Brown capuchin, spider, and squirrel monkeys and the Giant Otters. Also, some people saw a jaguar strolling along the bank, we didn't, but if only we'd had one more day.