Amazon Tour Day 1 - Camera Nicked

Up at 7:00, showered, packed, had breakfast, checked out and we got a taxi to the airport shortly after 8:00am.At the airport, we went to the Star Peru check-in counter, Lisa made a remark about reading a book while in the Amazon. I remembered that I didn't pack my book, so put down my camera and shoulder bag, asked Lisa to hold my passport, opened my big backpack to get the book, then zipped it back up, gathered my things, asked Lisa for my camera....she didn't have it. Gone. I immediately started looking all around me, opened up all my bags, it was nowhere. We went outside to see if the taxi was still there, he wasn't. I'm 99.9999999% sure that I didn't leave it in the taxi. The camera was on my neck from the time we left the hostal to the time we reached the Star Peru check-in counter. Lisa remembers seeing on my neck when we were walking to the taxi, and didn't see it sitting in the taxi when we got out at the airport.When we originally got the airport, there was no one at the Star Peru check-in counter. As we walked up to it, a local was guiding another tourist to the check-in counter. As I opened my backpack to get my book, the local walked back past us. He saw an opportunity, grabbed my camera and walked off without Lisa or me seeing anything.Lisa and me checked-in, then went to the iPeru tourist counter and the information counter to see if anyone brought a camera in, nope. We then headed to the police office in the airport to file a police report. They spoke no english, surprising for the most touristed city in Peru. So Lisa had to explain everything in Spanish. They were quite skeptical, they said nothing has ever been stolen at the airport before. They kept asking us if maybe we left it in the taxi (nope!), and they didn't know what to do. They kept talking amongst themselves, and they couldn't find any appropriate paperwork to report it. We sat around for quite a while before they found something official to write it on. And they kept questioning Lisa as to how it happened. It took about an hour, but we had arrived at the airport very early, so had the time. When we were finally done the police report, he gave us a piece of paper and told us we have to go to the tourist police station in Cusco when we get back from the Amazon to pick up the official, typed copy of the report. The Peruvian National Police now have my fingerprint on record as well. Haha.Anyway, I was disappointed, but I didn't let it get me down or ruin my trip. I have all of Lisa's pictures, plus we spent 3 weeks travelling with another guy, Jason, who had a great camera and took lots of great pics. The only backup I did of my pictures was about three weeks into the trip, in Baños, when I gave a copy of all my pics to Kirsty to take back to Canada, so I have those. The moral of the story, make backups of your pictures often! It took only a few seconds for this guy to snatch my camera.With the police report done, we went through security and boarded the plane. Coincidentally, Lisa's friends from New Zealand, Cameron and Jodi were also on the same flight (coming from Lima).Super short flight, less than an hour. No sooner did we get above the clouds and we started descending again. It's hard to imagine it's a 20 hour truck ride from Cusco to Puerto Maldonado, considering how short the flight is.At the airport in Puerto Maldonado, our guide was holding up a sign with all our names on it, so we got in the mini-van, whisked off to the tour office, paid the remainder of our bill, then had a 3.5 hour boat ride up the Tambopata River to the jungle lodge (Wasai). We arrived shortly after 4:00pm. So hot, the temperature in Puerto Maldonado when we landed was 35 degrees. The jungle is just as hot.On the boat ride, saw lots of capybara's (sp?), the largest rodent in the world, hanging out on the banks of the river.We got settled into our cabins, they are AWESOME!! The best beds we've had all trip. And a huge hut, overlooking the river.There are five of us on the tour, me, Lisa, Cameron, Jodi and an older, but cool, Aussie woman, Jane.At 6:30, we went for a jungle night walk to see all the creepy crawlies that come out at night in the jungle. Saw huge cockroaches, massive grasshoppers, gigantic tarantulas (bigger than my hand, including one that had a bunch of babies running around), tiny tree frogs, other poisonous spiders with huge spider webs, moths, butterflies, plus all the strange noises of the jungle at night. It was pretty awesome.We had supper at 8:00pm, very good food. We were informed that we are getting up at 3:30am tomorrow morning, so we all went to bed around 9:00.