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Published: September 11th 2008
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OK.
First weekend in Iquitos, we all get a long holiday.
I didn't ask any questions.
Friday, myself, Stephy and Stephy's friend Gilberto got a moto-taxi to Quiste Cocha - (for everyone I know on the Avalon Peninsula, the Salmonear Nature Park of the Jungle...with a beach).
It was kinda heart-breaking the whole time to see leopards and pumas and magnificent birds all in cages, but I was told this was the best-kept zoo in the whole area... I was more interested in Gilberto's side notes about monkeys and random insect nests, such as:
- the topical healing effects of a larvae nest that settles close to the edge of the water (think of a cocoon, but sky blue, and texture chaluky).
On a more disappointing note, I couldn't resist the urge to be a tacky tourist..
"Senorita, you hold large snake?"
"YES!"
Thus, tacky tourist picture of me holding snake ensues.
For the rest of the afternoon, we swim. And when I say swim, I mean lie in the water, surrounded by beautiful palm trees, listen to the cumbi music playing from the near-by food stands, and not sweat.
Dass all.
The next day, we head
to the jungle.
Although Iquitos is technically IN the Amazon, it's still a pretty big city (400 000ish), so I'm not swinging on vines, or avoiding poisonous snakes on my way to work....regretfully...
Gilberto works for a German dude, Ike (?), who owns "Amazon Tours" - a retreat 2 hours up the Amazon from Iquitos, and across from the village "Central America" - which is also Gilberto's home village.
We booked three days with our favorite tour guide (Gilberto!), and at 8:30 on Friday, the 29th of August, I took my first boat ride on the Amazon...!
For two hours in a 10 person motorboat, Gilberto made a list of body parts in spanish for me, and I attempted to take in the view of the riverbed with sketches and endless pictures...which, on this bouncing bump ride, produced many scribbles and nearly dead batteries.
When the boat stopped, we climbed up over some mud, and walked on a trail for 20 minutes to get to the retreat...the beautiful, beautiful retreat. Gilberto and other young people from Central America helped Ike get the land and help build this little oasis - amazing work. All of the huts - the
Stephy and Gilberto
To the right, there are illustrations and explanations of mythical creatures in villages along the Amazon....a folklorist's and/or anthropologist's delight! guest rooms, eating hut, kitchen and hammock room - are all connected by raised platforms. (In the nighttime there's no light there, so lamps are set out on these platforms...sigh....)
The next three days consisted of walks in the jungle (with the machete-wielding Gilberto!), monkeys, sloths, beautiful butterflies, birds (some of whose calls sound like water dropping!), pirana fishing, river dolphins, swimming in the Amazon, and the development of a life-long love of hammocks.
And, now, lessons learned in the jungle:
1) In nearly any environment, I am the comic relief.
During our pirana fishing (which, I promise, is not as dangerous or daring as it sounds), Gilberto caught 2, Stephy one, and I managed to haul out the
tiniest pirana, and then caught another tiny something (you would probably buy at Pet City).
It was also a moment of hilarity as Stephy's pirana swung from her twine, and smacked me in my face...twice.
(Never did I think I would ever say "Pirana in my face!!"
2) All Canadian women should stay away from caterpillars in the jungle.
A few months before I came, I woke up to a story on CBC stating, "Doctors
in Edmonton have finally diagnosed the health problems of a Canadian woman from a Peruvian caterpillar. This should warn all travelers against adventure travelling".
The scene I witnesed in the jungle:
Stephy: "This caterpillar! - beautiful!"
Gilberto, as I am about to touch the little yellow guy in Stephy's hand: "Uh, what? - No! you - can't - touch that...!!"
Gilberto (and us): 1.
Natural selection: 0.
3) Shaman's singing you to sleep provide fucked up dreams.
The Spanish people in the cabin next to us (and the only other guests at the retreat for the weekend) had decided to pay to take part in a ritual where they drink a liquid made from the ayahuasca root, and a shaman from a near-by town comes and performs guiding chants... and then they see/experience things...(what things? - well I'm assuming things that you can only see/experience when you take hallucinating jungle root drink, and have a magic-man chant over for you for a couple of hours).
Although this raised questions of the commodification, exploitation, etc. of culture, religion and ritual for me, it was still damn cool to fall asleep to the sounds of a shaman singing and
art on the Nile
on our way to dolphins and swimming, Gilberto and Stephy making art out of mud from the banks whistling, and with fireflies dancing outside under the most incredible display of stars I have ever seen.
I then proceeded to have stunning dreams of friends turning into animals, and epic journeys...
4) Swimming in the Amazon is every bit cool as it sounds.
Right now this is summer - the dry season, so the river is at its lowest point. And, because of that, in certain areas there are areas of sand in the middle of the river. The two days we went swimming, I took full advantage of the glorious mud on the edges of these areas - I smeared it everywhere and invoked some mud fights.
However, again, not much swimming...this time, however, it had every bit to do with little fish that nip...! Mysterious Amazon nipping fish, don't really make for extended swims...
5) I am a gluttonous human...and you would have been too!
The food...was incredible!
INCREDIBLE
and the juices....
and the fruits...
Also, even though I enjoy my meat-free diet, there were happy chickens to eat! (Ones that roam their whole lives, and that are bought from villagers in Central America). And so I did.
yum.
6) Instant coffee turns into a delicacy in the Amazon.
6:30 am, watching birds on the small river close to the retreat, writing letters to friends...and this instant stuff I could never stomach, now becomes honey-lovely-life-juice.
The mystery continues...
7) Next time I go to the jungle, don't wait over a week to write something about it.
dummy.
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