En la selva, se come lo que pesca...

Salutations! I spent this past weekend (Friday-Sunday) in the Amazon, and I must say, it was a unique experience. I use the word "unique" loosely because it was both good and bad. It was unique in a good sense because I was able to see some amazing animals in their natural habitats like monkeys, bugs, spiders, birds, sloths, snakes, lizards, etc. It was bad in the sense that there were an abundance of large, disgusting bugs that enjoyed making you uncomfortable. It rained quite a bit the first day as well. Overall, it was most certainly worthwhile.

I started out flying into the northern jungle city of Iquitos. You see, in Peru there is northern, central, and southern jungles. In my prior travels to Peru I visited the central jungle in Chanchamayo (*see old entries*). This time around, I found it to be prudent to visit the northern jungle because a friend of mine had gone, and I was somewhat envious. So, I landed in Iquitos, and got a tour set up. The next day I was off to the small port town of Nauta where I took a 3 hour boat ride to the lodge. It's important to note that the Amazon River is HUGE. It also has 3 main tributaries that run off of it in Peru. There's the Marañon, the Ucayali, and the Yarapa Rivers. The lodge that I stayed in was located on a lagoon that ran off of the Yarapa tributary. It was quite a remote and tranquil place. I dug it pretty hard.

The first day we didn't do much because of the rain, but that night we went out on the boat to see if we could find some alligators. We caught a baby one, and we saw a larger one, but we couldn't get too close because it was too far inland.

On the second day we took a canoe down the river, and we saw a sloth, a ton of birds, and some squirrel monkeys. Either way, it was just so peaceful out there. Then we ate breakfast and went for a 3 hour stroll through the local jungle. I got my fair share of spider webs in my face and was so uncomfortably sweaty and dirty that by the end I could hardly endure anymore. After lunch and what not, we went back out on the boat to look for dolphins. In the Amazon River, there are two kinds of dolphins that have adapted to fresh water: the grey and the pink dolphins. We ended up seeing both kinds, but the most you could see was their backs as they surfaced. I still really enjoyed it. For me, the really interesting part was seeing these animals in their natural habitat. We are used to seeing these extraordinary animals and such in captivity, but it means so much more to see them where they are supposed to be.

Later that night we did a short 45 minute night walk through of the jungle. We saw a baby emerald boa constrictor, a "zorro" as he called it, but it looked more like an opossum, and a couple of scorpion spiders.

The next morning we went piranha fishing. Altogether we caught 6 piranhas, but 4 of them were young and therefore, small. Still very cool though. I caught one of the 4 youngsters. After that, I ate lunch then I went back to Iquitos.

Now, if I could get deep for a moment...It's interesting to think that it was difficult for me to live in that environment because of fear of bugs and such. Then I thought of how there were tons of people that live in that area without any complaints. I was talking with my host mother before I left and she was talking about they don't speak well in the jungle and they're dirty. My assessment of the people was this: yeah, they didn't speak well, but shit, they can survive. They know how to live on very little. They know how to practice patience. They know how to make the best of some shitty conditions. They live so intimately close to nature that they understand it. They know it like we know our friends. They rely on it like we rely on people. It's amazing. So yeah, they don't speak well, and they're not the most hygienic, but it's hard to be hygienic when you don't have any plumbing or electricity. Furthermore, they don't have these amenities, those which we would die without, and they live happily. They have no complaints. There's a saying that my guide, Julio, told me: "En la selva, se come lo que se pesca." TRANSLATION: "In the jungle, you eat what you catch." Most of us fish for sport, pleasure, or a good meal. They fish to eat, and thus, to survive.

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