Blogs from Loreto, Peru, South America

(Day 201 on the road)I am back from an adventurous week in the Peruvian Amazon. It was a fascinating glimpse of life on and along the mighty river. But after a while I realised that this was not the life for me. Call me spoiled, but life there was very, very basic, the infrastructure was poor to non-existent, the heat and humidity were oppressive, as were the mosquitoes. It was great to experience it, but to be honest I was not too sad when I left after a good week. I entered via Iquitos, on the banks of the Amazon. Fun fact: Iquitos is the largest city in the world that is not accessible by road. It has a whopping 500,000 inhabitants, but no road access. You can only get there by plane or boat. I ... read more

Yes all, it's true. I'm back in NJ. Arrived in home yesterday, 4:30 ish..........alive but exhausted from arduous day of travel.But better now. I was not able to post much for a few reasons ......... 1. My electronics failed me miserably. img=http://tse1.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.cUXyHdb87OkfJPwlJJHd6gEsEs&w=212&h=212&c=7&qlt=90&o=4&dpr=1.25&pid=1.7 Had it not been for new tablet, would have been completely cut off. I took many pictures with my old UN-Smart equipment, so the photos I managed to send with Facebook, were basically those that I could take with phone or tablet (smart equipment) and figure out how to get some wifi to load them. That was mostly in beginning of the trip. Last 3 days on Amazon...NADA. 2. If It's Tuesday this must be Machu Pichu; so much movement, no real downtime to write. img=https://... read more

So hard to believe today is our last day on the boat. We were given a sleep in with breakfast at 7.30. It was a bit of a shit day weather wise as it was raining. We were due for a skiff excursion in the morning but due to the weather the boys decided to put it on hold as we would not have seen too much. The boat kept travelling towards clearer sky and it ended up ok for us to do our excursion at 900 am. We went fishing today at several spots but this time not only for piranha. We also caught Sardines and Ashley caught a poisonous catfish. I caught (or more so seemed to stab with the hook) a tiny fish. His head ended up getting chopped off and he became ... read more

Woke up several times through the night. At one stage I was sure I felt something bounce on me and thought we left our door open and had a monkey in the room. Obviously we didn't but I swear at the time I was pretty certain we had a little monkey in our room. Jungle fever I guess. Woke up about 6:40 am and went up to the main deck where a few people were. Had some coffee and then headed to breakfast. Our little click generally sits at the same spot every night so the older groups keep threatening to steal our seats and shake things up a bit for us. We all seem to have a built in food radar however and know as soon as we are allowed in the dining room and ... read more

Today wake up was 600 am for a 6.30 departure. I slept pretty well woke up a few times but fell straight back to sleep. Maria woke up 500 to try catch the 5.30 sunrise. She invited me last night but I said I would sleep in. When she got back she said there wasn't a clear sunrise with the clouds but she saw lots of birds. We went downstairs and a lot of people were already in the other skiff. We jumped into the quieter one with the bench seats. It ended up the best group. We were the 'young' boat which soon became known as the anacondas. Pretty much because any time Juan Carlos asked what we wanted to see I'd scream out Anaconda. I like to set the bar high. Leopard in Africa, ... read more