Rough in the jungle: Iquitos and Amazonas

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Thursday 4th of November, Lima - Iquitos

Brenda was not happy with everything on our tours so far. She told Victor, and as a compensation, he offered to pay for a taxi downtown, so we could look around Lima. We had some hours to spare before our flight to Iquitos, so we accepted his offer. So far we had only seen the area around the airport in Lima, which is truly terrible. Downtown is nicer, with some restored colonial buildings, and some nice shopping areas. We watched the changing of the guards in front of the government building, and looked around the central downtown area. After that, Victor drove us to the airport, where we caught our flight to Iquitos.

Iquitos is Perus biggest jungle city, with 500 000 inhabitants. There are no roads leading here, so you come either by plane or by boat. There are plenty of roads in the city itself however, and driving around on them are around 30 000 moto-cars, or 3 wheeled motorbikes working as taxis. The city has a tropical climate year round, and is the starting point for excursions into the Amazon jungle.

We could feel the heat as soon as we stepped out of the airplane, and so the airconditioned lobby of our hotel was nice to enter. Brenda had been waiting all day to see the pool we were promised would be at the hotel, and it actually was really nice! So we changed into bathing suites, and splashed around in Hotel El Dorados pool for a couple of hours. Really nice and refreshing. The rooms were good too, with aircondition and 100 channel cable tv.

We walked around the city at night, having a good chinese dinner, and just relaxing in the beatiful park in the city centre. A very good day indeed.

Friday 5th of November, Amazon

We got picked up early by our guide for the next two days, Leyton. He looked like a jungle guide too, with his strong build and weathered face. There were five of us, Brenda, me and 3 middle aged women from Spain going together with Leyton. He started of by taking us on a walking tour of Iquitos, and told us how the city was founded etc.

I didnt really know what to expect of a jungle tour, so I had an open mind to the whole thing, even though I was sure there would be some things not suitable for reptile-challenged people like me.
Anyway, we set out on our journey by boat around 10am, and headed for the "floating" city of Belen. A part of greater Iquitos, its built up entirely around the river, and many of the houses are simply boats, while the rest are built to float and follow the waterlevel of the river. The city was incredibly dirty and looked poor, but looked rather amazing with all its houses and boats crammed together.

Next up was a stop at the point where the river that runs into Iquitos (cant remember its name) joins up with the Amazonas river. It was a strange sight, as one river was black and the other one brown, and you could actually see them joining together.

We drove on to our lodge, the Cumaceba lodge, around 45 minutes from Iquitos. Our boat was quick, so we managed to get quite far into the jungle in that time. There was a 5 minute walk from the river to the lodge, they had made some kind of porch where we walked, with a roof to keep the rain out. That roof proved to be a perfect home for the Tarantulas (huge, hairy spiders) and we could clearly see them crawling around above our heads as we walked. Good thing Im not afraid of spiders!

We put our stuff into our cabin, which looked very basic, but at least with a shower and mosquito nets all around, a must in this place. Anyway, we werent here to stay in the rooms, so no problem. Outside our cabin were some animals walking around freely, they belonged to the lodge, and were very tame. There were two parrots, a dog and a cat, and last but not least, our new best friend, the little Colorado monkey.

Our guide wanted to show us around the jungle before lunch, so we put on some rubber boots and headed out into the unknown. This first trip didnt bear any big surprises, we just saw some trees and plants that Leyton explained about. Next we had lunch, consisting of fish, rice and different jungle fruits. Offcourse, Im not very fond of fish, but this one tasted delicious! Catfish tastes almost like chicken.

After lunch, we relaxed in the hammocks provided by the lodge, and here we got company by the cute little monkey. We played around with it for a while, before it finally fell asleep together with us.
The rest did us good, and we were now ready to head out by boat again, this time to a man and his family, who was running an animal sanctuary in the jungle. The guys name was Messias, and he had 10 kids running around, god knows how many wives and a father. And then there was his animals, which he proudly brought forward one by one, starting with his monkeys.

One of them was quite violent and had to be restrained by a piece of rope, but the other one was just small and cute. Next up were some turtles, the cutest sloth (dovendyr) which Brenda fell in love with, then came the alligator, the jaguar, and finally the snakes. Obviously, for those who know me, this might sound weird. Anders being around snakes! But I tried to keep my cool as they brought forward the 2,5 meter Boa Constrictor. After being assured the snake was a rather quiet one, I even touched the thing! Very relieved and happy with myself, I was just about ready to leave this animal-infested place when they brought out Big Daddy. A 6 meter long Anaconda!!! It was enormous, gigantic, its head almost the size of a human head! The other people posed for pictures with it while I kept my distance. Actually, it wasnt scary at all, the snake was very calm, and in the end, they even let it crawl around on the ground beside us, and I didnt freak out. Im proud!
After this, the guy showed us some traditional medicine that we could buy.

So many impressions already today, and still we werent finished. We returned just as darkness set in, and the guide warned us not to touch the railings of the porch we were walking along, because all the spiders came down at this time. Surely enough, we saw spiders as big my hand crawling around us, some of them poisonous. But we were ok as long as they didnt fall into our hair or something! Next up was an hours rest, then dinner at 7. Dinner being eaten in total darkness except for an oil lamp on each table. So there was only mosquito net walls between us and the dark jungle outside. A very special dinner I must say.

Well, I really didnt want to do much more, as I had enough excitement for one day, but we had a boat trip at 8, so I had no choice. We were 7 people in a tiny, wooden boat, and we were setting out on small lake in total darkness. In this small lake, the guide told us, lived alligators, anacondas and piranhas among other nice animals. We were equipped with a small flashlight each, so we could explore the surroundings. It was incredibly exciting just sitting there in the boat, listening to the sounds of the lake and the jungle around it, knowing that dangerous animals were probably less than 10 meters from you.

After 30 minutes of floating around the lake, we headed back to land, and headed into the jungle for a nightly safari. We didnt see anything special, but just walking around there at night was amazing enough. We returned to our cabin, which was also dark except for the oil lamp, and we were totally exhausted. They day had been so exhausting, I was soaked in sweat and incredibly tired. I fell asleep at 9......

Saturday 6th of November, Amazon-Iquitos-Lima

We fell asleep early, and woke up with the sun at 5. Our first expiditon of the day, another jungle trip, was at 6, so there was no time to lounge around in bed. We walked around in the mud and jungle for 1 hour, and visited several "Anacondas homes", large trees that were favourite resting spots for the huge snake. Lovely!
But we survived once again, the only dangerous animal we saw were hordes of mosquitoes around our heads. We went back for breakfast, and got two hours of rest before the last expedition of the trip.

This time we were going to walk through the jungle for 1.5 hours and visit a native tribe. The first 45 minutes went through jungle paths, and then we met a river where we were supposed to meet a boat to take us further in the jungle. But then the rain set in, and we had to seek shelter in a local house at the riverbank. We were wet, tired and kinda depressed that we couldnt go further. But Leyton the guide wouldnt let some rain stop us, and after some waiting, we set out on the river in pouring rain.

We entered the tiny village of the tribe, and were met by nearly naked indians smiling at us. The kids were running around totally naked looking shyly at us. We were taken into a hut, where the guide explained about the tribe and its history, and then they started to play some music for us. We were painted in the face with some red stuff, and then the oldest lady of the tribe came up to me, took my hand and led me to the middle of the floor where we started to dance. The rest of the group joined us, and the tribe had alot of fun looking at us dancing.

Then there were the usual stuff with the tribe trying to sell us stuff, and I was getting quite tired of looking at the same souvenirs over and over, so we didnt buy anything. As usual. The tribe was rather sad actually. They were living for tourists, and didnt really have much of their traditions left. It all felt like a show.

We headed back to camp for lunch, and a last nap in the hammock with the monkey. Then it was back to Iquitos by boat, this time in pouring rain, so there wasnt really much to see. By the time we had reached Iquitos, the rain had stopped, and we were driven to the airport for our plane back to Lima.

We arrived in Lima at around 6, and took a taxi down to the part of Lima called Miraflores. Until now, we had only seen the area around the airport, as well as some areas around the city centre. These areas were poor, run down, dirty and dangerous. So arriving in Miraflores felt kind of like arriving in another country!
Miraflores has nice buildings, casinos, restaurants, shopping malls, all imaginable American fast food and several luxury hotels. This area was basically really nice!
We got a good deal on a 3 star hotel with a good location, and headed out to the so called "Pizza Street" where waiters from different restaurants tried their hardest to lure you into their restaurant.

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