Last night was bizarre! There's not much to do at night, so we went to bed early. At 11:00 we heard a marching band go past the hotel. It certainly seemed strange, but we went back to sleep. At 3:30 a.m. there were several cannon shots followed by church bells from the cathedral that was across the street from us. A few minutes later, there were more cannon shots and continuous church bells. After a few minutes of silence, just long enough to fall back asleep, it started again! Then there were gunshots followed by brass band music. Between those noises we began to hear organ music from the church. Finally, at 4:00, we got up, threw on some clothes (remember that it's cold at 10,000 feet elevation), and went out onto the balcony of ... read more

This morning we went out early to do a little more fishing, and then back to the lodge to say goodby. After lunch Edson boarded the boat with us, and we made the 3 hour trip back to Iquitos. We got a last look at the huts and the local people doing their laundry in the river. When we reached Iquitos Edson gave us a personal tour of his hometown. It looked like a city in Taiwan or Vietnam. There are very few cars, but there are motorized rickshaws EVERYWHERE. They're noisy and smelly, but the only form of transportation. The city is totally run down and poverty is everywhere. One section of the city is called Belen and it's where the poorest of the poor live. Most of them are living in floating houses ... read more

We're hungry! There's no electricity, so the kitchen keeps food in coolers with blocks of ice. Some of the meat and fish have been salted in order to preserve them. Yuck! Oh well, we have crackers and cheese in our suitcase. This morning we went fishing at 6:00 a.m. It's beautiful in the Amazon in a small wooden dugout canoe as the animals all wake up for the day. We were fishing with a wooden pole and a line tied to the end. Edson brought along some bait and some breakfast, and I'm not sure which was which. The fish were certainly biting, but lots of them just wanted to eat our bait. We ended up catching piranha, sabolo, catfish, and some others that I don't even know the name of. It was really a ... read more

We were awakened this morning by the squawking of two scarlet macaws and the wooly monkey. Apparently, they like to tease each other in a very noisy way. Our headlamps were a huge help last night. Since we're so close to the equator the days and nights are each about 12 hours long, so it gets dark about 6:00. This morning we hiked through the jungle to the canopy zip line. The hike was muddy and unbelieveably hot. We felt like extras in an Indiana Jones movie. The zip line had 3 platforms that were about 100 feet up in the canopy of the rainforest. We were harnessed up, hoisted to the first platform, then zipped from one to the next. It was great, but not nearly long enough. The heat was getting to Sally, ... read more