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Our visit to the Amazon Jungle has been incredible so far and we are sad to be moving on, though the mosquito bites are helping ease our sadness. ((warning - the pictures don´t line up with the text, to see the rest of the photos scroll down and hit 2 or next (then scroll to the bottom of that page))).
We arrived a week ago and within minutes fell in love with Iquitos - our flight was easy and certainly made it hard to accept that we were far far away from any other city. In fact, Iquitos is the largest city in the world this inaccessible - you can´t drive here, you can only fly in or take a boat (a looong boat ride).
I was feeling kind of sick so we really just spent two days relaxing at our hostel - Camiri - which is floating on the river and is soaking in a mixture of relaxation and the inevitable quickly-passing thunder storm. Our room with private bath (though little pressure and no hot water in the shower and barely flushing toilet) opened up onto a small patio complete with hammocks, all with front row seats to
the river (and included breakfast!). We got to wander the town as I recovered and made plans with Marcel, the owner of the hostel, for a three day jungle trip. The town is a really incredible city - every inch of it except for the wood and fruit is imported from the cities, so cares a rarity but people ride motorcycles or take mototaxis (like a rickshaw attached to a motorcycle) everywhere - they are cheap, loud, dangerous and really fun.
We woke up early and packed for our trip only to be told by Marcel that it was postponed a day due to personal reasons which looked a lot like a wicked hangover. Not to waste a day, we grabbed a taxi to the north port and found a boat to take us to a nearby Buttryfly Farm and animal sanctuary (rescued animals, etc). After a few mistranslations and confusions with the driver, we arrived and hopped onto a tour. With english speaking (and well education) guides (/research assistants?), we learned a lot about the butteryflies and got a great tour of the rest of the animals - including many that I can´t remember the names of plus
snakes, parrots, wild monkeys (meaning, not cages - except for the capachin monkeys who are jealous troublemakers and harrass couples holding hands and get very defensive of random human females - they had to be put in a large cage) and the main feature: a HUGE beautiful jaguar.
After the tour we went back to the main butterfly farm area, which is a large net-enclosure fulled with tropical plants, flowers and colorful butteryflies whizzing about. I thought as long as we were in this beautiful, magical spot in the Amazon Jungle, I might as well go ahead and propose to Sara! I just happened to have an enagement ring in my bag and she said yes! We took a picture at the spot to remember it and kept wandering through the farm - a little more giggly than before.
Afterwards we found our boat driver who waited faithfully and he told us about another similar place with snakes and other animal. We decided to give it a try and soon enough arrived at a bare-bones zoo. Within thirty seconds, a man there placed a three-toed sloth into sara´s arms. It looked super cute and we got really excited...
Butteryfly Farm
Catapi... butterfl... somewhere in between.but by the time we gave it back we realized something was wrong. I asked why the animal wasn´t dangerous - he said the animal was ´domesticated´. We went on to the next cage which was a small cage, no plant time or ¨natural¨decorations and two monkeys, the baby tied to the wall. We reconsidered our decision and decided it was not right to support financially this kind of zoo - they mistreat animals, don´t provide proper habitats and get their animals in ways I probably don´t want to imagine. Although it was awkward, we decided to turn around and leave that minute.
We got back to Iquitos proper - found some food, got cleaned up and then spent a few hours on skype telling our family the good news of our engagement! We went out to celebrate at a nice Italian place (I know... Italian in the jungle sounds silly but its very hard to find vegetarian food outside of the designed-for-tourists menus which feature overpriced underexciting food. I even had them make a new drink for us to try - it features Camu camu juice, made from a local berry it is delicious and had a lot
Butteryfly Farm
Some cool animal, I forget the name. of ascorbic acid (vitamin c).
The next morning we disembarked - a one our car ride to Nauta then we met Guillermo (our local guide and organizer of this trip) and Geyner (a local guide who studied english in Nauta) and left Marcel there ((contact info for Guillermo is below - highly recommend a tour with him)). Within five minutes of leaving Nauta, we were spotting pink and grey dolphins jumping out of the water (no photos - they are really fast!). A two our trip down stream, with Geyner pointing out birds and interesting facts along the way. They were both excellent guides - Geyners english was great, he was incredibly knowledgible and had a great eye for spotting animals as we passed. Guillermo´s english is still developing, but he was constantly telling Geyner things to translate, his boat driving skills were great and his jungle trekking skills were unbelievable.
We learned alot and I´m putting together a ´things I learned int he jungle´ list for a separate post. In this post Ill just list quickly what we did and let the pictures do the talking.
First we stopped in Guillermo´s small village (5-6 families, along
the river side) and met some people including Esteban, a fascinating man who we ended up coming back to sit with later that day. He is a shaman whose grandfather was a shaman but he is also very successful in several ventures. He takes groups of biology students from Cornell University once each year to teach them about medicinal plants and animals in the jungle. His english is great and he seems to have had more jungle experiences that I can possibly imagining. We basically listened to stories for a few hours that night - about anything from monkey brains soup, ayahuasca rituals and night wasp attacks. Stay tuned for what I learned in the Amazon jungle list.
We also get set up in our accomdations - we were not camping as we hoped but were staying a community run (though Esteban-owned) bare-bones lodge. Featuring mosquito nets, beautiful construction (in a rustic sort of way), comfy beds and well cook meals (we brought food with us from the city but it was prepared by Esteban´s wife and others). It was a bit more posh than we were hoping for really but we tried to help cook and were refused
Butteryfly Farm
I forgot the name - like a tiny big cat and eventually accepted this as less of a jungle camping rough-it trip and more of an engagement honeymoon jungle vacation.
The hikes were far from posh - we borrowed rubber boots, wore long sleeps, dosed up on insect repellent and made sure not to forget our flashflights for the night hike - we was through pitch dark jungle, with the defeaning soundtrack of cricket, insects and bird calls from every direction. During the hike we learned a lot about trees and birds but focused mostly on spiders and tarantulas. The latter of which we found several - the former of which you seem another every time you point your flashlight somewhere else. But you can´t hate them too much when they are catching and eating the mosquitos that were busy biting us. This night hike was incredible but most of it is without description and has no pictures. Trust me.
We woke for sunrise to watch it rise over the river and go bird watching on the river with the boat - we saw a lot of birds and learned a lot about them from Geyner. The highlight of this excursion was finding a huge group of monkeys
Butteryfly Farm
For real Jaguar, rescued as a youngen when his parents were killed by poachers. - we fought spider monkeys, squirrel monkeys and capachin monkeys andgot to float along the river watching them jump from branch to branch and be monkeys.
We returned for a great breakfast and left soon after on a 2-3 hour hike through the jungle - again with long sleeves, bug spray and rubber boots. This trip we saw lots of leaf cutter ants marching all over the jungle, we found the largest ant species in the jungle (and most deadly!) and got to learn tons about the medicinal uses of different plants and mushrooms. Got to taste a cancer-preventing, water-full vine called Cat´s claw (see picture). Geyner also showed us a certain seed which, when chopped open reveals five compartments. He explained that these compartments hold a fruit like coconut at first but after a month, each fruit turns into a larva that you can eat. Though Sara made a sceptical face for good reasons, he showed us the larva and he and I each tried one. That´s right, I ate a larva. It was squirming before I put it in my mouth and tasted exactly like coconut. Sara passed but did say she thought I was really cool
Butteryfly Farm
Being fed dead and alive animals, in case they are ever able to release him. for doing it. ((Later we had a discussion about whether this fruit to larva thing was true. Sara claims it amount to superstition and is scientifically impossible. I agreed... except I ate it, it was real and also the seed seemed impenetrable. We are undecided)). We also learned that mosquitos have no respect for personal or private space.
We came back for a great lunch and rested a bit before going out for afternoon activity of piranna fishing by dugout canoe, an Amazonian past time. The piranas live in little lakes or lagoons (i.e. not running water) and are ¨so easy to catch a blind man can do it¨ (according to Marcel). Well, maybe he was refering to a special sense for fishing that blind Amazonian men have because Sara and I kind of sucked. We loaded up our hooks with fish meat from another fish we brought. After the course of an hour or two, I had caught two small ones and Sara caught one small one - they were all thrown back because they had no meat. Oh yeah, we were fishing for dinner by the way (pirana are kosher - don´t worry). Geyner caught one big
Butteryfly Farm
Cool animal, i forget his name too. one and I think Guillermo did as well. The next thing was to wait for sunset and dark on the lake and go hunting (by hand) for caiman - a small amazonian alligator. Though this sounded great, as darkness descended so did the mosquitos and still water is their home sweet home. As we got swarmed, Sara and I quickly decided to knix the hunting and get behind mosquito nets as soon as possible. Our guides agrees without hesitation and we started the long boat trip back home.
The next morning we ate breakfast and had a chance to peruse the handicrafts made by Guillermo´s mom. They were beautiful and we bought a bunch for ourselves or friends. We bought so much that she decided to give us lots of gifts! She chose a bracelet for us each and necklace for Sara as gifts. We got contact information so we could pass along to friends or come back again - Estaban said next time we come for two weeks and we´ll go backcountry camping upriver with him personally. Sara and I secret start making plans for our next visit.
The trip back to Iquitos took longer because it
Butteryfly Farm
Yet another unforgetable animal with a forgetable name, sorry little buddy. Hang in there, I´ll remember. was upriver - but we arrived back without problems and promptly found a StarPeru Airlines office and booked a flight onwards for the next day. We had planned on taking the boat but it would be another five days of traveling and flying would allow us to skip the mosquito exposure time and catch up for some of our relaxation and recuperation days. And that brings us up to date!
Hope you enjoyed, I know we did.
-Mark
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Rochelle
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CONGRATULATIONS
Mazel tov Mark & Sara on your engagement and adventures!! Love you! Sorin & Rochelle