Amazon Basin

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Iquitos

I bought a flight from Lima to Iquitos, on the Amazon River, for a little less than $100 then took a city bus to the Lima airport. In every town and city the locals/ bus drivers/ tourists/ tourist offices/everyone tell you not to take a bus because "it´s too dangerous". Because of this I'm sure that the crooks aren´t looking for foreigners on buses. I´ve not had any problems but I could be pushing my luck. A friend travelling through Quito just wrote to tell me he was pickpocketed on the city transport there.

Click on any photo to enlarge

One must either fly or take a boat to Iquitos.
There are no roads.
This is the largest city in the world without a road connection to the outside world.

My airplane was delayed a few hours and didn´t arrive in Iquitos until after 10pm.
Still there were lots of ¨motor-taxis¨ at the airport to meet it. A motor-taxis is a motor cycle with a little cab attached. With 20 drivers yelling at each potential customer they cut their own throats through the competition. They asked for 2 soles each (about 60 cents) from myself and an American backpacker for the 10 km trip to the city.
But then the driver had to pay 2 soles to the airport gate attendant after which he headed straight to the gas station and put in 2 soles of gasoline. He should get a good accountant. We each gave him a little more at the end of the trip.

There´s a number of expats living in the area.

One old fellow, Leo from Georgia (see photo), who was at the breakfast table beside me happened to mention that he'd been at Santo´s Hospadaje in Managua 16 months ago talking to Fred. Small world.
He has made this his home base for about 5 years and tried to set up a school in the jungle but ¨paperwork¨and landlord greed made it too difficult.
Now he just supports a family unit that lives with him.

Today, July 26th, I see it is actually hotter in Toronto (20 to 28°C) than here on the Amazon.


I plan to head down the Amazon River in a couple of days to Leticia, Columbia.

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Photos

Yellow Rose of Texas Restaurant, Iquitos
Aligator nuggets are a popular local dish. But I don´t think they´ll be coming to McDonald´s soon.

Amazon Museum
Statues made from plastering live natives. The native mothers gave pemission but cried when the sculptor covered the bodies thinking their children had been transferred to death.

Pink River Dolphin
Pink Dolphin. Lot´s of folklore about pink dolphins changing into men to seduce the local women.

Are you having fun, yet?
I pity the poor iguana that´s been captured and left to entertain the local children.

The Iron House in Iquitos
This unit was built in France by Gustave Eiffel and shipped down the Amazon to Iquitos then re-assembled there. Now it houses a pharmacy. Where isn´t there one? On some coners in the big cities there are four pharmacies side by side. Above that is a restaurant.

Port of Nanay
It felt good to get to a place where you don´t need a sweater at this time of year. This is hot sticky jungle weather.

Port village of Nanay
Boat trip costs 30 cents for a 20 minute ride up river from Nanay to Padre Cocha, location of the butterfly farm

Lima, Peru
How would you like this job?
In Lima on the main pedestrian mall are ¨barkers¨ working from 10am to 8pm six days a week. I recognized the same guys from 2 months ago.They cup their hands over their mouth to make a type of bull-horn then yell every 5 to 10 seconds, ¨INTERNET!¨ to promote their particular internet-café. What a job! Go to school kids.

Canadian Banks down here, eh?
In Chile and Peru Scotiabank has branches and the good thing about that is when using their ADM card no charge is incurred. It's just like using Scotiabank back home.

Cathedral in Plaza de Armas
Iquitos, Peru on the Amazon River

Belem Market
Cat´s Claw, Guaraní, Fierro Caspi and much more available straight from the jungle. Google them.

Coffee with your milk at breakfast
Whether you´re on a plane or in a restaurant most of the coffee served in Latin America is Instant Nescafe. One nice variation is that when you order ¨café con leche¨ (coffee with milk), you get a full cup of hot milk into which you can put your teaspoonful of instant coffee.