Advertisement
Published: October 14th 2006
Edit Blog Post
First of all, thanks for all your messages, its good to see that the blog is being read and it works! (hope you are reading this Amanda-ed)
We have spent the last couple of weeks in Peru, our next stop after Arequipa was a little town called Huachachina that exists purely for tourists because of the HUGE sanddunes surrounding it and the oasis that is set in the middle of the town- all abit mad!
After all our bus journeys, we thought we deserved a bit of a break and spent 3 nights in this town chilling out at the pool in our hostel which was more like a hotel - me likes alot. We also had some fun trying to sandboard down the sand dunes surrounding the town, I thought I would be ok as can turn on a snowboard but needless to say both Nick and I got covered head to toe in sand and were still finding it in various places a few days later! We found out it was much easier instead, although a little scary at first, to go lie-ing down headfirst on the board , no skill required there 😉 It was also
fantastic fun going in the Dune Buggy that was more like a rollercoaster and pretty hair-raising.
After deciding we were suitably sunburnt enough, we flew (ain´t we posh travellers) to a town called Iquitos that’s in the middle of the Amazon, has 500K inhabitants and can only be reached by plane or boat.
It was such a bustling place with 2000 or more scooter tuk tuks that seemed to be the only method of transport in town. We escaped to the jungle as soon as possible and went on a 3 day trip deep into the Amazon.
We were the only tourists at our lodge (if you can call a mattress on the floor and a pit toilet a lodge 😊) but had a total of 3 people looking after us so it was not too hard. Top things we did were as follows:
1. Seeing the vast Amazonian river - it really is impressive as it is so MASSIVE (well we do have a house near Staines)
2. Spotting wildlife like: Pink dolphins, huge hairy and scary tarantulas, parakeets, a scorpion, piranhas, Caymans (small crocodiles) and lots of different trees. Unfortunately we did not see
a Jaguar but then having seen one in a sanctuary the next day we were pretty glad we didn´t!
3. Fishing and nearly catching Piranhas, honest
4. Camping out and listening to the noises of the jungle - and Nick´s snoring at 4am which was the loudest noise of all the jungle noises!
5. Swimming in the Amazon - both Nick and I were s******g ourselves before we got in, convinced we were going to be eaten alive by the Piranhas, suffice to say we live to tell the tale
6. Visiting the villages where houses are built on stilts as the river rises 15-20m in the wet season, its amazing to see so many people living quite happily off the land. We learnt we get ripped off in England by Powergen as their electricity only costs them 2 pounds a month!
7. Being bitten at least 60 times (between us) by the dreaded mosquitoes, our guide luckily informed us that Malaria was not present in that part of the Amazon - phew wee...
After getting back into civilization, we spent a day in Iquitos waiting for our boat upstream and passed the time at a local Butterfly farm
that was pretty cool as it also had a pet Jaguar, monkeys and parrots that climbed all over us (well just the monkeys did). Nick found it highly funny when one cheeky monkey undid my flies, luckily he did not get into my knickers!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.245s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 39; qc: 130; dbt: 0.1417s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.5mb
Jenny Evers
non-member comment
WOW
I am very impressed with the pictures, you are very brave! I don't think that shot of you in swimming Nick looks very healthy, THE WATER I MEAN! You are certainly seeing all the wildlife. Iwent with Lynn today to buy her lounge curtain material, it awaits my needle now. I am also sending you an e-mail, + attachment. Dad has gone off on his Rail excursion so I'm off up to town to get some flowers. Keep safe, love you MUM